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The HigherEdJobs Podcast is dedicated to helping higher education professionals find fulfillment in their careers and be the change agents that higher education needs in today's world. Join hosts Andrew Hibel and Kelly Cherwin, along with guest experts, as they examine job search strategies and break down the latest news and trends in higher education.
Andy Hibel 0:02
Welcome to the HigherEdJobs podcast. I'm Andy Hibel, the chief operating officer and one of the co-founders of Higher Ed Jobs.
Kelly Cherwin 0:08
And I'm Kelly Cherwin, the director of editorial strategy. Today, we are happy to welcome Adriana Keyser. Adriana is the Dean's professor of leadership, Wilber Keefer, professor of higher education at the University of Southern California and director of the Pulliam Center for Higher Education. Adriana is an expert in a number of higher education realms, including changing faculty trends, contingent faculty change management and leadership and institutional culture, to name a few. Thank you so much, Adriana, for joining us today.
Adrianna Kezar 0:37
I am pleased to be here with you. Thanks so much.
Kelly Cherwin 0:40
So, Adriana, let's set the stage, a little background here. You and I met at the ACLU, the American Association of Colleges and Universities Conference a few months ago, where you presented alongside two of the Delphi award winners. So can you just give us a little background on not only the Puglia Center but also the Delphi project path?
Adrianna Kezar 0:58
So the mission of the Pullias center at USC is to advance equity in higher education. We're a research center. We started about 25 years ago and we do research that spans access to college to graduate education, looks at issues around student success in particular. But we also focus in on other equity issues, such as for faculty. The Delphi Project on the changing Faculty and Students success emerged about 13 years ago as I was doing my research on change in higher education for three decades to lead change and reform efforts improving teaching on campus or making campuses more inclusive places. And as I've been doing that research at the beginning, when I started doing it, people would talk about things like reward structures weren't supporting changes, you know, innovations. But then about maybe 15 years ago, I started hearing that, you know, it's really hard to do teaching improvement when the faculty are cycling in every semester and they might not be here next semester. And it was through that awareness that I started to explore what was happening with faculty trends, and I started to see that 70% of the faculty were now on contingent appointments. And I hadn't been as aware of that. And I thought, I'm sure others are not as aware of these trends. And so through the project, we develop awareness about the changing faculty trends. We collect data and research to inform campus policies and practices for better supporting contingent faculty. Part of the research that we collected showed that there are really harmful practices on campuses that don't support faculty who are on contingent appointments. And so we really make an effort to collect research to understand what are the kinds of policies and practices that can be put in place to create better supports. The other thing we do is advocate for those changes and partner with organizations, national organizations, to help ensure that campuses have access to the information that we provide. At the Delphi project.
Andy Hibel 3:25
Thank you so much for that wonderful summary and vision of what institutions are out there trying to do to, at its core, be inclusive of this very important part of their team and more importantly, the impact that this part of the team has and the success of the students they are serving. If what you're feeling right now is that we're just trying to put a positive, happy face of this, listen to the first part of this conversation and understand that not all institutions are that way. But what we're saying is there are institutions who are purposeful in this way. And if you're interested in your career and doing this and want to take your career seriously because it works for you, here's what you should consider, as you've kind of indicated, with what the biggest thing that institutions can do is to be inclusive of contingent faculty in shared governance. Let's look at the other side of this and let's look at somebody who is in a career as what has been labeled traditionally an adjunct. As you've mentioned, do you like to refer to as vital faculty? Or more broadly, we can talk about contingent faculty, which also includes lecturers and more temporary appointments and the structures of the contract. So many folks over the years of higher ed jobs have written to us about how institutions have basically put them on this track, not by choice. It's not what they wanted to do. The pay inequality is absolutely disparate, as you mentioned. It's the average pay for somebody in one of these positions is $24,000 a year. Absolutely shocking. But what what the center has been doing and what the Delphi Awards has absolutely done is shown where there are institutions who have said, no, it's important to us. It's important to our students to use this part of our faculty in a way that's consistent with the values of the overall institution and gives the students a return on their investment that they deserve. So now as we look on the on the person who is pursuing a career in this track, what can they be doing, first and foremost, to take hold of their career and move forward in a direction with some intentionality that might lead to a better path for them?
Adrianna Kezar 5:57
Well, I think that one of the things that's so important is getting a part of and in a sense a network, because you can find out from other faculty members what their life is like at another institution. And there are lots of campuses out there that are trying to improve and create a better environment and looking to those places for employment. If you are able to move some, some people are not able to move is one option. It is really hard, though, because a lot of people are place bound and there may be only one or a few institutions in their local area that they're able to work with or for. This is why I've seen at a lot of campuses grassroots efforts to try to improve the work life. And it can happen really from the grassroots. So one of the Delphi award winners is the Santa monica College, and it was a group of four faculty that were tired of feeling that the place they were at wasn't supporting them as strongly as they could. Who pushed the changes that became institution. And it's really hard to say, put the work back on the people who are being exploited. But I have to say, in my years of doing the work, I keep trying to convince administrators and others to make changes. And that's happening. But a lot of this has come out of the advocacy of vital faculty themselves advocating for for changes. But it's not an it's not an easy situation. You can either look to find a, you know, a better working situation and identify campuses. I mean, obviously ones that have won our award or one place and we profile probably close to 100 campuses now. But that's certainly not the whole country. Right. So that's why the network is so important to sort of understand. You can learn from others what their life is like of being a faculty member at another campus.
Andy Hibel 8:06
So if I'm sitting on the campus now and I feel inspired to do what you just said, are there ways that the center can help somebody who is thinking about doing this, putting them into contact with folks who have done it before, or are there pieces of research or information or help framing the advocacy that they need to do to succeed?
Adrianna Kezar 8:26
We have several case studies and resource documents, and we call them Pathways for Change that lists, you know, how faculty members were able to create changes on their campuses and just kind of give a glimpse of the pathway. Several of the award winners were primarily led by vital faculty on their campuses. So those also provide examples. So you can look to those case studies. We don't personally do a lot of that individual advocacy work, but there are national faculty organizations out there. I'm really disappointed to say that the largest one that was in existence for well over a decade, the new faculty majority, I don't believe is any longer operating. But the AAUP, the Association of University Professors, is an advocacy group for individual faculty. They have a very large group of vital faculty members that are a part of that organization. They have tons of resources also on their website that's really aimed. So this is a faculty organization that's aimed for providing resources and support, and they have chapters that can be set up that are advocacy to they'll come out to your campus and they will help you to sort of organize other faculty members. They both do labor organizing, but they also just have chapters that are not unionized, but they are probably the largest entity in the country aimed at supporting individual faculty members.
Kelly Cherwin 10:00
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So I know we we briefly talked about the faculty members at Santa monica College, and you said that they advocated for themselves. So I'm curious, do you have any other advice for contingent faculty on how they can advocate for themselves and educate others about their role?
Adrianna Kezar 10:56
I mean, what you see on campuses that are trying to create changes is they do have to do awareness building because without the awareness about, as you're saying, this is just what they've experienced. These are bad policies and practices and these sort of harmful working conditions and being exploited. You don't know that there's something else. Right. So part of it is this awareness building, and that's one thing that faculty members can do. That's a resource from Delphi. The reason we created our resources was to help faculty advocate for themselves. So we have one resource called the Imperative for Change, and it lists the reasons, the compelling reasons for individuals that have more power, say administrators or senior faculty or tenure track faculty. It gives them reasons that they might want to do something about these exploitive conditions. So one of them has to do with the impact it has on student learning that's really compelling to administrators and other faculty members. It really is. But we also outline issues around risk management that are really critical. So, for example, a lot of vital faculty don't have an office and they advise students, and that's a violation if they're in a public space and they are having a private advising session, that's a violation of a federal law FERPA. So there are real issues. A lot of vital faculty don't get included in, say, like sexual harassment training. They get overlooked. That's a risk management issue. So I think trying to sort of what we try to do is bring arguments to the table that vital faculty can use with others on their campus to get their attention. And we also include in there the equity argument that's really compelling to their tenure track faculty peers, because usually the tenure track faculty members have no idea how little money they're colleagues are getting or the kind of working conditions that they actually have. So we bring up all those issues in one of our resources, again, called The Imperative for Change. So we have a lot of advocacy. I mentioned you one of our three goals was advocacy. And so we have a lot of advocacy, resources and documents and data summaries on our website that individual faculty members can use that kind of points out, you know, we have a whole list of all these problematic policies and practices laid out so that they can see why they're problematic, how it's impacting their ability to be strong teachers. And so I think that those can be I think Kelly, what you're searching for is sort of like ways to self advocate. So even though we don't do the individual coaching work, we provide resources at the Delphi Center and then vital faculty can go join a AAUP, which is an advocacy organization for faculty, and they actually will do the kind of the more hands on kind of coaching and involvement with campuses.
Kelly Cherwin 14:05
That's a fantastic answer.
Andy Hibel 14:06
Over the past nearly 30 years of higher ed jobs, I don't believe there's been a more polarizing subject than adjunct faculty. We here at Higher ed Jobs absolutely feel the frustration of many folks who serve in this role in such a dedicated way that cares about teaching and making a difference in students lives with, as you've outlined, a lack of resources or ability to do the the basic essentials of the job that they're being asked to do. It's wonderful to hear about the changes and the advocacy that folks are going through now. And I desperately and I know we all desperately here at higher ed jobs really hope it trends in that direction. It's important work. It could be the most important work for the next generation of students. With that, the reality of the situation for somebody who is in this role, who may or may not be able to move, may or may not be able to be equipped to advocate for what they need to advocate for really is a hard position for lots of folks to be in. You sit in a chair that I think is fairly unique and one of the things I think you can offer here is maybe a little bit of pragmatic thoughts on here's what you can do if you're in one of these positions to find things on a day to day basis that might make your role better. The inclusiveness, I think, is one thing where just finding just common sense things. You know, if I'm going to be talking to a student, I can't do that at the local coffee shop. I need some space. Can you at least not make the FERPA of violation and respect the dignity of the student and not putting me in the middle of all of this? Now, that wasn't a really eloquent way to state that, but I think that's a good concrete example that if you are in that sort of position, what can you start doing for your day to day life? Obviously, with the pay inequality, that would be another place where just advocating for yourself. Do you have other ideas of what folks can do who may maybe at the institution where they're at and can't look elsewhere for some of these more, more evolved programs?
Adrianna Kezar 16:17
Thanks, Andrew, for that question. And I do want to point out, though, that one of the things that we advocate for is pushing institutions to hire more full time faculty, than continuing to hire more and more adjuncts part time. And we are seeing trends towards that. So just a little ray of hope there that is moving in that direction. I think the labor market will shift with that, but that's down the line. So if you're at a campus and they haven't made that shift to have more opportunities to be full time, to be on a longer term contract. And if you let's say you don't have the luxury of time to get involved in any kind of advocacy on your own benefit, you know, two things that I've seen kind of make life a little bit better, even in the midst of the kind of exploitive conditions that exist on many campuses. One is developing a sense of community with some others and just the opportunity to it may be a few other vital faculty that can really make a difference in terms of just down the line, just like, you know, your relationship with the campus and maybe opportunities to change things and just, you know, have different opportunities because sometimes somebody will get tapped for the full time position. It's often because they're a little bit more connected to the community and other people, and the other is a lot of the relationship with the Department Chair is pivotal to your life and just even reaching out and trying to get to know the department chair a little bit might ease the situation. Sometimes I think people feel leery. They're just they're getting hired. They don't they don't know they're department chair is. I just think really reach out to them. I mean, getting a personal relationship and it doesn't have to take long can make a difference in your life. Maybe you get a better schedule the next semester. I mean, you know, it comes down to relationships, right? So if you have some kind of relationship with your chair and some kind of relationship with some of the other faculty members, I do believe and I have seen that life on the campus can be a little bit better, even if, you know, your chair might not set the salary or the benefits and all that set maybe the institutional level, but maybe there's something they can do locally until there are broader changes. And so it's that kind of network close to you that can help, I think, improve your life. I've seen that at many, many institutions.
Kelly Cherwin 18:55
Thanks for sharing those thoughts. And I will say from my perspective of being a vital faculty member, the relationship it takes to it goes it goes both ways. So I've had at the university reach out in email with opportunities to come to campus and meet with other faculty members, like you said, and partake in certain events. But if if I choose not to, then that's on me. So it has to go both ways. Like the faculty member has to choose to be involved. I can't just sit back and say I don't feel included and just, you know, complain. So like I said, the relationship, I think it takes work on both sides. The the leadership, the college has to make sure they are including the faculty. But then also the contingent factor. We have to act on that and try to be a part of the community.
Adrianna Kezar 19:41
I know and Kelly, it's so hard sometimes because vital faculty have been treated so poorly that sometimes making that effort to reach out to anyone at the institution, whether to be the chair or to show up for an event can be hard. But it really is important to do it because once you do it, you kind of break through the you know, you develop a lot of negative feelings when you're not treated well, and that can turn things around for faculty members. So I just really encourage you not not to give up hope, even though you feel really disappointed by the position you've been put in by the institution. And there's always some good individuals out there that you can meet and that can make a difference to change your, you know, your experience. So you just need to still reach out and try to make those efforts.
Kelly Cherwin 20:34
Thank you for acknowledging that. That's that was perfectly said.
Andy Hibel 20:37
Thank you so much for spending time with us and sharing so much. And thank you for listening. If you have any questions, please email us at podcast@higheredjobs. com or direct message us on X @higheredcareers. Thank you for listening. We look forward to talking soon.