The Oregonian
August 4th, 2014
Portland State University professors are the No. 7 least accessible in the nation, according to an unscientific survey of 130,000 college students released Monday.
Princeton Review, which publishes college guides, asked students to complete a highly detailed survey covering all aspects of their collegiate experience that included a single question about how accessible students find professors to be out of class.
According to Review officials, Portland State students tended to disagree, sometimes strongly, that professors were available to help them. Only six schools, including Howard University and the University of Hawaii, ranked worse in the eyes of their students, the Review said.
Portland State has seen its enrollment swell by thousands in recent years, but faculty hiring has not kept pace, as state funding stagnated. Like many universities, it relies more heavily than it used to on lower-paid and part-time non-tenure-track instructors. Professors nearly went on strike this spring over low salaries, job security for some non-tenure-track instructors and a faculty union powers.