Author Description

This report summarizes the highlights of a national survey, part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which examined college faculty demographic and biographic information, how faculty members spend their time, how they interact with students, their preferred methods of teaching and examining students, their perceptions of the institutional climate, their primary sources of stress and satisfaction, and community service. The survey obtained responses from 59,933 faculty members at 384 institutions of higher education broken down into 12 different normative groups: all institutions, all four-year institutions, public universities, private universities, public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges (combined and broken down by three subgroupings: nonsectarian, Roman Catholic, and Protestant), and public and private two-year colleges. Results indicate a general trend toward faculty aging and a decrease in earnings; a commitment to being a good teacher and colleague and a declining interest in research; a concern with preparing students for employment and graduate school; a decreasing interest in personally improving society; the experience of "extreme" stress, possibly from greater interaction with students; and an increased commitment to diversity and multiculturalism. Numerous tables present supporting data. Three appendices contain the survey instrument, information about the accuracy of the data, and a list of participating institutions. (CK)