Job Listings Decline 20% at Colleges
By KAREN W. ARENSON


Listings for academic jobs in literature and languages — a key barometer of staff positions in colleges and universities — are off 20 percent, the Modern Language Association of America said. It is the first decline since 1995 and the largest decline in about a decade.

"Deans and provosts are under tremendous pressure now because of a decline in financial support," said Stephen Greenblatt, a Harvard professor and president of the association, which has 32,000 members.

"If you have to cut, it is easier to do it in English or French than in chemistry or computer science," Professor Greenblatt added. "Part of that is structural — there are no laboratories that you have already paid for. The other part is that the job market in English and certain foreign languages has been depressed for the better part of a decade, so it is easy to find qualified part-time workers, who you can pay less, and give less time for research."

The language association said the number of English positions fell to 792 this year, from 983 in 2001, a 19 percent decline. The number of foreign language positions fell to 535 from 675, a 21 percent drop.

The decline in tenure track jobs — roughly half of the total jobs — was slightly lower than for part-time jobs. Tenure-track job openings in English fell 17 percent to 401, while those in foreign language departments fell 16 percent to 279.

But university officials say the situation may be worse than the job listings suggest.

Cary Nelson, an English professor at the University of Illinois, said he had already heard of some listed jobs being canceled after they were posted.

His own department, Professor Nelson said, is scheduled to interview candidates for four tenure track jobs at the language association's annual meeting later this month in New York, but it is concerned about whether it will actually be able to make the hires because the university may face another budget cutback in January.

"It is entirely possible that we could come back home and discover that it was all for nothing," Professor Nelson said.

In an otherwise bleak landscape, some specialized fields are showing greater stability. The Middle East Studies Association of North America, for example, which covers areas like Middle East history, Islamic studies and Arabic and other languages, has seen advertisements for job listings rise.

Last month it had 55, up from 29 in November 2001 and 34 in November 2000. But the vast majority of the positions are for adjuncts, lecturers and other part-time instructors, said Amy W. Newhall, the association's executive director.

The Association of Asian Studies also reports an increase in job advertisements, especially for Chinese and Japanese studies. In October, the association had 399 job advertisements, up from 370 last year.

The American Historical Association, however, has had a decline, although not as great as at the Modern Language Association. As of this week, the historical association had received 745 job advertisements, down from 790 last year, a 6 percent decline. But a preliminary review found the number of advertisements for tenure track positions was down 13 percent, to 495 from 566 last year. And universities seemed even less willing to fill slots with senior scholars; the number of listings for tenured jobs fell to 16 from 54.

Robert B. Townsend, assistant director for research and publications at the historical association, said that despite the job declines, there were still shortages of candidates in specialized fields like Chinese and African-American history.