Adjunct and contingent faculty members at universities face trying times. Already fighting for job security, they face an economic downturn that has made their positions even more precarious. These contract workers often have modest salaries and lack benefits. And the proportion of adjuncts versus tenured or tenure-track faculty at US universities - including in the sciences - has grown along with the desire for a flexible and potentially cheaper professorial workforce (see Nature 445,678-679; 2007). According to a 2007 survey by the US Department of Education, 52% of the higher-education workforce is now either full-time non-tenure-track faculty or part-time/adjunct faculty.
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