New publications that detail the 2024 Delphi Award-winning programs created by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University are now available for download from the Pullias Center’s website. The case studies for Delphi Award finalists University of Delaware and San Jacinto College are also now available.

These case studies highlight the innovative and important policies, programs and initiatives instituted by these universities in support of their VITAL faculty, also known as contingent faculty. The new publications were written in collaboration between the Pullias Center and the featured campuses.

Representatives from the two winning institutions will be honored as part of the AAC&U’s Annual Meeting on January 22-24, 2025 on Friday, January 24 at 9:30am. 

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

“Supporting VITAL Equity and Inclusion” is the winning entry from 2023 Delphi Award finalist and 2024 winner University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst). The university continued to build on their previous work and long-standing commitment to VITAL Faculty with their university-wide initiative that reflects a significant investment in supporting this crucial part of the faculty team. Working in partnership, the UMass Amherst administration and faculty labor union created comprehensive policies, practices and programming supporting VITAL faculty. These include salary parity and promotion steps, workload accommodation and professional development, job security, and a full range of benefits, including medical insurance, a generous leave policy and retirement benefits.

"Charting Pathways of Intellectual Leadership" (CPIL) is the winning entry from Michigan State University’s College of Arts and Letters, and focuses on their dedicated work to include their VITAL faculty and academic specialist staff as full partners. Informed by the College’s Culture of Care, the core of the work focused on the creation of career pathways and contract stability, salary equity, promotion categories and a mentoring program. Working in tandem with the College’s Union of Non-Tenure Track Faculty (UNTF) and the college Advisory Committee’s Non-Tenure Track Task Force on Career Pathways, the College’s efforts also included key wins for VITAL faculty such as retirement and remote work agreements, grant writing support, faculty awards and leadership opportunities in professional development and governance.

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 (NTTF) in promoting student success, and creating new faculty models to enhance higher education institutions.

The Delphi Award is generously 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, the National Science Foundation and TIAA Institute.

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 VITAL 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 Loyola Marymount University and the University of Arizona are available on the Pullias Center’s website, as well as case studies from all Delphi Award winners and finalists for the past 5 years, and AAC&U’s webinar with the 2023 winners. Applications for the 2025 Delphi Award will become available on the Pullias website in February 2025.