Sixty eight percent of faculty in higher education work on a short-term basis. Part-time faculty in particular are rarely compensated fairly. They often teach the same course load as full-time faculty for a fraction of the pay; they receive no health insurance; they rarely have private spaces in which to meet with students; they have no job security. Increasing reliance on contingent faculty has adversely affected full-time, tenure-track faculty, who must take on more administrative responsibilities as their colleagues are replaced with contingent faculty.
Bottom line: we are degrading of the quality of higher education.
1. Require, by law, fair pay and benefits for contract faculty.
2. Reward colleges who invest in students by hiring a majority of faculty on tenure-track appointments