Whereas the over-reliance on contingent faculty appointments has resulted in a fragmentation and destabilization of faculty work and has put at risk academic freedom; and

Whereas contingent faculty, despite their dedication to teaching, often lack the job security, due process rights, and institutional support needed to best serve the needs of the students; and

Whereas the exclusion of most contingent faculty from the essential governance, curriculum, and scholarship work of the academy has weakened the power of the faculty as a whole; and

Whereas the AAUP’s policy statement “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession” first examines the reasons for the growing over-reliance on contingent labor and the real and substantial costs of this over-reliance and then offers guidelines by which institutions can increase the proportion of tenure-line faculty while developing “intermediate, ameliorative measures” to protect the academic freedom and professional integration of faculty currently appointed to contingent positions; and

Whereas the policy statement was prepared by a joint committee of the AAUP’s Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession and Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, published in draft form in Academe for public comment, and was adopted as policy by the national AAUP Council in 2003, published electronically at www.aaup.org, and widely distributed in hard copy;

Be it therefore RESOLVED that the Rutgers University Senate:

(1) endorses the AAUP policy statement “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession”;

(2) recognizes the statement as a visionary affirmation of what the academic profession should be and a practical guide to what needs to be done to protect the profession;

(3) commends the AAUP for directing its attention and resources toward organizing and   supporting faculty with contingent appointments as part of its continuing efforts to protect the academic profession.