Contingent Faculty Rights Hearings - Why? and How!

From the AAUP Summer Institute 2003, Albuquerque, NM
Organizing for Campus Equity Week Workshop - Rich Moser

Contingent Faculty Rights Hearings enlist prominent citizens to take testimony from faculty, students, workers, employers, and other involved parties about the impact of contingent employment on individuals and institutions. The hearing and the “board of notables” that takes the testimony have no legal authority, but they help to publicize exploitative working conditions and get community members involved in resisting them.

Great Alternative

Contingent Faculty Rights Hearings are a great alternative to panel discussions and other traditional academic formats because:
They encourage participation, rather than passive listening
They involve community members, whether as panel members or testifiers
They facilitate coalition building
Testimony is short and lively

Organizing a Hearing (Locally or Regionally)

Ask 3-6 prominent members of your community to sit on the board (Politicians, Educational Administrators, and/or known citizens), and appoint a chair who will keep the hearing moving along and make sure that no one monopolizes the floor.

Ask 10-12 people to testify in front of the board. Think about including contingent faculty members, tenure-stream faculty members, faculty from nearby institutions, students, representatives from other employee groups on campus, and administrators. Ask each person giving testimony to plan to speak for about five minutes (or less). They might speak about their own working experiences; poor conditions they have observed for contingent faculty members; organizing successes or challenges; the effect that a largely contingent workforce has on student learning, shared governance, or the larger contexts of corporatization. Do not worry about controlling what each person says—the important thing is to provide dramatic first person testimony and to start a discussion. After the speakers list has been exhausted open the floor to others.

Pick a place and time and publicize it widely. Make it clear that attendees will be given a chance to speak and air their own perspectives. Invite the local and campus press.

Follow-up

If possible, arrange to have a reception immediately following the hearing. Food and drink will draw people and encourage them to mingle and talk about the issues discussed at the hearing.

The hearing itself is the important thing, but the board should also issue some findings. A short statement at the conclusion of the event summing up the contingent faculty situation can be followed within a day or two by a press release to campus and local media.

History of Workers’ Rights Boards

Workers’ rights boards were developed by Jobs with Justice, a network of local coalitions that connect labor, faith-based, community, and student organizations to work together on workplace and community social justice campaigns. Jobs with Justice has used hearings in dozens of workplace justice campaigns across the country. For an example, visit <http://www.dcejc.org/pr_wrb.htm>.