e-scriptor.com

One conclusion we might draw from this move toward “transforming” higher education by circumventing long-established faculty responsibilities and prerogatives is that faculty do not matter any more -- at least not in the traditional sense. It seems that at some schools they have become quaint anachronisms who stand in the way of educational progress and financial efficiency.

This idea that faculty do not matter seems supported by some accrediting agencies. In Middle States’ Standard 10, for instance, which deals with faculty, we read the following:

Within some institutions, functions previously assumed to be part of traditional faculty roles are now the responsibility of other qualified personnel.... Whenever used in these standards, the term “faculty” shall be broadly construed to encompass qualified professionals such as third parties contracted by the institution, part-time or adjunct faculty, and those assigned responsibilities in academic development and delivery. Such professionals may include, as well, those responsible for the institution’s academic information resources.

This, of course, begs the question of “qualified” because it neatly sidesteps the issue of who determines qualifications, a role and responsibility traditionally the province of the legitimate faculty of a college. Further, one might well ask exactly who these "other qualified personnel" (let’s refer to them as OQP) are because, unlike at most traditional institutions where faculty are proudly identified, these folks are often anonymous. On what then, is the legitimacy of these institutions -- and OQP -- based? Or, said another way, can you be a college without a faculty?