Half a Loaf? Hard Lessons When Promoting Adjunct Faculty

Abstract

In discussions of working conditions for non-tenure-track adjunct faculty in university and college writing programs--most recently, the CCCC Statement on Working Conditions for Non-Tenure-Track Writing Faculty--the goal of equity leads to calls for comparable pay and benefits, hiring practices, access to professional development, class sizes and assignments, and work space and resources. The New Faculty Majority lists professional advancement as one of its seven goals: Equity in Professional Advancement: Progressive Salary Steps and Equal Access to Professional Development Opportunities for All Faculty. The CCCC Statement does briefly mention promotion in its first core principle: Departments, programs, and faculty must work to ensure equity for NTT writing faculty by attending to issues associated with employment: compensation; job security; benefits; access to resources; access to shared governance; and opportunities for professional advancement.