This campaign demands improvements in working conditions for the non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty of The Ohio State University: associated faculty and clinical, teaching, and practice faculty, hired to teach on renewable contracts rather than through the tenure system. It was initiated by both the tenure track and non-tenure-track members of AAUP-OSU.

NTT faculty too often endure low pay and weak job security with no voice at work and no protection of their academic freedom. The problem is the system of contingency itself, a structure that isolates faculty from their colleagues, excludes them from governance over their own work, and uses low pay and weak job security to quietly narrow what they feel free to teach and say. These conditions affect not only individual faculty’s sense of security and respect, but also their ability to provide the best education to their students.

In Spring 2026, AAUP-OSU held a series of listening sessions and a questionnaire for NTT faculty to share their working conditions directly. If you took part in those conversations, you will recognize your own experience in our 2026 NTT OSU Labor Conditions Report. Now, we are running a signature campaign to pressure OSU administrators to take action. Through the leadership of our NTT Committee, we have developed seven demands that provide a first step in improving working conditions. These demands are consistent with Ohio State’s Shared Values and the AFT Position on Contingency and are built on a strong rationale.

Our goal is to receive signatures from at least half of OSU’s faculty by the end of September. That is the number it takes to make this impossible to write off as the concern of a small, unrepresentative group. Every signature moves us closer, and every colleague who signs makes it a little safer for the next one to do the same. Once we reach that threshold, AAUP-OSU will formally deliver the petition. If you are worried about the risk of signing, you may sign anonymously. We believe these seven demands are fair and reasonable, and that OSU should have no cause to treat signing this petition as anything but what it is: faculty asking for a floor beneath their own working conditions. But only you can weigh what feels safe given your own situation.

These seven demands are a floor, not a ceiling, and winning them is only the beginning. Reaching this threshold together will demonstrate what faculty can do when we act with one voice rather than alone, and it will leave us better organized, more connected to each other, and ready to keep building on what we start here.

Faculty can sign the petition here. And we hope you'll join us for the launch event.

Students, staff, alumni, and other non-faculty allies are also welcome to sign and share this petition, and that support matters. Click here to sign the allies petition.