A NATIONAL STUDY OF BEST PRACTICE MODELS FOR EMPLOYMENT OF CONTINGENT FACULTY NATIONWIDE

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers published Standards of Good Practice in the Employment of Part-Time/Adjunct Faculty in 2002 that concentrates on the urgency of raising standards of compensation, benefits and professionalism for thousands of part-time and other nontenure-track faculty nationwide and calls for a national organizing campaign within higher education, with specific focus on organizing part-time and other nontenure-track faculty; and

WHEREAS, the governing council of the AAUP adopted a new policy statement on Contingent Faculty Appointments and the Academic Profession on Nov. 9, 2003; and

WHEREAS, the American Association of University Professors has also recently developed an excellent statement on nontenure-track contingent faculty that includes a series of implementation of steps to be taken on campus; and

WHEREAS, both the AFT and the AAUP support the position that contingent faculty jobs should include the full range of faculty responsibilities (teaching, scholarship, service); comparable compensation for comparable work; assurance of continuing employment after a reasonable opportunity for successive reviews; inclusion in institutional governance structure; and appointment and review processes that involve faculty peers and rely on accepted academic due process:

RESOLVED, that the AFT compile and disseminate existing and new models of good practice—in bringing fairness and equity to nontenure-track contingent faculty as well as restoring full-time tenure-track positions—from institutions around the country, including unorganized institutions and institutions represented by other faculty organizations such as AAUP and NEA; and

RESOLVED, that this study be one component of a new AFT Higher Education strategic plan to reverse the academic staffing crisis in our nation’s colleges and universities. [Executive Council, May 2005]