AAUP Calls for Placing Adjuncts On Tenure-Track

Did pigs just fly overhead? Is hell freezing over? Check out this post from the Law Librarian blog:

AAUP Calls for Placing Adjunct Faculty on Tenure Track

In Conversion of Appointments to the Tenure Track (2009), the AAUP calls for placing adjunct faculty on tenure track. From the Report:

With respect to faculty tenure, the Association holds to the following tenets:

• With the exception of brief special appointments, all full-time faculty appointments should be either probationary or tenured.
• The probationary period should not exceed seven years.
• Tenure can be granted at any professional rank (or without rank). The AAUP does not equate tenure with a particular faculty rank or status.
• Tenure-line positions can be either part or full time.
• Faculty appointments, including part-time appointments in most cases, should incorporate all aspects of university life and the full range of faculty responsibilities.
• Termination or nonrenewal of an appointment requires affordance of requisite academic due process.
• Faculty should enjoy economic security and, in the case of part-time faculty, equitable compensation.

What’s the odds of this happening? See Jim Levy’s post on Adjunct Law Prof Blog for details. Levy writes, “I’m pretty skeptical myself that any significant change in job security for adjuncts is on the way in the near term.  On the other hand, as a legal writing professor, I’ve seen incredibly improvements in working conditions within our field in the past 10 years.  So there’s already a template for contingent faculty to follow.”

You can read the AAUP report here.