Getting to the heart of our movement for higher standards, Dr. Theresa Earenfight’s, a professor at Seattle University, reflects on contingency, budget cuts and transparency, and the future of academic instruction in SU’s social justice publication, The Catalyst.

“I have been thinking about faculty with contingent contracts for well over the last decade, when it became increasingly clear that the President and Provost of Seattle University began to hire an increasing number of faculty with precarious short-term contracts. Of course, SU is not alone in this move. A quick look at recent articles published in both the mainstream press such as The New York Times or specialized publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed will reveal a very troubling trend. The arbitrary establishment of a two-tiered faculty has not gone unnoticed by professional organizations, with the lead taken by the Modern Language Association and the American Association of University Professors in trying to stem the tide and protect the integrity of the profession.

Like many colleagues across the country, I have come to conclude that this is bad for all universities, but it is particularly pernicious here at SU. Our very weak faculty governance bodies have made faculty vulnerable to all sorts of initiatives that weaken the university. Faculty can only advise, complain, and simmer while decisions such as the move to Divison-1 athletics to the termination of the German program affect our work, our lives, and the futures of our students.”

Read the rest of the essay here: https://seattleucatalyst.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/we-are-all-adjunct/