The Delphi Project — Tools and Resources

Departmental Cultures and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: A Self-Assessment Tool for Departments

The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success (2015)

This self-assessment tool is a detailed survey that can be used by colleges and universities to get direct, actionable feedback from non-tenure-track faculty. The survey, which can be administered by campus leaders, department chairs, union leaders or even by non-tenure-track faculty groups themselves, can be used to assess existing departmental cultures, with the goal to improve campus climate based on those findings.

The tool also includes profiles and detailed descriptions of each culture, which can guide departmental faculty and staff towards creating a more supportive environment for their non-tenure-track colleagues.

Categories: Delphi Project, Guides

The Imperative for Change: Fostering Understanding of the Necessity of Changing Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Policies and Practices

Adrianna Kezar, Daniel Maxey, Lara Badke (2014)

This summary outlines the necessity for addressing the changing faculty and its implications for student learning outcomes, equity, and institutional risk management. It aims to build an understanding of the implications of the current faculty model and policies and practices affecting non-tenure-track faculty, as well as to facilitate a conversation about change that begins with a shared appreciation of the potential risks of inaction or inattention to these problems.

Categories: Delphi Project, Student Success

Faculty Matter: Selected Research on Connections between Faculty-Student Interaction and Student Success

The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success (2013)

This bibliography includes summaries of a sample of selected studies that describe the importance of faculty-student interactions for facilitating positive student outcomes.

Categories: Delphi Project, Student Success

Selected Research on Connections between Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and Student Learning (2013)

Using Design for Equity in Higher Education for Liberatory Change: A Guide for Practice

KC Culver, Jordan Harper, and Adrianna Kezar

Pullias Center for Higher Education (2021)

This toolkit helps design teams engage in this process of implementing the Design for Equity in Higher Education model,  For each phase of the model, this toolkit provides a short description and offers some questions and suggestions to guide practice.

Categories: Delphi Project, Racial Equity, Guides

Adapting by Design Toolkit

Daniel Maxey, Adrianna Kezar (2017)

Created to support the redesign of higher education models, this toolkit helps campus leaders identify and create an impetus for achieving the changes that are necessary to address changing faculty trends, including the rising numbers of non-tenure-track faculty, at colleges and universities. The goal of this toolkit is to ensure a successful future for our institutions, our students and faculty, and our communities.

The toolkit has three main sections that follow the three stages of a backward design process for developing new faculty models:

1. Identify desired outcomes;
2. Examine the current faculty models; and,
3. Develop a plan for redesigning the faculty.

Each stage of the process includes a list of tasks and goals, worksheets, surveys and review and discussion questions to facilitate group dialogue.

The guide serves as an action-oriented companion piece to the report, Adapting by Design: Creating Faculty Roles and Defining Faculty Work to Ensure an Intentional Future for Colleges and Universities.

Categories: Delphi Project, Student Success, Guides

Non-Tenure-Track Faculty in our Department: A Guide for Departments and Academic Programs to Better Understand Faculty Working Conditions and the Necessity of Change

The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success (2012)

This guide is designed for use by faculty and staff at the department level who would like to examine non-tenure-track faculty practices and issues. Its question sections, discussion questions, and concluding questions guide practitioners through the process of examining non-tenure-track faculty issues in the department and help them to better understand challenges associated with current practices and begin to build the rationale for change.

Categories: Delphi Project, Guides

Non-Tenure-Track Faculty on our Campus: A Guide for Campus Task Forces to Better Understand Faculty Working Conditions and the Necessity of Change

The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success (2012)

This guide is designed for use by task forces, committees, or groups who would like to examine non-tenure-track faculty practices and issues at the campus level. Its question sections, discussion questions, and concluding questions guide practitioners through the process of examining non-tenure-track faculty issues on campus and help them to better understand challenges associated with current practices and begin to build the rationale for change.

Categories: Delphi Project, Guides

A Model of Consensus Features for New Faculty Roles

Adrianna Kezar, Daniel Scott, Hannah Yang (2017)

This infographic shows a model that can guide institutions in guaranteeing that new faculty roles are oriented around the goals of the higher education enterprise while they flesh out the details of what the new faculty will look like in their particular contexts. The 4 themes of influence that must be considered and integrated into the future of faculty are: 1) Missions, goals and values, 2) Responsiveness to external factors, 3) Reprofessionalization, and 4) Key values.

Categories: Delphi Project, Student Success, Guides

Review of Selected Policies and Practices and Connections to Student Learning

The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success (2013)

The summary discusses how certain conditions created by policies – or a lack of policies – influence the ability of institutions to maximize the benefits of non-tenure-track faculty contributions to student learning.

Categories: Delphi Project, Student Success

Dispelling the Myths: Locating the Resources Needed to Support Non-Tenure-Track Faculty

Adrianna Kezar, Daniel Maxey (2013)

This resource outlines potential changes that could be made to improve support for non-tenure-track faculty on campuses, organized in terms of those that would be less expensive to implement or would likely require the reallocation of funding or increased expenditures. It also provides a set of strategies for developing services and resources to support the whole faculty, not just full-time or tenured and tenure-track faculty members.

Categories: Delphi Project, Student Success