1. Moving towards true Shared Governance
Adapting Tenure for the Changing Realities of Academia

2. Meghan K. O’Donnell megkodonnell@gmail.co m Or
follow me on Twitter @MeggieODB

3. Current Realities The new majority is non-tenured
Most shared governance is overseen by TT faculty (< 30%) across the nation
Shared governance opportunities are limited for lecturers & aren’t proportionate with % of contingent faculty as a whole
CSU – Contingent faculty are more than ½ of ALL faculty (approx. 58% with contingent counselors)
CSU Statewide Senate has only 2 contingent representatives
CSU BOT only allows Tenured Faculty to apply as faculty reps
University service falls on a smaller percentage of faculty

4. The principal purpose of tenure is to safeguard academic freedom, which is a requisite condition for all who teach and conduct research in higher education. When faculty members can lose their positions because of their speech or their publications, they cannot properly fulfill their core responsibilities.
- American Association of University Professors

5. How did we get here? Casualization of academic labor
Massification of Higher Ed since 1950’s
Decrease in state support
Increase in student population
Corporatization of Education model

6. Academic freedom is weakened when a majority of the faculty cannot rely on the protections of tenure.
- AAUP Joint Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure & Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession

7. If we do nothing According to AAUP…
“Dramatic increase in number and proportion of contingent faculty has created systemic problems for higher education.”
“Faculty governance is weakened by constant turnover and, on most campuses, by the exclusion of contingent faculty from governance activities.”
“Inequities and physical distance among potential colleagues undermine the collegial atmosphere of academic institutions and hamper the effectiveness of academic decision making.”

8. Working conditions encountered by adjuncts, particularly those working part-time – may carry deeply troubling implications for student learning, equal-employment opportunities & non-discrimination, and risk management
- Adrianna Kezar & Daniel Maxey
Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

9. Change is already underway…
Medical School Blues
Chronic problems with clinicians practicing so much they had no time to teach
Teaching faculty treated as 2nd class citizens
Research faculty torn between teaching and their personal lab work
Inequity in work conditions and salary between research and teaching

10. 3 Major Shifts Moved away from hierarchy in status
This addressed concerns over unequal working conditions
Created more defined tracks or roles, to fit the needs of medical education
Teaching, Research, Clinical
All tracks are included in the governance process and are giving full voting rights.
All tracks have similar salaries, benefits, etc.
*Scaled back tenure (not entirely) but it is no longer an expectation for most tracks, but is reserved solely for those tracks where concerns over preserving academic freedom is key.

11. University of Denver

12. They’re Gettin ColoRADICAL
Established professional pathways & long term contracts for valued, non-tenure-track faculty (aka lecturers)
Lecturers may be hired on annual contracts for no more than 5 years
They are either released from duty or promoted to assistant professor, with a 3 yr. contract, in one of three pathways:
Teaching Professor
Assistant Clinical Professor
Assistant Professor of the Practice (for nontraditional academics)

13. After 6 years, an AP can apply for a position as Associate Professor
Rigorous review and evaluation
If negative – professor’s employment ends at the end of their current contract
If positive – professor is promoted to associate professor with a 5 year contract
Process to move to full professor is similar, except if the review is negative, you just get another contract as associate professor.

14. University of British Columbia

15. “Instructors” at UBC
Instructors and Senior Instructors are both eligible for Promotion & Tenure in the UBC system in what UBC calls the “Teaching Stream Faculty”
As opposed to the Research and Teaching Stream which includes Assistant and Associate Professors.
All instructors go up for tenure by their 5th year of continual work at UBC, and you either get tenure, or you teach a 6th year, and are not brought back again (*terminal year). 

17. What about the CSU?

18. Increasingly, colleges & universities are failing to demonstrate any differences in the type of work carried out by non-tenure-track faculty versus tenure-track faculty, which poses the potential for litigation on behalf of non-tenure-track faculty.
- Adrianna Kezar & Daniel Maxey
Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

19. “Underrepresented racial and ethnic groups are even more likely to be relegated to contingent positions”
- American Federation of Teachers

20. Another reason to adapt the tenure model
Cost
Starting in 2014 the state now gives the CSU a lump of funding with the portion needed to cover CalPERS contributions from the CSU based on the snapshot of FTE faculty.
Every new TT faculty hired (plus all new Lecturers) who make it into CalPERS - creates a budget deficit, as their PERS contributions now decrease the CSU general fund for instruction and everything else.

21. Its financially beneficial for the CSU
If existing Lecturers already in PERS became TT faculty, they would not represent a new cost burden on the CSU general fund
Also…Lecturers would no longer lack reasonable assurance for work – no longer be eligible for UI benefits between every academic term

22. Recap Consensus that tenure supports academic freedom
Provides opportunities for true shared governance
Supports a more equitable working environment, and collegial respect
Saves the CSU money, as opposed to “hiring our way out of tenure deficit”
Eliminates potential future problems associated with litigation and discrimination claims

23. Sources
Kezar, Adrianna and Daniel Maxey. “The Changing Academic Workforce.” Trusteeship Magazine, AGB. June 2013
Flaherty, Colleen. “More than Adjuncts.” Inside Higher Education. February 2015
Kezar, Adrianna. “Changing Faculty Workforce Models” TIAA-CREF Institute White Paper.
“Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession.” AAUP Joint Subcommittee of the Association’s Committee on Contingent Faculty and the and Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. 2014
University of British Columbia (
University of Denver (
Pulliers Center for Higher Education through USC (uscrossier.org)
The Delphi Project: On the Changing Faculty and Student Success, in partnership with AACU
New Faculty Majority (

24. What’s next?
Brainstorming potential solutions