Article
The Poor and Marginalized Among Us: Contingent Faculty in Jesuit Universities
Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal
(2018)
Abstract
Faculty of institutions of higher learning have an opportunity to discuss, debate, and discern how to create
workplaces that are just and inclusive. As members of Jesuit institutions, we have a moral obligation to do so. How, then, can Jesuit universities justify the poor treatment of contingent faculty, who are now a majority not just in our institutions but in the country as a whole? Tenure-track employment is a fading tradition in universities throughout the United States. The data also show that non-tenure-track faculty, particularly the growing number of part-time adjunct faculty, constitute a population of marginalized, often poor, employees working alongside more privileged colleagues. Furthermore, the data show that the burden of inequality falls more heavily on women and people of color. How do Jesuit values and the mission statements of Jesuit universities guide us in this situation? How do Catholic social teaching principles help us to see and articulate the current situation more clearly, and find a path to more just and equitable employment in Jesuit higher education?
Keywords
- contingent faculty,
- Catholic social teachings,
- Jesuit higher education
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
Citation Information
Available at https://epublications.regis.edu/jhe/vol7/iss2/3
Creative Commons license
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY International License.