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One Faculty, One Voice
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One Faculty, One Voice
Non-tenure track appointments at the University have grown from around 28% of all faculty positions in 2010 to over 40% in 2020. These faculty often do the same work as tenure-line faculty but have starkly different conditions of employment. They are paid as little as $6,000 per 3-credit course; teach and research on short-term, non-renewable contracts; possess fewer (or no) benefits; receive less institutional and administrative support; lack opportunities for professional advancement; and have inadequate representation in structures of shared governance.
The administration does not recognize many of these colleagues as faculty: non-tenure track faculty are commonly appointed to Professional and Administrative (P&A) positions (Category 4) rather than as Faculty (1-3). This misclassification places non-tenure track faculty in a position of financial and professional precarity by denying them the institutional standing and academic freedom required for them to thrive in their jobs.
As part of its mission to advocate for strong working conditions for all faculty, our AAUP chapter rejects this exploitative system: all those whose appointments consist primarily of teaching or research at the University deserve fair pay, job security, academic freedom, and the rank of faculty. Likewise, students at the University of Minnesota deserve a supported, stable faculty that reflects the University’s core commitment to excellence in education. The AAUP-UMTC therefore calls upon the Faculty Senate and the administration to take the following first steps to redress the fundamental instability that our non-tenure track faculty experience:
Non-tenure track appointments at the University have grown from around 28% of all faculty positions in 2010 to over 40% in 2020. These faculty often do the same work as tenure-line faculty but have starkly different conditions of employment. They are paid as little as $6,000 per 3-credit course; teach and research on short-term, non-renewable contracts; possess fewer (or no) benefits; receive less institutional and administrative support; lack opportunities for professional advancement; and have inadequate representation in structures of shared governance.
The administration does not recognize many of these colleagues as faculty: non-tenure track faculty are commonly appointed to Professional and Administrative (P&A) positions (Category 4) rather than as Faculty (1-3). This misclassification places non-tenure track faculty in a position of financial and professional precarity by denying them the institutional standing and academic freedom required for them to thrive in their jobs.
As part of its mission to advocate for strong working conditions for all faculty, our AAUP chapter rejects this exploitative system: all those whose appointments consist primarily of teaching or research at the University deserve fair pay, job security, academic freedom, and the rank of faculty. Likewise, students at the University of Minnesota deserve a supported, stable faculty that reflects the University’s core commitment to excellence in education. The AAUP-UMTC therefore calls upon the Faculty Senate and the administration to take the following first steps to redress the fundamental instability that our non-tenure track faculty experience:
- Acknowledge that all faculty are faculty. All individuals whose work consists primarily of teaching or research should be professionally categorized as Faculty.
- Raise base pay and establish reliable access to benefits. All faculty must receive robust wages that reflect their qualifications, workload, and contributions to the University; fair compensation for non-tenure track faculty must include access to benefits and assurance that those benefits will not lapse due to the instability of on-again-off-again contracts.
- Establish a base standard of full-time, renewable three-year contracts. All faculty merit job stability as a mark that the University shares their commitment to excellence in education; full-time, multi-year, renewable contracts empower non-tenure track faculty to undertake the ongoing instruction, mentorship, and professional guidance of students.