BY JANE HARTY There is evidence that teaching in higher education can lead to long-term health issues brought on by stress, especially for non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty. Although the achievement of tenure can mitigate long-term stress, it certainly is not eliminated for those tenured faculty who are targeted for dismissal for one reason or another. An…
BY DAVID HILDEBRANDT I am studying the work life of adjunct faculty. You are invited to participate in this research if: You work as an adjunct faculty member. Your place of work is based in the United States of America. This research will help us understand the work life of adjunct faculty. We need your…
BY HANK REICHMAN In a recent “Data Snapshot” the AAUP’s Research Department took a look at the data around tenure and the casualization of faculty labor, finding that “the percentage of instructional positions that is off the tenure track amounted to 73 percent in 2016, the latest year for which data are available.” At Ph.D-granting…
BY CHRISTOPHER NEWFIELD Christopher Newfield is professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara. This is reposted from the Remaking the University blog. The biggest mainstream media higher ed story last week–and this–has been the lawsuit charging Harvard with discrimination against Asian American applicants. My piece on it has been delayed by…
BY THE AAUP Over the past few decades, the tenure system in US higher education has eroded. At its best, the tenure system is a big tent, designed to unite a diverse faculty within a system of common professional values, standards, rights, and responsibilities. Tenure protects academic freedom by insulating faculty from the whims and…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this month the Canadian Association of University Teachers released results of the first national survey of contract academic staff, which is what Canadian universities call faculty hired on contingent non-tenure-track appointments. The findings of the report, Out of the Shadows: Experiences of Contract Academic Staff, will be familiar to U.S.…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN To restore the profession of teaching in the Colorado Community College System (CCCS), the Colorado Conference of the AAUP has released the first of a series of videos showcasing the mounting, explosive, labor exploitation issue facing the 13-college CCCS. The video, Secrets, Scams, and Scandals: The Dirty Little Secrets of the…
BY DAVID KOCIEMBA The 13th Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor international conference this year was about organizing solutions to the international problem of faculty contingency. Held in San Jose this year August 3-5, COCAL presenters and attendees came from Mexico, the United States, Quebec, and English-speaking Canada. As this blog’s readers well know, contingent faculty…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Writing for Euronews, Cristina Abellan Matamoros, Natalia Oelsner, and Marta Rodriguez have reported that a Venezuelan professor’s tweet showing the cracked soles of his shoes and explaining that it will cost him four months wages just to have them repaired has gone viral. The English translation is: “I’m not embarrassed to…
BY MARGARET MORGANROTH GULLETTE In the days since Academe published my essay, “The Monument and the Wrecking Crew: Ageism in the Academy,” which explored the misery of individuals and the high costs to society at large of losing tenure, additional faculty members have written to tell me their formerly hidden stories. The ways of getting rid…