The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released its report "Digest of Education Statistics, 2001" in March. The report covers such issues as faculty tenure, finance, enrollment, degrees, and student performance at all levels of education. The study finds, among other things, that minority faculty may have increased, but only by small increments.

• About 14 percent of U.S. faculty in colleges and universities were minorities in 1999. This figure is up slightly from 13.4 percent in 1997. Five percent of faculty were African-American, 5 percent Asian/Pacific Islander; 3 percent Hispanic; and .5 percent American Indian/Alaskan Native. Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islander faculty made modest gains from 1997, but the other categories remain virtually unchanged.

• The proportion of faculty with tenure has remained relatively stable in recent years. About 64 percent of full-time faculty had tenure in 1998-99, but a large difference existed between the sexes: Seventy-one percent of full-time male faculty had tenure compared to 52 percent of full-time female faculty had tenure.

• About 66 percent of the faculty at public institutions had tenure compared with 58 percent of faculty at private institutions in 1998-99.
  

• The proportion of time that full-time instructional faculty and staff spent teaching averaged 59 percent in 1998. For the remaining faculty time, research and scholarship accounted for 15 percent of the time; professional growth, 5 percent; administration, 14 percent; outside consulting, 3 percent; services and non-teaching activities, 7 percent.

• In 1999, a higher proportion of the faculty at public 4-year colleges were employed full-time (73 percent) than at private 4-year colleges (59 percent) or public 2-year colleges (35 percent).
  

DID YOU KNOW?

• College enrollment hit record levels of 14.8 million in fall 1999 and another record of 15.3 million projected for 2001.

• The fastest-growing enrollment rates are among older women and recent high school graduates.

• From 1976 to 1999 the student/faculty ratio dropped slightly, from 16.6 to 14.9.

• In the fall of 1999, there were 1,028,000 faculty members in degree-granting institutions: 591,000 full time and 437,000 part time.

• In 1999, half of college faculty were white males; 35 percent white female.
  

• In 1992 there were 200,000 faculty (both part-time and full-time) under the age of 44 and 329,000 above the age of 45. In fall 1998, there were 189,000 below 44 and 378,000 45 and above, 176,000 of whom are over 55.