The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has released a report that acknowledges and confirms what many adjunct faculty across the nation already know and are currently fighting to change: “Although working conditions vary across the academy and even within a single institution, many faculty-particularly part-timers-face poor working conditions.”

Citing the shift in higher education toward a reliance on more part-time faculty, the report states that adjunct faculty:

• “Suffer from last minute hiring decisions which leads to a lack of time to prepare for instruction;
• Are often excluded from curriculum design and decision making;
• Lack access to office space, instructional resources, and staff support.”

With these factors in mind, CHEA states that “these conditions are problematic, but so are inequitable compensation, job insecurity, the denial of healthcare benefits and retirement plans, exclusions from meaningful participation in governance and professional development, and a lack of respect for non-tenure-track faculty from tenured faculty and administrators on many campuses” (p. 7).

The report goes on to state that “the cumulative impact of working conditions impede the ability of individual instructors to interact with student and apply their many talents, creativity, and varied knowledge to maximum effect in the classroom” (p. 7). In conclusion, the CHEA states that ”more can be done to examine whether institutions sustain a stable and committed faculty,” and recommends that accrediting organizations include adjunct faculty working conditions in their evaluation process (p. 10 and p. 15).

Read the Inside Higher Ed report by Colleen Flaherty here.