The Philosophers' Cocoon

How can tenured faculty improve things for contingent faculty?

In our April "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I am (hopefully) going to receive tenure in the coming year. I am thinking about what I want to do with that newfound security, and one thing I want to do is be a better ally to contingent faculty at my university. There are ways to do this that seem obvious to me, like participating in the picket line if their union ever calls a strike. But I'm wondering if anyone has advice about subtler things that could still make a difference. For example, at my university, permanent faculty receive computers from the university but contingent faculty do not. I am planning to try to motivate my department to fix this for our own faculty or object to the university's policy if we can't directly fix it. But I would love to read other ideas, if anyone is willing to share: how can tenured faculty help make things better for contingent faculty?

An excellent and important question! Do any readers have any helpful tips, experiences, or other insights?

Incomplete grades & temporary faculty

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, MS writes:

How should people with temporary positions deal with teaching demands that extend beyond a particular course’s contract? Suppose I am contracted to teach PHIL 101 in the Fall term, and there is a student who (for legitimate reasons) needs to defer some of their term work until the following term. My inclination is just mark the stuff, since I’m invested in my students. But I also feel like there is something exploitative in having that even minor burden fall to temp workers.

This is a really good question. I imagine there are a few different situations where this can arise. First, one could be in a temporary postdoc or visiting position, and then leave for another institution before the student is able to finish the work they need to finish the Incomplete. Alternatively, one could be in a part-time adjunct position where a student needs to finish up work after the course of your contract is over (i.e. during the summer months). I agree that there seems to be something really unfair about expecting people who are no longer getting paid for a course to have to do substantial amounts of work like this after the term is over (or after they have left the university for another institution). But I also imagine that, insofar as Incompletes are covered in faculty handbooks and the like, they are nevertheless considered by the institution to fall under the terms of your contract. So unfortunately, I'm not sure what to advise other than making things as easy on oneself as possible. Perhaps departments could/should come up with policies to have full-time faculty do this kind of work (though I'm not sure whether that would fly with administrators). What do you all think?