As the University prepares to hire a huge number of professors, candidates will face different degrees of review for tenure at Cornell, depending on their teaching ability, experience and the caliber of their former institution.

Why Cornell's emphasis on tenured professors over adjunct professors is, in fact, a benefit. 

Cornell has the second highest percentage of tenured faculty in the Ivy League, according to an April 2011 survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. University administrators say that this trend is not only due to the increasing average age of faculty, but is also a result of the University’s difficulties in hiring adjunct professors, who are paid per course taught and usually work part-time.

Cornell’s rates of faculty tenure have remained steady despite difficult economic times and a nationwide trend of declining numbers of tenured faculty.

Imagine teaching English as an adjunct professor for five years, working towards becoming a tenured professor. When your time comes consideration, you wait anxiously to see if you are finally to be chosen for tenure … and get passed right on by. You may believe it will be just one more year of waiting, but the truth is, this guaranteed job may never come. Unfortunately, this is an increasingly common occurrence throughout campuses across the nation.