Inside Higher Ed: Seeking Tenure ‘Conversion’
In discussions about the use and abuse of adjunct faculty members, “conversion” is a controversial topic. Typically it refers to a decision by a college or university to convert some number of adjunct positions into a number (typically a smaller number) of tenure-track positions. The idea of conversion has been key to the reform proposals of national faculty groups.
AAUP: Conversion of Appointments to the Tenure Track (2009)
This report was prepared by a subcommittee of the Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession and has been approved by the parent committee for publication for comment.
I. The Collapsing Faculty Infrastructure
The past four decades have seen a failure of the social contract in faculty employment. In 1940 the joint Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure characterized the tenure system as a “means to certain ends,” specifically, “(1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability. Freedom and economic security, hence tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.”
The tenure system was designed to secure reasonable compensation and to protect academic freedom through continuous employment. Financial and intellectual security enabled the faculty to carry out the public trust in teaching and research, and it provided a system of professional peer scrutiny in hiring,
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