Over the past few decades, the increase in contingent appointments--part- and full-time positions off the tenure track--has been dramatic. As of 2001, the most recent year for which U.S. Department of Education data are available, 44.5 percent of faculty appointments were part time. According to "Assessing the Silent Revolution: How Changing Demographics Are Reshaping the Academic Profession," published in the October 2001 issue of the "AAHE Bulletin" by higher education researchers Martin Finkelstein and Jack Schuster, only 3.3 percent of faculty appointments were off the tenure track in 1969, but by the 1990s, over half of new full-time appointments were off the tenure track. Only one in four faculty appointments was to a full-time, tenure-track position. While most members of the higher education community have come to appreciate the magnitude of the past decade's increase in part time and non tenure track positions, a tendency persists to treat the issue as distinct from other issues. In fact, the growth in the number and proportion of contingent appointments over the past few decades constitutes a sneak attack on academic values and on the stability of the faculty as a whole. This article addresses: the systematic problem; academic freedom; faculty governance; marketplace mentality; time to degree; and incremental change.