“A striking implication of these estimates is that 94 percent of the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work arrangements.” (Katz and Kreuger Reference Katz and Krueger2016)
Contingent, precarious, non-permanent, temporary, non-tenure-track—these are only some of the terms and titles used to designate what is, by many accounts, the majority of the workforce in higher education. This is a startling fact but one in keeping with a trend that reaches far beyond the academy. In 2015, 17% of the US workforce was employed in “alternate employment relationships,”Footnote 1 an increase of 6% since 2005. This means that the majority of jobs created in the United States during that decade were precarious in some regard. Against this backdrop, the role of the recently created APSA Committee on Contingent Faculty in the Discipline—“to bring attention to issues that impact contingent faculty in the discipline and to determine how APSA can best engage and support them”—seems both daunting and urgent.
The Scale of Contingency in Academia
Available data highlights the increasing prevalence of precarious employment in academia. A 2011 survey of faculty revealed that 29.2% were tenured or tenure-track, 51.4% were part-time, and 19.4% were full-time but non-tenure-track (Curtis Reference Curtis2014). In contrast, in 1975, more than half (55.8%) of faculty were tenured or tenure-track, 12% were full-time non-tenured, and 30% were part-time (Curtis Reference Curtis2014). Similarly, another source reports that the tenured-to-non-tenured ratio was 45% to 55% in 1975 and 30% to 70% in 2015 (American Association of University Professors 2018).Footnote 2
Still another survey of part-time faculty found that 81% had been teaching for three years or more, that contingent academic work was the primary occupation for 77%, and that only about 25% preferred part-time work over a tenured position (Coalition on the Academic Workforce 2012).Footnote 3 The data illustrate that these faculty do not fit the historical notion of an “adjunct”—that is, a professional teaching a specialized course while maintaining a full-time job outside of the academy. APSA’s Graduate Placement Survey reinforces the decline in the traditional tenure track: only 26% of PhDs on the job market were placed in tenure lines in 2016/2017, down from 41% in 2009.
What Can We Do?
What can a professional association do in response to this ubiquitous trend? Fortunately, models for action—from the ambitious and costly to the modest and inexpensive—are available.Footnote 4 They are listed as follows relative to the resources they require:
• Educate Members. Several academic associations, including the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, publish data on the number of contingent faculty as well as actions and policies for departments to consider.Footnote 5 This includes strategies to encourage appropriate respect, resources, and inclusion for faculty in contingent positions and best practices for hiring contingent faculty as well as those from contingent lines for tenured positions. See Czastkiewicz and Lunde Seefeldt in this spotlight regarding the development of a document for APSA that can be promoted to members and department chairs.
• Support any efforts by contingent faculty to unionize. The presence of unions improves pay and conditions for non-tenure-track faculty across all dimensions (Segran Reference Segran2014). If support is not possible, at least remain neutral.
• Join with other academic associations to advocate for ratios of and appropriate resources for non-tenure-track faculty to be considered as part of accreditation for colleges and universities (Kezar, Maxey, and Eaton Reference Kezar, Maxey and Eaton2014).
• Further reduce or eliminate costs of association-membership and conference-registration fees for part-time faculty (Inclusive Fees Campaign 2015).
• Consider hosting a “virtual conference” to facilitate greater participation by contingent faculty. Cultural anthropologists have tried this for environmental causes (Nevins Reference Nevins2018).
• Encourage networking with contingent colleagues around conferences. Professional associations could host networking events and invite contingent faculty from nearby campuses to attend (Chernoff Reference Chernoff2018).
• Offer portable benefits such as health, dental, term life, and disability through APSA to contingent faculty in the discipline. The Freelancers Union (2018) provides a model for promoting these benefits.
The most obvious reason to address increased contingent employment is that it is simply the right thing to do. We should seek to ensure that our colleagues are treated fairly and respectfully.
Why Should We Act?
The most obvious reason to address increased contingent employment is that it is simply the right thing to do. We should seek to ensure that our colleagues are treated fairly and respectfully. Contingent employment also imposes costs on APSA and its members. It affects teaching quality and student success by constraining faculty time and resources (The Delphi Project 2013a; 2013b). Moreover, it impacts research productivity (Bland et al. Reference Bland2006). Declining ranks of tenured faculty also mean that those remaining in tenure lines face increased service demands. In short, increased contingent employment impacts APSA’s aims of promoting high-quality teaching and research, advocating for the profession, and ensuring that political scientists can best serve the public good.
