Position Turnover and Volatility in Counselor Education Over a 15‐Year Period

Abstract

A survey of actual counselor education position changes between 197 1-1986 revealed high turnover but decreasing volatility. Estimates for 1987-1992 suggest both less turnover and volatility.Much discussion has appeared in the higher education literature about the aging of higher education faculties and difficulties experienced by entry-level people in getting an initial faculty appointment (Abel, 1984). Financial difficulties resulting in part from a combination of falling enrollments, increasing costs, and persistent problems in the national economy have brought on pressures for program reductions in higher education. These reductions are often carried out through programs for early retirement, which seem to be on the increase in the mid-1980s (Power, 1987).More recently, Bowen and Schuster (1985) concluded that higher education may be facing an opposite pressure very soon-a severe undersupply of qualified persons. Bowen and Schuster projected departures at 4% per year for the next 25 years.Whereas faculty mobility between institutions apparently is less today than in the two decades after World War 11, departures to industry seem to have increased (Bowen & Schuster, 1985;Daniels, Shane, & Wall, 1984; Smith, 1982). These departures are often attributed to actual or anticipated financial gains. Weiler (1 985), however, discovered that alArden White is a professor of counselor education at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. Nelda Rae Hernandez is a graduate student in counselor education at the University of Wyoming. 80

The Counselor Educator Crunch: Anatomy of a Faculty Search

“…Salary was the second reason for the others, although in 3 cases they did not accept the highest salary offered, reinforcing at least in part, their first reason. This is supported by White (1988) in his survey of position turnover, who stated that half of his respondents who left counselor education between 197 1 and 1986 did not list salary as their first reason.…”

Deconstructing faculty status: research and assumptions

“…39 Arden White and Nelda Rae Hernandez studied faculty in counselor education programs: only 8 percent of those leaving an academic position took another academic position; the rest retired, died, or left teaching. 40 These data would be especially useful to compare to librarian retention statistics, because librarians, like counselor education professionals, can leave faculty status institutions not only for non-faculty status institutions but also for nonacademic positions.…”