University of Denver and Worcester Polytechnic Institute detail their programs designed to improve pathways to tenure for adjunct faculty on their campuses.
New publications that detail the Delphi Award-winning programs created and implemented by University of Denver and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are now available for free download on the Pullias Center’s website. Titled “Institutionalizing a Culture of Respect for Teaching and Professional Faculty” and “Systemic Improvement for Teaching Faculty and Expansion of Tenure for Teaching,” the case studies highlight the recent successful efforts these campuses have made to significantly improve their non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF) policies and culture. The case study for the University of Michigan’s finalist entry, “Creating and Sustaining the Inclusive Teaching Program for Lecturers” is also available. The new publications were written in collaboration between the Pullias Center and the featured campuses.
University of Denver (DU) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are the fourth set of winners of the Delphi Award, an annual $15,000 cash award given to individuals or organizations who have worked to support adjunct, contingent and non-tenure-track faculty in promoting student success. Part of The Delphi Project for the Changing Faculty and Student Success, the Delphi Award is given annually by the Pullias Center in partnership with the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) to help create new faculty models and better support faculty off the tenure track to enhance higher education institutions.
“This year’s Delphi Award-winning programs exemplify the importance of engaging all campus stakeholders in designing and implementing cultural changes that support NTTF,” stated Adrianna Kezar, Pullias Center Director and Principal Investigator of The Delphi Project. “Their significant and bold programs are a model of how institutions can make systemic changes that transform and reverse contingency trends.”
The case studies detail the steps the institutions have taken to support NTTF on their campuses.
“Institutionalizing a Culture of Respect for Teaching and Professional Faculty” examines the best practices instituted by University of Denver to better support NTTF. Their equity-minded process began with a desire to transform the relationship between the University and non-tenure-track faculty members and institutionalize a culture of respect for teaching and professional faculty. With a focus on inclusion, respect and collegiality, they revisited many of their policies and created new ones, which ultimately resulted in a new faculty line with long-term renewable contracts, advancement and formal promotion, and a defined role in university governance.
“Systemic Improvement for Teaching Faculty and Expansion of Tenure for Teaching” details the systemic changes taken by Worcester Polytechnic Institute to support NTTF. Motivated by the realization that contingent faculty were becoming more numerous at, and more critical to the institution, WPI initiated a task force to consider bold changes to the status of the teaching faculty. The task force findings resulted in a host of changes, including formally establishing a tenure track and job security for full time, formerly contingent faculty, conversion of NTTF from short-term to multi-year appointments, as well as monetary support and performance recognition.
More information on the current status of non-tenure-track faculty can be found in the State of the Faculty report from the Pullias Center. Numerous resources, tools and research reports to assist campuses in supporting NTTF are available on the Pullias/Delphi Project website, including 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 last year’s award-winning projects from Louisiana State University, Northcentral University and finalist Lehigh Valley Consortium are available, as well as AAC&U’s webinar with the 2020 winners.
Representatives from the two winning institutions will be honored part of the AAC&U’s Annual Meeting on January 19-21, 2022, during the January 21 9:30 am (EST) session. Applications for the 2022 Delphi Award will become available in February 2022. The Delphi Award is funded by the Teagle Foundation, while The Delphi Project has received generous funding from The Spencer Foundation, The Teagle Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York and TIAA Institute.
