Perceptions of Non-Tenure Track Faculty: Are We the Wave of the Future or a Threat to Tenure?

• In Event: Roundtable: Challenges Facing Non-Tenure Track (NTT) Faculty in a Changing Academic Environment (Part 2): Collegiality, Working with Tenure Track, and Transitioning Between Positions

Abstract

Around the nation, non-tenure track faculty are beginning to outnumber the traditional tenure track faculty that have been the foundation of academic excellence. This shift in higher education is often met with indifference at best and active hostility at worst. While the increasing discomfort around this shift is often held by non-tenure track and tenure track individuals alike and aimed at the changing environment, at times it represents itself in an us versus them paradigm. Tenured faculty often feel that non-tenure track positions are threatening the landscape of academia and devaluing tenure which can translate into contempt for not only the system, but the non-tenure track faculty who are propagating that system. Navigating this environment is becoming increasingly challenging for non-tenure track faculty whose goal is not to threaten the institution of tenure but instead to work toward more equitable working conditions for contingent faculty.

Author

• Brooke de Heer, Northern Arizona University