The USC Pullias Center for Higher Education is welcoming OneHE and Adjunctions as new fiscal partners for their Delphi Award, beginning in the 2026 awards cycle.
Now entering its ninth year, the Delphi Award annually presents a $15,000 cash award to two institutions for their support of VITAL faculty (also known as contingent, non-tenure track and/or adjunct) in pursuing strategic priorities such as student learning and community engagement. The Award is a partnership between the Pullias Center and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
“I am so pleased that these two well respected organizations dedicated to the support and well-being of faculty have chosen to underwrite the Delphi award,” stated Pullias Center co-director Adrianna Kezar, who also serves as the director of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success. “We all have common missions and this partnership demonstrates their continued commitment to improving the lives of faculty.”
OneHE is an online professional development platform for higher education that supports busy faculty and institutions with high-quality, on-demand learning. Partnering with institutions and centers for teaching and learning, OneHE delivers practical, immediately applicable content designed to fit faculty members’ limited time.
Adjunctions helps universities expand access to qualified adjunct faculty while enabling experienced professionals to bring real-world expertise into the classroom. Through AdjunctionsPRO, professionals develop the practical teaching skills and confidence needed to succeed as adjunct instructors, creating a stronger pipeline of practice-ready educators and helping institution deliver more relevant, industry-connected learning experiences.
Olivia Fleming, co-founder of OneHE noted “We're delighted to sponsor the Delphi Award, celebrating institutions that advance equitable support and recognition for all educators.” Ian Doyle, founder of Adjunctions, added “Adjunct and emerging educators carry enormous power to enrich higher education. Our responsibility is to support them with the preparation, confident and community they need to succeed. We are proud to sponsor the Delphi Award and celebrate those shaping the future of teaching.”
The Pullias Center has presented the Delphi Award to 16 institutions since 2018, covering a wide range of higher education campuses and organizations, including prestigious R1 campuses, community colleges, private colleges and teacher unions. Florida Gulf Coast University and Montclair State University were chosen as the 2025 Delphi Award winners, and details of their winning entries will be featured at an April 1 webinar “Institutional Transformation to Support VITAL Faculty” hosted by the AAC&U and the Pullias Center. Registration is now open for this webinar.
The Delphi Award is 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 shorter 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 and finalists are also available on the Pullias Center website.
The world’s leading research center on student access and success in higher education, the Pullias Center for Higher Education advances equity in higher education and provides innovative, scalable solutions to both improve college access and outcomes for all students and to enhance the performance of postsecondary institutions. The Pullias Center is located within the USC Rossier School of Education.
