Adjunct Faculty Members at UVU
There is a new report from the national AAUP on "Conversions of Appointments to the Tenure Track (2009)": http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/A/conversion.htm They note there that we're not alone as a university most of whose classes are taught by adjunct faculty members: "By 2007 . . . almost 70 percent of faculty members were employed off the tenure track." They see universities at a tipping point: "In addition to injuries to students, campuses that overuse contingent appointments show higher levels of disengagement and disaffection among faculty, even those with more secure positions. The committee sees a steadily shrinking minority, faculty with tenure, as increasingly unable to protect academic freedom, professional autonomies, and the faculty role in governance for themselves -- much less for the contingent majority." This might be an issue we should take on, and would include at least these two intimately interwoven aspects: 1. raising adjuncts...