United Campus Workers of Arizona need your support to ensure fair working conditions for Contingent Faculty throughout the university system in Arizona.

Contingent Faculty are faculty members in higher education who are hired only for short-term contracts and excluded from the opportunity to earn tenure. Across the country, and right here at ASU and UA, Contingent Faculty outnumber traditional tenure-track university faculty. Contingent faculty now comprise at least 53% of all faculty appointments at UA and 61% at ASU, and these numbers continue to rise. Contingent Faculty members are disproportionately women and people of color. We teach the majority of undergraduate students and provide extensive course design at both universities. As faculty who perform essential labor, we demand fair working conditions: job security, paths to promotion, and thriving wages.

1. JOB SECURITY: Most Contingent Faculty work under short-term contracts with no guarantee of renewal from year to year. We are hired on temporary one-year contracts (or less) and face potential dismissal every year for any reason or no reason, regardless of level of performance and without any justification or possibility of appeal. This precarity in our employment puts students at risk since the faculty who work most closely with students in many departments could disappear anytime, even in the middle of an academic year. Contingent faculty deserve multi-year contracts and due process for contract renewals so we can ensure that our students receive a quality education.
2. PATHS TO PROMOTION: Contingent Faculty engage in advanced research, mentorship, service, and instruction, including teaching foundational introductory classes which support student retention. Our work is vital to the missions of our universities and improves the educational experiences of our students. However, many of us lack avenues for professional development or advancement despite decades of service. When assigned five courses each semester, Contingent Faculty are not only exploited, but excluded from traditional opportunities for advancement. Furthermore, at both ASU and UA, decisions about advancement are often made by administrators or committees without non-tenure track representation. Contingent Faculty train students in their majors and mentor them toward meaningful career paths, yet our own jobs are dead ends without equitable paths to promotion.

3. THRIVING WAGES: Contingent Faculty have the highest teaching loads, working with hundreds of students in our courses each semester. In addition, we provide essential institutional and departmental service. Our courses and service are vital to student success, mentorship, retention, and the universities’ missions, but in recent years, there has been no university-wide cost of living wage increase. Adjunct faculty, who are hired per course, are paid at rates that are far below living wages and do not receive basic benefits such as health insurance and retirement. As basic monthly expenses continue to increase in Tucson and Phoenix, raising the wage floor at the universities aligns with the recent pay raise for other Arizona state employees that was passed in the 2023 state budget. Our professional contributions are worth much more to the University than it is paying us in return; we need thriving wages that meet the rising cost of living each year, acknowledge years of service, and avoid inequities resulting from wage compression.
   

We deserve stable and respectful working conditions, opportunities for professional development and advancement, and equitable, thriving wages. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality education and support to our students. Improving our working conditions will benefit everyone, not just Contingent Faculty, because our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions.

Support our campaign by signing this petition and joining United Campus Workers Arizona!

In the spirit of solidarity and collective action, this petition will not be sent to ABOR and University Leadership until we have 1,000 signatures.