The forum contributors draw on their personal experiences and insights to put forth ideas about contingent faculty's relations with the profession of English studies in general. (Contains 3 notes.)

Beginning in 1934, representatives of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges (AAC) met and drafted the definitive statement on academic freedom and tenure. Like the U.S. Constitution, the 1940 "Statement on Principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure" was a commendable, if deficient, product…

In recent years, tenure has increasingly come under fire as an anachronism, not only for appearing to be out of touch with modern society but also as protection for the allegedly incompetent. Administrators and governing boards find themselves spending inordinate time defending it. So, in March 2005, the University of Colorado took the…

Describes six representative grievances that have arisen in Pennsylvania state colleges since enactment of public employee collective bargaining legislation, focusing on case backgrounds, applicable contract provisions, contentions of opponents, and arbitrators' decisions. The grievances discussed involve termination of employment, tenure,…

Conflicts in many states between administrators and disgruntled college employees have led to a surge of labor activism in academe, including strikes and protests, votes to unionize, disputes over evaluation and compensation, and court litigation. Conflicts involve teaching assistants, adjunct faculty, and tenured faculty alike. (MSE)

Shows how political campaigning and legal action won a three-year battle (beginning in 1986) for tenure by an Asian Pacific American professor, D. Nakanishi, at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Describes the case's academic context, explains the legal alternatives, and analyzes the legal/political strategy adopted. (JB)

Describes the role of university students in professor D. Nakanishi's three-year battle for tenure at the University of California Los Angeles. Details the development and importance of a plan, outreach, and networking; and describes the campaign's connection with larger issues of justice and equal representation for Asian Pacific Americans. (JB)

Questions about the appropriateness and goals of academic collective bargaining and its historical foundations are discussed. It is contended that collective bargaining insures that the principles of academic governance are practiced democratically. European universities had been nurtured for centuries on the medieval tradition of faculty…