Courtesy of Connecticut College
Connecticut College recently received the Delphi Award from the University of Southern California Pullias Center for Higher Education and the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Arcadia University was the other recipient of this award.
Conn and Arcadia will receive $15,000 to continue their support of Visiting, Instructors, Temporary, Adjunct, and Lecturers (VITAL) faculty.
The two institutions were selected from a pool of over 17 public and private organizations and college campuses working to support VITAL, or contingent, faculty. Finalists for the award were the University of Texas at Austin and the Modern Language Association.
According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), contingent faculty ineligible for tenure make up about “70% of instructional staff appointments in American higher education.” They tend to be hired on short notice, are paid less than tenure faculty, and receive little mentoring or say in governance, according to the awards web page.
Conn was selected for this award for its “systemic, decade-long integrated changes dedicated to enhancing both the stability and professional standing of their VITAL faculty,” according to the awards page. This work has been steered by Conn’s Faculty Steering and Conference Committee, the Dean of Faculty’s office, and a local chapter of the AAUP.
According to the webpage, some of Conn’s advancements include “granting teaching professors and continuing part-time faculty the same dismissal and termination procedures as tenured faculty” and “reducing the teaching load of VITAL faculty to be commensurate with tenure-line faculty.”
“The persistence behind these groundbreaking reforms demonstrates what can happen when an institution recognizes teaching faculty as long-term academic partners whose contributions are essential to its educational mission,” said Tek-Wah King, Teaching Professor of Chinese at Conn and contributor to the work recognized by the Delphi Award, in a statement to The College Voice.
He added that when faculty members can envision a future at Conn, they are better equipped to create “ambitious curricula, mentor students over many years, [and] undertake long-term projects.”
Priya Koli, Professor of Statistics at Conn and Chair of the Faculty Steering and Conference Committee, who also contributed to the work recognized by the award, wrote that “this national recognition shows what shared governance can achieve when we take the time to listen to our colleagues and own the issues they raise,” in a statement to The Voice.
“We’re talking about colleagues who are absolutely fundamental to our students’ education every single day through their teaching, mentoring, and service. They deserve security, respect, and a real voice in the future of the College. I hope this award energizes us to keep building an academic community where all our faculty can flourish and get the support they need,” she added.
