Abstract
Problem and Purpose. As the California economy continues to improve, jobs in California and in other states will become more available. Although the 1990s retention rates for full-time faculty within the California Community College system are high, as jobs become more abundant, leaders in that system will become increasingly concerned about how to retain full-time faculty. Additionally, current affirmative action laws that encourage the hiring of minorities also bring pressure to bear to retain those minorities. The California Community College System currently does not have information about why full-time faculty stay at their current institution nor information about why those faculty believe they will continue to stay. This study sought to describe the reasons full-time faculty, hired since July 1990 in the California Community College system, have chosen to remain at their current institutions; and to describe the reasons those same faculty will continue to stay. Further, the study sought to determine if significant differences existed among those full-time faculty with regard to their reasons for having stayed or for continuing to stay at their current institutions based on ethnicity, age, gender, and whether they taught part time at their institution prior to being hired full time. Methodology. A combination of descriptive and ex post facto research was used in the design of this study. A randomly selected sample of 540 full-time faculty, hired since July 1990 in the California Community College system, was surveyed. The response rate was 68 percent. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. In the ex post facto portion of the study, two-sample t-tests and the application of a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used on seven factors identified through the use of a statistical factor analysis. Findings and Conclusions. The results of the study suggest that faculty believe they will continue to stay at their current institution for the same reasons they are currently staying. All faculty, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, or whether they had taught part time in their institution prior to being hired full time, stay at their respective institutions for a wide variety of reasons, the most important of which are the personal issues of salary, benefits, and the desire for autonomy. Beyond those three basic reasons, the results of the study showed that women, more than men, value diversity, support from the institution, campus climate and salaries. Minorities, like women, also value diversity and support from the institution more than do nonminority faculty. In addition, minority faculty weigh more heavily those issues related to professional growth and responsible performance evaluations. Age is unrelated to reasons why faculty have stayed or will continue to stay.