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In the past few decades, especially since the 2008-09 economic downturn, the faculty of American colleges and universities has undergone a far-reaching transformation. Multiple factors, mainly extraneous to the campus itself, are reshaping higher education, and as a result a reprioritizing of the internal allocation of resources is occurring. The faculty--as a corporate body--is increasingly bearing the brunt of these adjustments. The authors have explored the precise contours of that transformation--and the risks it poses for our higher education enterprise--in their new book, "The Faculty Factor" (Finkelstein., Conley, & Schuster, 2016a). The authors believe that the faculty remains at the indispensable center of what higher education seeks to do. At the same time, there needs to be a reassessment of what has become of the faculty. This article describes the series of powerful changes that have occurred--and are still occurring--that are reshaping the faculty and its role at this volatile time.

This paper focuses on the present condition and future of the professoriate and is part of a long-term study on how the academic profession is changing, now more rapidly than at any time in memory. These dramatic shifts have led to a deep restructuring of academic appointments, work, and careers. The question now looming is whether the forces that have triggered academic restructuring will, in time, so transform the academic profession that its role—its unique contribution—is becoming ever more vulnerable to dangerous compromise. Whether the academic profession is able to negotiate successfully its role in the new era—to preserve core values and to ensure the indispensable contributions of the academy to society—remains to be seen.

Monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus (L.), from eastern North America are well known for their incredible autumn migration to Mexico; however, not all monarchs follow this route. There is evidence of monarchs overwintering and reproducing in Florida, arriving to insular and continental Caribbean, and roosting by the thousands in the Yucatán, Mexico. This work aims to present evidence that these monarchs are part of two current migratory routes, that we consider as the south-eastern and the Atlantic routes, routes that were probably more prominent in the past. Monarchs were collected for 12 months in south Florida, for 4 years in Cuba in November and once in March, in the Yucatán and Guatemala at different times, and once in northern Venezuela. We used two independent techniques, stable hydrogen isotope (δ2H) analyses of the wings and/or thin layer chromatography (TLC), to trace the monarch's natal grounds. We analysed the DNA of monarchs collected in St. Marks in the Florida Panhandle, Cuba and Guatemala, and compared those data against previously-analysed DNA data from monarchs in the Americas to characterize their genetic structure and to assess the possible movement and presence of North American monarchs and/or their alleles outside the USA. Our results support the existence of south-eastern and Atlantic migratory routes. TLC, isotope and DNA analyses showed the arrival of likely North American monarchs in Cuba, Yucatán, Guatemala, Venezuela and other areas of the Americas. North American monarchs found in these areas have different natal grounds, phenotypic traits and DNA signature than Mexican migrants. Monarchs from the south-eastern route mostly originated in the south-east USA and fed on local Asclepias spp. such as Asclepias viridis , Asclepias humistrata , Asclepias perennis and Asclepias asperula. Butterflies from this migratory route move east, enter the Florida Peninsula, pass to Cuba, fly to the Yucatán and then to Guatemala where they appear to overwinter in the high mountains of Guatemala where Abies guatemalensis occurs. Monarchs that are part of the Atlantic route move east of the Appalachians, enter the Florida Peninsula, and from there pass to the insular and continental Caribbean. The main host plants for the Atlantic monarchs are A. perennis and A. humistrata ; in contrast, Mexican monarchs mainly feed on Asclepias syriaca. Some monarchs from these two proposed migratory routes, south-eastern and Atlantic, will stay in the places where they travelled and others will return via Florida and Mexico. We propose a scenario for how the different migratory routes evolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay outlines several themes that encapsulate the findings from the authors'--both professors of education--previously published study, "The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers," and sheds light on several areas that urgently need further probing. Suggestions for ensuring a productive future for the academy and its core asset--the instructional staff--are included in this essay. The authors' analysis of the professoriate depicts a complex enterprise--the sprawling domain of American higher education--and an academic profession in rapid transformation. Findings suggest not only an unprecedented rate of change, but evidence of a restructured sector that is already a reality with much more change likely to contribute to further restructuring in the proximate future. Three fundamental elements of restructuring are well underway: (1) academic appointments; (2) academic work; and (3) academic careers. These interrelated trends are central to how academic life is being reconfigured in the U.S. They constitute the principal axes of the ongoing transformation of the American faculty. [For "The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers" (2008), see ED528761.]

Contingent faculty members spend a greater proportion of their overall time teaching, but the preliminary evidence suggests that these appointees are less accessible to students, bring less scholarly authority to their jobs, and are less integrated into the campus culture. The purpose of this chapter is to offer some reflections on the ascendancy of--some would say preoccupation with--measurable student outcomes as the preeminent marker of higher education quality at a time when higher education is struggling through great changes, and to suggest that the ongoing makeover of the faculty is vitally related, in complex ways, to student interests.