I am a temporary employee

I have been a faculty member at CWU for 11 years. I have taught every summer in between the regular academic year. All in all for 11 years I have been a full time faculty member and some. Yet, I am still considered a temporary employee in the system. The plight of non-tenure track faculty continues.

It has never left my brain since the very first time I noticed this in our system. I thought about it today and wanted to see if it has changed and it hasn't. I have many colleagues in this same realm.....they have taught at CWU for years longer than me, but simply because we are not tenure or tenure-track faculty we are considered temporary employees.

Now, why is this might you ask? Well, the reality is for myself and of my colleagues who are non-tenure track faculty category on campus, we are all temporary. We are contracted to teach on a quarterly, yearly and bi-yearly basis. We are cheaper labor for the university than our colleagues on a tenured or tenure-track line and at any time the university can simply not renew our contract. We know this when we agree to teach and for many they don't have a desire to go to a tenure-track line. Some have a desire to move to a tenure/tenure track line and others don't.

Now, with me being real public about this reality I would be lying if I said it doesn't come with some fear. We all are constantly in fear that are temporary status could be changed in an instant and we will be without a job. We are told in many cases to stay in our lane, that work is for tenure-track or tenured faculty. We are not allowed the same opportunities to serve our students in ways our tenured or tenure-track colleagues are in the work done on campus. The struggle for me and many of my colleagues who end up teaching our entire careers on a non-tenure track line is the fact that it is built into the culture of the institution to keep us in check with things like something as simple as keeping us "temporary" in the system. I have brought this up and it is waved off as "well, it's just the way it is". It's really a minor piece in a larger system that is constantly telling us where we stand...or should I say where we don't stand.

Many of my non-tenure track colleagues, myself included, give a ton of work to the university as whole. We step up to help and we give in many ways outside of just what we are contracted to do. We don't just teach.....we advice, we serve on committees, we do research, we start and manage entire programs. Yet, in the system, we are marked as temporary.

When it comes to having a say in how things are done in all of the areas we work in we have little say. Committees have a few slots here and there for non-tenure track faculty, but the vast majority of decision making roles go to tenure or tenure-track faculty. All while upwards of over 50% of the faculty body are....yup, you guessed it....non-tenure track faculty. Non-tenure track faculty teach the vast majority of our core classes that students take on a regular basis. We are told...well we wish you could but, you know, if your contract isn't renewed......it's part of the culture and in my view just another excuse to keep us in check....after all we are just temporary.

I am experiencing my second economic downturn at the university where cuts are being made. Faculty cuts come from non-tenure track faculty first. We are temporary and we simply don't see our contracts renewed. This can happen to those who have given years of work to the university....but, we are the first to go. Why? Well when cuts happen tenured faculty can't be cut.....even if said tenure faculty member is terrible at their job. They can't be cut. An amazing non-tenure track faculty member who is amazing in the classroom and students love learning from will be cut and a tenured faculty member who doesn't want to teach is put in the classroom.

I have amazing colleagues who are tenured or on a tenure-track line. I also have witnessed what happens for some who have earned tenure. They stop working and only do the bare minimum, some just refusing to work at all. When this happens who picks up the slack?...you guessed it.....those of us who are temporary. I have seen dark examples of tenured faculty who's only goal is to make life a living hell for all around them because they know they are untouchable.

I have worked in many industries along the way in my years of working that spans four decades. I have worked in restaurants at all levels, in retail and retail management, am a veteran of the military, have experience in private industry big and small. Higher education is it's own animal. The next paragraphs might ruffle some feathers, but here it is.

Higher education it elitist in many ways. There are those who have and those who don't it is made clear where you sit and where you should stay sitting. I have been a bit of an outlier in being vocal along the way but I haven't said a lot because of fear. Fear that if I upset the wrong person or group I will be gone.

I believe there are those in leadership who truly want to good things. I also believe there is great talk about including all voices and being inclusive of all, but when it comes to how faculty are treated it is very much not happening. If CWU didn't have our small union to keep things in check on some levels I know non-tenure track faculty would be in much worse shape. I am not a huge union guy, but I am being 100% honest when I say I am glad we have our union on campus.

I will close with saying I work with some amazing people on tenure-track and tenured lines who do great things. I will also say I have never understand why my same colleagues who have done equal amounts of work are treated differently simply because they are non-tenure track lines. It make no sense to me and it goes completely against our desire for equality for all.