Community College Jobs: Ph.D. Holders Need Not Apply

by Chris Cumo

With a Ph.D. in Victorian Literature from CUNY, Christina Boufis set her sights on a research university. But expectations fell when the job search stalled, and she settled for “making a living as an overextended adjunct,”
which included a stint at a community college. Two years there netted her an interview for a full-time position. Instead of elation she felt disillusioned at the prospect of teaching composition ad infinitum rather than initiating graduate students into the ethereal realm of Victorian literature. “Part of me applied because I did just want a full-time job,” she
said.

Her Ph.D. and publications were not assets in the community college job search. Rather, the search committee wanted to know how she would teach students whose native language was not English. Boufis did not get the position. She is not alone among Ph.D.s who can’t close the deal with community colleges.

Nationwide, only 18.2 percent of community-college faculty hold a Ph.D. said Christopher Shults, research assistant at the American Association of Community Colleges. The M.A. dominates as the terminal degree of community college faculty (62.4 percent), and even B.A. holders (at 19.4 percent) outnumber Ph.D. holders among community college faculty.

The numbers are even more lopsided at The Center for Training and Business Development, a 2-year college in New Hampshire: four percent Ph.D., four percent Ed.D., fewer than half with an M.A. and the majority with only a B.A.

Christina Boufis may have had a better shot at a community college job had she stopped at a B.A. or at most an M.A.

Mary Bergan, president of the California Federation of Teachers, admits that the state’s community colleges hire more M.A.s than Ph.D.s on the assumption that M.A. holders can relate better than Ph.D. holders to “our students.”

In fact, there are several arguments which are used to justify keeping Ph.D. holders out of the community college classroom. First, there is the downward-spiral argument. Community colleges need faculty who can teach students the difference between “there” and “their,” work that does not require a Ph.D. notes Martin McDermott, who teaches speech at Cuesta College in California. Remedial education doesn’t require instructors with graduate degrees so why not hire instructors who hold B.A.s? This is the logic of the Wisconsin Technical College system, where only two percent of adjuncts hold a Ph.D. The majority hold bachelor’s degrees.

Next, there is the “reclusive researcher” argument. People get Ph.Ds,
the argument goes, because they want to immerse themselves in scholarship. As a result, they disappear into archives and laboratories, where they churn out peer-reviewed articles faster than Bach wrote cantatas. Teaching intrudes on the life of the mind. Teaching becomes a chore they do because they must, not because they want to. Community colleges are quick to smoke out these folks.

Jayme Stayer served on search committees at Owens Community College in Ohio before jumping to Texas A & M University, in Commerce. “[O]ften, we [chose to] hire an M.A. or M.F.A. who was more articulate and collegial over grumpy, snooty Ph.D.s who just talked about their research or didn’t seem engaged or energized by their own discussion of their teaching strategy.”

The above quote clearly demonstrates a variant of the ambulatory gum-chewing argument. Somehow Ph.D.s can’t teach and publish at the same time. Either they’re researchers, and by inclination evade the classroom, or if they do excel at the podium, they are suspect because research doesn’t consume them. This rationale amuses Bill Pannapacker, assistant professor of English at Hope College in Michigan and member of the MLA Delegate Assembly.

“Common sense suggests that Ph.D.s are more qualified than M.A.s, he said, “but I’m guessing that M.A.s are reluctant to hire people who might look down on them (and will [as a result] construct elaborate pedagogical justifications for their hiring decisions).”

But Ph.D.s may finally be gaining ground at community colleges. Between 1995 and 2000 the proportion of Ph.D.s in the Florida Community College System rose two percent, a small increase but meaningful as part of a larger trend. Portland Community College in Oregon is hiring more Ph.D.s in English and administration. Great Basin College in Nevada, Yavapai College in Arizona, and Shoreline Community College in Washington all report a small increase in Ph.D. hires in recent years.

This trend may be strongest in the humanities, social sciences and math. Suffolk Community College in Virginia reports hiring Ph.D.s in English, history, sociology, psychology and math. Portland Community College in Oregon is hiring Ph.D.s in English, and the Community College of Philadelphia is hiring them in history and sociology.

This may be bad news for the M.A.s/M.F.A.s out there. However, it is certainly good news for Ph.D. holders. By excelling as teachers they can make themselves attractive to community colleges, many of which are looking for reasons to hire Ph.D.s in larger numbers.