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From the President: Manifesto Against Contingency
By Cary Nelson
Reliance on contingent teachers has steadily increased over two generations. Contingent faculty now often have qualifications that are the same as or equivalent to those of faculty on the tenure track. Their exploitation, always reprehensible, is thus also professionally unjustified. A modest level of contingency gives new PhDs a chance to build their vitae at their home institutions. It gives community members employed elsewhere a chance to contribute to higher education. But nothing justifies the creation of a vast army of underpaid PhDs who cobble together a frenzied, itinerant, subsistence lifestyle teaching at multiple institutions. Nor do we benefit from increasing the numbers of full-time faculty without job security. Casualized labor in the academy:
1. undermines academic freedom by breaking the link between academic freedom and job security that has been fundamental to the AAUP’s stance throughout its history. You do not have academic freedom if you can be fired tomorrow.
2. destroys shared governance by excessive reliance on teachers who have little or no role in governance and who may risk their jobs if they resist administrative fiat.
3. undermines teaching effectiveness, because some contingent teachers have less time to advise students or to work at staying current in their fields, especially if they have to teach numerous courses at several institutions to support their families. They may also be more difficult to contact for recommendations. Thousands of contingent faculty over two generations have been unable to fulfill their potential as scholars. Students and faculty alike have thus lost the benefit of their doctoral training.
4. maximizes vulnerability to political pressure, because teachers without job security are increasingly subject to outside political intervention. Contingent faculty subject to summary dismissal may be less likely to risk teaching controversial issues in the classroom. College and faculty independence is thus undermined.
5. decreases the status of the teaching profession and academic credentials, since pervasive use of underpaid, expendable labor devalues faculty and erodes both public and institutional respect for the professoriate and for professional qualifications like the PhD.
6. decreases faculty control over the curriculum by giving administrators more power over its design and priorities, thereby removing it from the authority of those with the greatest knowledge and expertise.
7. threatens benefits for all teachers, because when part-time faculty are employed without healthcare coverage, vestment in a retirement system, and appropriate professional working conditions, it tempts cost-conscious administrators to whittle away at full-time faculty benefits.
8. encourages unfair employment practices elsewhere, because hiring teachers at less than a living wage encourages other industries to adopt similar labor employment practices. Inadequate pay for contingent teachers also creates pressure to minimize pay increases for tenured faculty.
9. decreases support for advanced research, because a largely contingent faculty workforce has less overall support for the intensive research that benefits both academic disciplines and the entire country. It also undercuts the justification for funding advanced research libraries.
10. destroys lives and breaks the human spirit as the ruthless, longterm exploitation of contingent faculty exacts a huge cost, most dramatically for those lacking union representation. Contingent faculty in collective bargaining not only see their working conditions improved; they also gain a sense of solidarity and dignity that is both a personal and a social benefit. Those who must fend entirely for themselves may show the effects of years of unremitting stress and insecurity.
The AAUP urges that full-time faculty be treated as probationary for tenure or tenured, and that part-time faculty receive advance notification of reappointment, due process in case of dismissal for cause, and, after teaching twelve courses or six terms within seven years, comprehensive review prior to continuing employment.
Tenured faculty must also defend part-timers’ academic freedom. They must argue for better salaries and working conditions for all. They must help contingent faculty organize for collective bargaining. If tenured faculty are in collective bargaining, they can negotiate a contract that limits the use of contingent labor. Contingent faculty themselves need to build a sense of community. They should not mourn, but organize.
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