Higher Education and academic research

Contingent faculty members should have a say in setting university policy.

US universities should let adjunct and contingent faculty members participate in setting policy, argues the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in a report published on 21 January. The Inclusion in Governance of Faculty Members Holding Contingent Appointments says that excluding full- and part-time non-tenure-track teachers, as well as graduate students, postdocs and librarians who teach or do research, leaves them unrepresented and undermines equity among colleagues. It recommends paying contingent staff for time devoted to governance. Gwendolyn Bradley, senior programme officer for the AAUP in Washington DC, says that faculty senates and AAUP union representatives will work with universities to adopt the recommendations. - Naturejobs, Nature 494, 139 (2013)