AAUP-SC awarded two faculty members from AAUP USC-Aiken with the Economic Status and Faculty Welfare Award. Presented at the state chapter meeting on October 8, the award recognizes the AAUP USC Aiken Chapter for their creation and implementation of Equity Week. This annual event raises campus awareness of and organizes action for faculty who do not enjoy tenure. Contingent faculty work more teaching hours, receive fewer benefits, and worry about job security.
For five years, David Bruzina and Amanda Warren have implemented a variety of evaluative tools to understand how well individual institutions actually support contingent faculty. Then, Bruzina and Warren devised publicity campaigns to educated campus communities about the results. Their work explains the complexity and precariousness of contingent appointments, so that students, parents, tenured professors, and administrators can understand what it feels like to be contingent.
Contingency erodes both shared governance and academic freedom, because these faculty are not necessarily entitled to either. The challenge is change, and David Bruzina and Amanda Warren’s Equity Week point to the concrete actions the AAUP-SC should take.