AAUP is concerned about all faculty, regardless of rank or tenure status.    We champion academic freedom, advance shared governance, and organize all faculty to promote economic security and quality education.  Below, I mention several ways National AAUP and Texas AAUP-AFT have been advocating for professional track faculty, and we’re always looking for ways to do better.  We organize faculty of all ranks and tenure status on topics of concern to our members. Please join us at Texas AAUP-AFT.

National data.  Nationally, about 24% of faculty have tenure, 9% are on tenure-track, and 67% are not on tenure track.  Of those not on tenure track, about 70% are part-time and 30% are full-time.   AAUP has published in-depth data analysis in the following:

Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Higher Education

At UT Austin, about 50% of faculty are on tenure-track or are tenured and 50% are professional track faculty, not including the medical school.

Salary survey.  Each year since 1972, AAUP has been conducting a faculty salary data.  The data are drawn from a national database to which colleges and universities report salary data.  The survey has shown that faculty salaries have been flat since 1972; i.e., they have not increased after adjusting for inflation.  The survey also tracks administrative bloat, which draws significant resources away from the hiring of more faculty, multi-year employment contracts and tenure, staff compensation, and student support.  The survey tracks salaries for instructors, assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors.  Instructors are employed on short-term contracts without the possibility of earning tenure. At many institutions, assistant professors are on the tenure-track, and associate and full professors have tenure. Also, decline in state support for public higher ed causes a shift towards more non-tenure-track faculty:

Faculty Salary Survey

Advocacy for non-tenure-track faculty.   Many bills and priorities at the State Legislature affect all faculty, regardless of rank or tenure status.  For example, none of the topics at Texas Senate Higher Education Subcommittee Hearing on Sept. 27, 2024, relate to tenure.  All three items affect all faculty, regardless of rank or tenure status.

AAUP’s statements on academic freedom in teaching, research, and expression apply to all teachers.   Teachers include all faculty, regardless of rank or tenure status, as well as graduate students, researchers, and others in a teaching role.

In the AAUP principles, the safeguards for academic freedom include due process, shared governance, and tenure.  AAUP principles say that upon the eighth year of appointment, a full-time non-tenure-track faculty member should receive de facto tenure.

Texas AAUP-AFT has been advocating for due process and shared governance for tenure-track, tenured and non-tenure track faculty.  We’ve also been advocating for rolling multiyear employment contracts for NTT faculty and for strengthening tenure.

In October 2023, Texas AAUP-AFT officers created an Office of Faculty Representation to advocate for faculty.  15 of our first 30 cases have been for non-tenure-track faculty.  For example, our second case which was in October 2023 was for a non-tenure-track faculty member facing dismissal under the new tenure bill, Texas SB 18.  On the same day the faculty member called us, we rallied AAUP members on the Faculty Senate to help the faculty member navigate the process, and within a couple of days, had arranged a lawyer to represent them in the grievance hearing.  The faculty won their grievance hearing and the dismissal notice was dismissed.

Something might have struck you in that grievance case.  The tenure bill, SB 18, was weaponized against non-tenure-track faculty members.  This is because the second part of SB 18 defines 10 reasons for “good cause” to dismiss a faculty member, and that they apply to all faculty, regardless of rank or tenure status.  Once SB 18 passed, Texas AAUP rallied the Faculty Senate presidents across the state to raise the bar for the 10 actions that can lead to dismissal to require that they be severe, intentional, and pervasive. This standard was adopted in the UT System and many other systems.  Raising the bar helps all faculty members, regardless of rank or tenure status.  Here’s the UT Austin AAUP Chapter response to the UT System concerning the UT System implementation of SB 18:

In the last Texas Legislature, we were able to garner bipartisan support to change the definition of tenure on the House floor from one-year employment contracts to continuous employment.  This also saved multi-year employment contracts for professional track faculty.  In fact, this bipartisan change in the definition of tenure is being used as a basis for a class action lawsuit by non-tenure-track faculty at Dallas College for their replacement of multi-year employment contracts with one-year employment contracts for faculty.  All of their faculty are non-tenure-track.  Here’s a visual summary of the Texas AAUP Legislative advocacy in the last session:

In the last Texas Legislature, Texas AAUP-AFT also helped stop the censorship bill, SB 16.  This would have placed gag orders on all faculty (regardless of rank or tenure status) on topics related to gender, nationality, or ethnicity as well as political, social, and religious beliefs and practices.

Texas Censorship Senate Bill 16 Summary and Analysis

Again, in the twelve months of existence, the Office of Faculty Representation has handled appeals and grievances for 15 non-tenure-track faculty members.  Here’s another example:  The faculty member’s Dean reassigned their duties in a way that caused a $40,000/year loss in income that had been stipulated in their employment contract.  The faculty member had been afforded due process. We helped with their appeal and accompanied them in their meetings with their Dean.  The Dean restored the $40,000/year in compensation.

We encourage all AAUP members to be involved in the Faculty Senate and its standing committees.  Faculty Senate recommends policy changes, and hears appeals from tenure-track, tenured and non-tenure-track faculty concerning annual reviews and promotion cases as well as faculty grievances. 

At UT Austin, for example, many AAUP members who are NTT faculty members have held leadership roles in the Faculty Council and its committees, including the Educational Policy Committee and IT Committee.  The President of the Faculty Council in 2022-2024, Jen Moon, is an AAUP member and Professor of Instruction.  We keep AAUP membership confidential, but Jen has made her AAUP membership public.