Dominican University of California and Montgomery College in Maryland Selected for Prestigious Award for Their Work Transforming Support for Contingent Faculty.

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 & Universities (AAC&U) has selected two winners of the Delphi Award for 2022. Dominican University (CA) and Montgomery College (MD) will each receive $15,000 cash awards to continue their work to support adjunct, contingent, and/or non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF) in promoting student success. In addition, the University of Texas, San Antonio and University of California/University Council–American Federation of Teachers, Local 1474 are acknowledged as Delphi Award finalists for their successful work toward supporting non-tenure-track faculty.

“From a competitive pool of applicants, we chose this year’s winners for their significant work ensuring that contingent faculty are supported,” stated Professor Adrianna Kezar, Director of the Pullias Center and primary investigator on the Delphi Project. “The two organizations selected have instituted scalable and innovative institutional policies that remove equity barriers for non-tenure-track faculty and are prime examples of the exemplary work occurring across the country.”

As in past years, the Pullias Center identified winners that represent key changes that they believe should be happening across the country. “Dominican University of California has adopted transformative initiatives over the past seven years to ensure that adjunct faculty are fully embraced by the University. And Montgomery College has created a Part-time Faculty Engagement and Support Institute, led by part-time faculty, dedicated to supporting part-time faculty achieve equity,” noted Kezar.

The winners of the Delphi Award will be honored for their work at AAC&U’s annual meeting on January 18-20, 2023.  “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. Pullias’ Kezar noted the importance of the partnership with TIAA: “We appreciate the support of the TIAA Institute, which has long demonstrated commitment to building knowledge about the academic workforce.”

About the Winners:

Dominican,  a private institution located in Marin County, CA, receives the Delphi Award this year for their work supporting NTTF and specifically adjunct faculty titled “Dominican for All: Building an Inclusive Professional Community,” a five-pronged effort undertaken over seven years. Their transformative initiatives directly impact contingent NTTF with increased professional development offerings for adjunct faculty and compensation for it, inclusion in shared governance and representation, transparent and equitable hiring and compensation practices, special compensation, including a Merit Award and an emergency fund, and lastly, health benefits and sick leave for adjunct faculty who teach 18 or more units.

“Dominican’s intentional and respectful work with their faculty union provides a model for other campuses for improving support for non-tenure-track faculty working through their collective bargaining process. We congratulate them on their inclusive and progressive work,” stated Kezar.

“Over the last eight years, we have adopted transformative initiatives that create greater employment stability for adjunct and non-tenure track faculty and reward their long-term commitment to the university,” stated Dr. Mojgan Behmand, Vice President for Academic Affairs & Dean of the Faculty at Dominican University. “Our full-time non-tenure track faculty benefit from multi-year contracts and rank and promotion.”

“Additionally, meaningful developments in the areas of professional development, shared governance, transparent and equitable hiring, special compensation, and health benefits are a cornerstone of the equitable faculty experience at Dominican now and are based in policies that may be adopted by other institutions in collaboration with a union or even without the presence of one,” continued Behmand.  “The Delphi Award provides us a platform for sharing those practices as models while the recognition is a celebration of our meaningful collaboration and transparency.”

Montgomery College (MC), a community college located in Montgomery County, Maryland, has also been selected as a 2022 Delphi Award winner for their initiative, titled “Supporting Student Success by Investing in Part-Time Faculty.”  MC supports more than 42,000 credit and non-credit students across their three campuses, with 500 full-time instructional faculty, 945 part-time instructional faculty, and 240 Workforce Development and Continuing Education faculty.

In 2015, Montgomery College launched their Institute for Part-Time Faculty Engagement and Support (IPTFES) with a goal of manifesting their belief that part-time faculty must be supported and have the resources they need for the college to successfully achieve its educational mission. The Institute’s guiding principles are equity, inclusivity and building on best practices, and focus on incorporating the contributions made by part-time faculty into the essence of MC.

“We were impressed with Montgomery College’s model about how an Institute created to support adjunct faculty can provide incredible wraparound support, moving beyond orientation and professional development to deep engagement,” noted Kezar.

“At Montgomery College, the engagement of part-time faculty is critical to our mission of empowering our students to change their lives,” said President Jermaine F. Williams. “The Institute for Part-time Faculty Engagement and Support raises the visibility of part-time faculty members’ contributions and assists them in navigating available resources.  Montgomery College is proud that the Institute is being honored with this prestigious recognition.”

This year, two Delphi Award finalists were selected for their standout work on behalf of non-tenure-track faculty.

The University of Texas-San Antonio was honored this year for their significant work supporting non-tenure-track faculty. The UTSA Academic Affairs and NTT Titles and Promotion working group made significant and positive changes to university policies governing faculty appointments, titles, salary, evaluation and promotion for their non-tenure-track faculty (now renamed fixed-term-track faculty). Compensation was addressed with minimum salary pay scales established and additional professional development programs developed, leading to increased student success.

The second finalist for the 2022 Delphi Award is the University of California/University Council – American Federation of Teachers, Local 1474 for their work supporting contingent faculty through collective bargaining. The UC Collective Bargaining Agreement 2021-2026 adopted historic improvements in contingent faculty working conditions at the nine campuses of the University of California, with a focus on new job stability and career pathway provisions, resulting improvements to faculty effectiveness and stability, and increased student success.

This is the fifth 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 while helping create new faculty models for postsecondary institutions to adopt. The USC Pullias Center for Higher Education has worked in partnership with the American Association of Colleges & Universities 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 non-tenure-track positions responsible for teaching the vast majority of college and university classes. These instructors are typically hired on shorter notice, on short term contracts, and lower pay than tenured or tenure-track faculty, while being offered little or no orientation, mentoring, voice in shared governance or professional development. The result is many of these instructors are often tasked with balancing heavy teaching loads at multiple institutions despite limited time to prepare courses and limited support to improve their curriculum design or pedagogy. These factors have been 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 Non-Tenure-Track Faculty on our Campus: A Guide for Campus Task Forces to Better Understand Faculty Working Conditions and the Necessity of Change. Additionally, case studies of 2022 projects from award winners Denver University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and finalist the University of Michigan, are also available on the Pullias Center website.