Greater Stability and Inclusion for Part-time and Full-time Faculty at Dominican University of California

Dominican University of California (Dominican) has a significant number of non-tenure-track faculty with 32 full-time term faculty (FTTF) and 204 part-time adjunct faculty (PTTF). Faculty off the tenure-track contribute meaningfully to its more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Dominican has an institutional mission to develop ethical leaders and socially-responsible global citizens. However, the institution recognizes that the extremely high cost of housing in the surrounding area poses ethical and financial challenges for all employees, including faculty — both part-time and full-time — who are attempting to contribute to the mission and live comfortably while doing so. These issues led Dominican to create intentional supports related to recruiting, retaining, and supporting all faculty regardless of rank. The supports they built were attempts to unify Dominican faculty as one and remove structural barriers that hindered term, and especially, adjunct faculty’s, sense of belonging, professionalization, well-being and livelihood.