Faculty, adjunct faculty (also part-time faculty) The use of contingent faculty in education has sparked intense debate regarding fiscal responsibility, shared governance, development and to the scalability of programs and the ethics of faculty hiring. Contingent faculty members include part-time adjunct faculty, graduate assistants, and full-time, non-tenured faculty. Contract teachers are those hired for part-time positions on a course-by-course or fixed-term basis. They do not participate as members of the entire faculty. The Growth of Adjunct Faculty in Education Over the period between 1970 and 2001, the use of part-time adjunct faculty in higher education grew by 376 percent, with the greatest growth in faculty positions from 1980 to 1980. over seen in part-time, non-tenured positions. With the growth of online training programs, the trend has continued. In 2008, 40% of higher education teaching staff were adjunct faculty, and at some institutions, 100% of faculty teaching online courses were adjunct faculty. Currently, one-quarter of the workforce in higher education is tenured or tenure-track, down from one-third in 1995. Although adjunct faculty are commonly assumed to fall into two categories, moonlighting professionals who teach adjunct a casual course to a full-time job or to those who teach as a retirement activity, recent survey data from the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) indicates that adjunct faculty are 90% white, 61.9 % women, 70% aged between 36 and 65, and 65.4% teach in humanistic and professional fields. Over 73% of respondents indicated that teaching is their primary occupation...... middle of paper ....../uploads/2012/05/Delphi-NTTF_National-Trends-for-Faculty-Composition_WebPDF .pdfReich, R. S. (2001). Superior Ed, Inc. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, MD. Shattuck, K. (Ed.). (2014). Assuring quality in online education: Practices and processes at the teaching, resource and program levels. Stylus: Sterling, V. A. Snitzer, M. & Crsoby, L. S. (2003). Recruiting and developing online adjunct instructors. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 6(2). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer62/crosby-schnitzer62.htmlTamar, L. (December 3, 2013). The adjuncts see strength in the unions. The New York Times.Thompson, MM & Kuhne, GW (2014) Ethics Matter: Ensuring Quality in the Academic Program. In Ensuring Quality in Online Education: Practices and Processes at the Teaching, Resource, and Curriculum Levels. Stylus: Sterling, Virginia.