Pullias Center Announces 2020 Delphi Award Winners and Finalists
Teams from Louisiana State University and Northcentral University to be honored for innovative support of adjunct faculty in promoting student success.
The Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education has selected two winners of the Delphi Award for 2020. Louisiana State University and Northcentral University will each receive $15,000 cash awards to continue their work to support adjunct, contingent, and non-tenure-track faculty in promoting student success. In addition, finalists from Bay Path University and the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) are also being acknowledged for their successful work towards supporting non-tenure track faculty.
This is the third year for The Delphi Award, an initiative of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success at the Pullias Center. The award, funded by a grant from the Teagle Foundation, is an extension of the Delphi Project’s mission to bring attention to changing faculty trends and use research and data to better support faculty off the tenure track while helping create new faculty models for postsecondary institutions to adopt. The USC Pullias Center for Higher Education has worked in partnership with Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) on The Delphi Project since the project’s inception in 2012, developing reports and resources, collecting models, and conducting research and advocacy on this issue.
“Non-tenure track faculty are the heart and soul of higher education,” states Adrianna Kezar, director of the Pullias Center and primary investigator on the Delphi Project. “These educators are front and center, and in many cases the only direct interface students have with their schools, as colleges and universities navigate through historic times in completely unchartered waters. It is extremely vital to the health of higher education that non-tenure-track faculty are cared for and supported so they can do their best work particularly now during the pandemic when many are vulnerable. This award is as much an important recognition of the work the winners have done as it is a call to action to colleges and universities everywhere to rise to the challenge as these institutions have.”
Instructional faculty in American higher education is mostly comprised of non-tenure-track positions responsible for teaching the vast majority of college and university classes. These instructors are typically hired on shorter notice, on short term contracts, and lower pay than tenured or tenure-track faculty, while being offered little or no orientation, mentoring, or professional development. The result is many of these instructors are often tasked with balancing heavy teaching loads at multiple institutions despite limited time to prepare courses and limited support to improve their curriculum design or pedagogy — factors shown by Delphi Project research to correlate with lower student success rates.
Representatives from the two winning institutions will officially receive their awards as part of the Association of American Colleges & Universities Annual Meeting on January 20-23, 2021. “The Delphi Award recognizes that student success is dependent on the engagement of all faculty, and it draws attention to the need for colleges and universities to play a leadership role in advancing equity,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella. “AAC&U congratulates this year’s winners and finalists—and we thank them for their outstanding work.”
The Louisiana State University Communication across the Curriculum (LSU CxC) team at Louisiana State University, a four-year university in Baton Rouge, received the award this year for their work which implemented a myriad of inclusive initiatives that support non-tenure track faculty. These included interdisciplinary faculty learning and networking communities, individualized course development consultations, student-to-faculty interaction spaces, SoTL mini-grants, teaching awards, and professional development stipends.
Fostering interdisciplinary, cross-rank faculty networks are notoriously challenging at large R1 institutions,” said Matt Lee, LSU Vice Provost of Academic Programs. “With a for-faculty-by-faculty mindset, the LSU CxC team has created a progressive teaching environment that supports, champions, and celebrates collective communities of TT and NTT faculty. These collaborations are essential to delivering high impact teaching and learning across the disciplines and at-scale, which means our students are the true beneficiaries.”
The Adjunct Faculty Task Force from Northcentral University, an online university in La Jolla, California, have also been selected as 2020 Delphi Award recipients. This group was spotlighted for their work instituting programs and making changes to internal policies and procedures in three areas in order to enhance the overall experience of the university’s adjunct faculty. These areas were integration into the university community, preparation for responsibilities as adjunct faculty, and compensation for their work and university activities. “Part-time faculty are essential and highly valued members of our faculty and the Northcentral University community,” notes John LaNear, Northcentral University Provost and Chief Academic Officer. “Their work with our students, curriculum, and university governance is critical to NCU’s ability to achieve our mission and vision.”
As in previous years, two Delphi Award finalists were also selected for their exemplary work on behalf of non-tenure track faculty. The team behind Bay Path University’s Adjunct Faculty Support and Development Plan in Massachusetts was identified as one of the two 2020 finalists. Their exemplary support of the adjunct instructors behind the Social Online Universal Learning (SOUL) program at the university’s The American Women’s College (TAWC) included professional development, the pairing of new adjuncts with mentors, adjunct involvement in course design, the availability of support services, and direct efforts to foster community and collaboration. These initiatives were developed over time, incorporating feedback from new and experienced adjunct faculty. “We see it as a social justice issue related to our adjuncts,” comments Maura Devlin, Associate VP and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Bay Path University.“ Higher education has been known for its hierarchies and elitism. But by fully integrating our adjunct faculty into our unique TAWC model, we invite them to become part of a wide community of practice whose mission is similarly social justice oriented – to provide access and quality learning experiences to adult women.”
Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) in Pennsylvania was also named a 2020 Delphi Award finalist for their work to provide professional development and foster a sense of community for over 900 non-tenure-track faculty and build connections and networking across the organization’s six different participating institutions. “The development of our non-tenure-track faculty consortial community started as a clear need as well as an opportunity,” states Dr. Tracie Addy, Associate Dean of Teaching & Learning, Lafayette College and part of the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges Community of Practice for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty team. “It came from a need to support the NTTF within our institutions, and an opportunity to collaborate as a consortium to make such efforts possible. We are grateful to the Pullias Center for Higher Education for recognizing our work and of course for the engagement of the NTTF with whom we partner.”
More information on the current status of non-tenure track faculty can be found in the State of the Faculty report from the Pullias Center. Additional tools and resources from the Pullias Center and The Delphi Project to assist campuses in supporting non-tenure track faculty include Departmental Cultures and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: A Self-Assessment Tool for Departments and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty on our Campus: A Guide for Campus Task Forces to Better Understand Faculty Working Conditions and the Necessity of Change. Additionally, case studies of last year’s award-winning projects from Penn State and Santa Monica College are also available on the Pullias Center website. AAC&U’s webinar with the 2019 winners is also available for viewing.