Preparing for the Future: Faculty Development Issues in the Year 2000.

This article surveys emerging challenges shaping faculty development in higher education as the millennium approaches. It maps eight converging trends: looming faculty shortages, extended recruitment cycles, affirmative action pressures, expanding multicultural student populations, divergent teaching philosophies, the research teaching divide, calls for national standards, and intensified assessment demands. The analysis shows how these forces combine to restructure instructional roles, redefine productivity, and elevate communication scholarship within curriculum planning. It anticipates four systemic outcomes: deeper institutionalization of professional training, administrative use of development programs to steer change, strategic deployment of these programs as levers for adaptation, and greater involvement of disciplinary associations. By situating faculty development within labor economics, multicultural pedagogy, evaluation, and policy discourse, this article delivers a comprehensive framework for administrators, researchers, and educators preparing for future academic landscapes.