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Committee on Contingency and the Profession

Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession

Report examining the costs to academic freedom incurred by the current trend toward overreliance on part and full-time non-tenure-track faculty.  The report recommends that for the good of institutions, of the educational experiences of students, and of the quality of education, the proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty should be increased.

 

Looking the Other Way? Accreditation Standards and Part-Time Faculty

Report surveys six of the different regional accrediting organizations' handbooks and selected statements relating to part-time faculty.

Tenure and Teaching-Intensive Appointments

Recommendations on stabilizing the faculty infrastructure by converting contingent faculty positions to the tenure track.

New Report on Contingent Faculty and Governance

As the AAUP has documented time and time again, the proportion of faculty appointments that are “contingent”—lacking the benefits and protections of tenure and a planned long-term relationship with an institution—has increased dramatically over the past few decades. By 2009—the latest year for which national data are available—75 percent of US faculty appointments were off the tenure track, and 60 percent were part-time.

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The Inclusion in Governance of Faculty Members Holding Contingent Appointments

The proportion of faculty appointments that are “contingent”—lacking the benefits and protections of tenure and a planned long-term relationship with an institution—has increased dramatically over the past few decades. The structures of faculty governance, however, as well as AAUP policies on the subject, tend to assume a faculty that is primarily full time and on the tenure track. This report examines the issues and makes recommendations on how contingent faculty should be included in institutional governance.

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