The higher education workforce has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent decades, flipping from three-quarters of classes taught by full-time faculty, generally with reasonable job security, a voice in campus decisions, and solid middle-class compensation, to three-quarters taught by contingent faculty, with much lower pay and benefits and little to no job security. Some part-time faculty hold other non-academic jobs to support themselves while others are “freeway flyers” piecing together classes at a number of institutions to make ends meet.

Our Stance
Our colleges and universities must restore a more equitable and stable faculty workforce if we are to have any hope of meeting the many needs facing our institutions of higher education in the 21st century. In the short term, we should create pay equity between part-time and full-time faculty. In the medium-term, we should hire more full-time faculty (utilizing conversion of current part-timers as much as possible).

Our Work
We will begin with an Assessment Phase before moving toward recommending action steps to the AFT Michigan Administrative Board.

Who Should Join?
This working group will bring together members from two of our higher education constituency groups. Members from our nontenure-track faculty and tenure-track faculty & academic staff constituency groups can become involved with these projects in various ways including reviewing and giving feedback on drafts, supporting organizing and logistical work, and building out research and development.  Time commitments are flexible and will vary depending on the project and timeline.