And, as with the tenured MSU College of Law professors who banded together in a letter asking for the resignation of former Dean Terence Blackburn, they have the clout to influence conditions and policies.

The more time-tested professors around, the better. Yet here at MSU, like other universities, their numbers are starting to dwindle.

A reported 27 percent increase in nontenured faculty during the last 30 years is a trend affecting many public and private universities, according to the American Association of University Professors.

We can clearly see it happening here at MSU. Statistics provided by the university show the number of MSU professors in the tenure system might not have dropped drastically — from 2,093 in 1992 to 1,975 in 2007. But the university’s faculty and staff have increased by more than 900 members in that time span. Fixed-term faculty members have almost doubled in that time from 532 to 1,072.

Although there might be quality among the ranks of fixed-term faculty, there appears to be little effort to make sure they stay here.

These fixed-term faculty members are usually hired for “flexibility” reasons — without long-term salaries, benefits or job security. This saves the time, money and hassle a national search for a quality, tenure-bound candidate would cost.

But that isn’t good enough.

Everyone in Michigan has financial concerns nowadays. For example, most students don’t want to pay thousands of dollars in tuition to be taught by whoever was easiest to find. It’s understandable that the university would want to cut costs wherever possible, but consider the long term.

Without investing in these employees now, the university will end up paying for it later — through lost research grant opportunities and fewer students coming to MSU. Stability is vital for students who depend on the quality of education, the professors who will serve as mentors and job references and the respect many professors might have in their given fields.

Let’s keep the number of tenure-bound and fixed-term faculty in good proportion. Do the national searches — yes, even if they do take time and money — to find the people with tenure potential and make MSU an appealing place to stay and teach.

If we’re an evolving university — from “land grant” to “world grant” — and efforts are being made to keep us competitive with other Big Ten schools, such as an extra $2,000 a month for MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, then filling out our faculty with quality, tenure-bound professors should be a major priority.