Florida Gulf Coast University and Montclair State University Selected for Their Innovative Policies and Programs Supporting VITAL/Contingent Faculty
(September 8, 2025) For their comprehensive changes to implement innovative programs for VITAL faculty, top state universities Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) and Montclair State University (MSU) have been selected as the two winners of the 2025 Delphi Award. The Award is presented annually by the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
Each university will receive a $15,000 cash award to continue their work to support contingent, also called VITAL (Visiting, Instructors, Temporary, Adjuncts and Lecturers) faculty in promoting student success. In addition to the award winners, the Delphi Award committee recognized two finalists this year, the Community College of Baltimore County and the Mid-Atlantic Teaching Faculty Alliance.
"This year, our applications for the Delphi Award were extremely competitive, with many institutions creating strong, systemic programs and policies to support their VITAL faculty, who are integral for student success,” noted Professor Adrianna Kezar, Co-director of the Pullias Center and primary investigator on the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, an initiative of the Pullias Center. “Both winning campuses displayed a commitment to part-time faculty with multi-pronged or wraparound support, including part-time faculty voices in designing changes, improving a sense of belonging, and recognizing the potential for part-time VITAL faculty to be leaders on campus.”
As in past years, the members of the Delphi Award committee identified winners that represent key, specific changes that they believe should be in place to support higher education VITAL faculty across the country.
Florida Gulf Coast University, a public, four-year institution, was selected as a 2025 Delphi Award winner for their integrated, decades-long program dedicated to enhancing the experience of their part-time VITAL faculty. Championed by FGCU’s Lucas Center for Faculty Development, the model includes the Adjunct Academy, a professional development program that offers increased per-course compensation to completing faculty; an Adjunct Faculty Fellow Program, a paid fellowship that allows VITAL faculty to help create support programs or their colleagues; and a full-time adjunct faculty coordinator that centralizes communication and services for FGCU’s VITAL faculty. These efforts, as well as others implemented, have created an institutionalized support system for VITAL faculty at FGCU that endures through changes in leadership.
“This is a proud moment for our institution,” noted FGCU’s President Aysegul Timur. “The Lucas Center’s dedication to empowering VITAL faculty directly contributes to our strategic efforts to support students in their journey at FGCU. Being nationally recognized with a Delphi Award is a validation of our strategic focus on student and faculty success.” Bill Reynolds, Director of the Lucas Center, added “It’s validating and deeply rewarding to be recognized for our long-standing commitment to VITAL faculty.”
New Jersey’s Montclair State University, also a public, four-year institution, and its “360° Support for Adjuncts Initiative” was selected as a winner of this year’s Delphi Award for their focus on many new programs and policies, including a new union contract for VITAL faculty. Montclair’s Office for Faculty Excellence (OFE) led the charge to support the institution’s more than 1,200 part-time VITAL faculty members with increased onboarding, supporting teaching through increased professional development specifically designed for VITAL faculty, as well as a reduction in workloads and adequate preparation time. By addressing this group’s unique needs, the Initiative enhances teaching effectiveness, professional growth, and contributes to student success by providing a model for institutions seeking to improve VITAL faculty’s support and student outcomes.
“Our achievements — for Montclair students and for public higher education more broadly —have always been made possible by our adjunct faculty, and this is even more true as we aim to expand student success and deepen our impact in the communities we serve,” stated Emily Isaacs, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs at Montclair. Catherine Keohane, Director of Faculty Development at the OFE added “Having these efforts recognized with this award is heartening, as is the feedback I’ve received from individual VITAL faculty who say that OFE is the place where they feel a strong sense of belonging.”
KC Culver, Associate Director of the Delphi Project, noted “This year's Delphi Award winners demonstrate that improving support for part-time VITAL faculty requires conversation and collaboration across groups that serve different functions in higher education. In particular, both campuses worked with human resources professionals to rethink hiring and onboarding practices, as well as with faculty unions to improve job stability and pay. They also recognized the important role that department chairs play in shaping the experiences of part-time VITAL faculty, engaging these academic leaders in professional development.”
This year, two finalists for the Delphi Award were selected from a competitive applicant pool of more than 20 public and private organizations and two- and four-year campuses to recognize their work to support VITAL faculty.
The Mid-Atlantic Teaching Faculty Alliance (TFA) is a collaboration among VITAL faculty at Philadelphia area institutions Rutgers University (Camden and New Brunswick campuses), Temple University, University of Delaware, Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania. The group was formed in 2024 as a grassroots, cross-institutional network which builds community among VITAL faculty, facilitates the exchange of successful policy models and fosters mutual mentoring networks. Its flagship initiative is the annual Off the Tenure Track Retreat, a rotating conference that brings together faculty and campus leadership to share and learn from effective policies and experiences.
The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), a two-year campus serving more than 50,000 students annually, is the second Delphi Award finalist. While CCBC has been investing in VITAL faculty supports for more than a decade, it was the creation of the Institute for Transformative Teaching, Learning and Leadership in 2023 that serves as a comprehensive, equity-minded and sustainable hub for faculty development and institutional transformation. The Institute provides 360° wraparound support for VITAL faculty, including involvement in strategic planning, representation in shared governance, opportunities for advancement and recognition, a 33% pay raise over five years, and scalable professional development. Their model is a replicable and scalable blueprint for how community colleges can institutionalize support for their VITAL faculty.
The winners of the Delphi Award will be honored for their work at AAC&U’s annual meeting on January 21-23, 2026. “The Delphi Award recognizes that student success is dependent on the engagement of all faculty, and it draws attention to the need for colleges and universities to play a leadership role in advancing equity,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella. “AAC&U congratulates this year’s winners and finalists, and we thank them for their outstanding work.”
The Delphi Award is supported by the TIAA Institute, which helps advance the ways individuals and institutions plan for financial security and organizational effectiveness. Surya Kolluri, head of the TIAA Institute, notes “The innovative faculty engagement models highlighted by the Delphi Award align well with TIAA's commitment to helping colleges and universities meet the unique needs of their diverse workforce throughout their careers. We are pleased that we’ve been supporting the Award since 2023, and we remain dedicated to supporting VITAL faculty in their essential contributions to student learning.”
This is the eighth year for The Delphi Award, an initiative of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success at the Pullias Center. The Award is an extension of the Delphi Project’s mission to better support faculty off the tenure track (also known as VITAL faculty) while helping create new faculty models for postsecondary institutions to adopt. The USC Pullias Center for Higher Education has worked in partnership with AAC&U on the Delphi Project since the Project’s inception in 2012, developing reports and resources, collecting models and conducting research and advocacy on this issue.
Instructional faculty in American higher education is mostly comprised of VITAL professionals responsible for teaching the vast majority of college and university classes. These instructors are typically hired on short notice, on short-term or no contracts, and paid less than tenured or tenure-track faculty, while offered little or no orientation or mentoring, professional development, or voice in governance. As a result, VITAL faculty are often tasked with balancing heavy teaching loads at multiple institutions despite limited time to prepare courses and limited support their curriculum design or pedagogy — factors shown by Delphi Project research to correlate with lower student success rates.
Additional tools and resources from the Pullias Center and the Delphi Project to assist campuses in supporting non-tenure-track faculty include Departmental Cultures and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: A Self-Assessment Tool for Departments and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty on our Campus: A Guide for Campus Task Forces to Better Understand Faculty Working Conditions and the Necessity of Change. Case Studies of all Delphi Award winners, including 2024 winners Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters and the University of Massachusetts Amherst and finalists San Jacinto College and the University of Delaware, are also available on the Pullias Center website.
