Dominican University of California and Montgomery College, winners of the 2022 Delphi Award, detail their programs designed to support adjunct and non-tenure-track faculty in new case studies.

New publications that detail the Delphi Award-winning programs created and implemented by Dominican University of California (Dominican) and Montgomery College (MC) are now available for free download on the Pullias Center’s website.

Titled “Dominican for All: Building an Inclusive Professional Community” and “Supporting Student Success by Investing in Part-Time Faculty,” 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 studies for the two 2022 Delphi Award finalists, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of California’s University Council/American Federation of Teachers are also available. The new publications were written in collaboration between the Pullias Center and the featured campuses.

The Delphi Award was launched in 2018 as an initiative of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, a partnership with the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). The Delphi Award is an annual $15,000 cash award given to two individuals or organizations who have worked to support adjunct, contingent and non-tenure-track faculty in promoting student success, and creating new faculty models to enhance higher education institutions.

Delphi Project and Pullias Director Adrianna Kezar noted, “These institutions are models for other campuses. Coming out of the pandemic there is a much greater awareness about the valuable role of faculty in student success and the need to better support faculty. I look forward honoring their work at AAC&U’s annual conference.”  Kezar highlighted the Delphi Award-winning initiatives and supports that Dominican and MC created to support their adjunct faculty in her recent letter in The Chronicle.

The case studies detail the steps the institutions have taken to support NTTF on their campuses.

Dominican’s award-winning program, “Dominican for All: Building an Inclusive Professional Community,” created intentional supports related to recruiting, retaining and supporting all faculty regardless of rank. Their adjunct-supporting program includes access to multi-year contracts and greater contract transparency, improved rank/promotion policies and rewards, and access to, and compensation for, professional development for all adjunct faculty.  These best practices were designed to unify Dominican faculty as one and remove structural barriers that hindered adjunct faculty’s sense of belonging, professionalism, well-being and livelihood.

“Investing in Part-Time Faculty at Montgomery College” details the systemic changes taken by Montgomery College, a Maryland community college. With the creation of the Institute for Part-time Faculty Engagement and Support (IPTFES) in 2015, the college created the foundation for expanding, improving and building upon policies and practices that support part-time faculty, and as a result, MC was named a 2019 Delphi Award finalist. Since then, MC has expanded the benefits offered by the IPTFES to include leadership and advocacy opportunities, improved benefits, and compensation and courseload stability, as well as a professional development sabbatical and conferences.

Representatives from the two winning institutions will be honored as part of the AAC&U’s Annual Meeting on January 18-20, 2023, during the January 20 morning session. Applications for the 2023 Delphi Award will become available on the Pullias website in February 2023.

The Delphi Award is funded by the TIAA Institute, while the Delphi Project has received generous funding from The Spencer Foundation, The Teagle Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York and TIAA Institute.

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 Designing Accessible and Inclusive Professional Development for NTTF 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.

Additionally, case studies of last year’s award-winning projects from University of Denver and Worcester Polytechnic University and finalist University of Michigan are available on the Pullias Center’s website, as well as case studies from all Delphi Award winners for the past 4 years, and AAC&U’s webinar with the 2022 winners.