Survey - Coalition on the Academic Workforce

About a month ago, we let you know about a survey being conducted by the American Association of University Professors and other organizations in the Coalition on the Academic Workforce. We’ve had nearly 20,000 responses, which is tremendous—and yet this still represents only a tiny fraction of the contingent academic workforce. You can help by filling out the survey if you are eligible or by forwarding this e-mail as widely as possible to faculty, graduate student employees, and postdocs on your campus and beyond. The survey is anonymous; complete it or find out more at the Coalition Web site.

The Coalition on the Academic Workforce invites all members of the contingent academic workforce in U.S. colleges and universities to participate in this survey. It inquires about course assignments, salaries, benefits, and general working conditions as members of the contingent academic workforce experience them at the institutional level. We invite participation from all instructional and research staff members employed off the tenure track, including faculty members employed either full- or part-time, graduate students remunerated as teaching assistants or employed in other roles, and researchers and post-doctoral fellows.

Most of the data on the working conditions of the contingent academic workforce—particularly data about salaries, benefits, and course assignments—exist in large data sets that have been aggregated and averaged at the national level.  Consequently, the similarities and differences that contingent academic workers experience across different institutions and institutional sectors, geographic regions, and disciplines become obscured.  This survey aims to examine salaries, benefits, course assignments, and general working conditions as contingent academic workers experience them at the institutional level. The survey will collect institution- and course-specific information to create a more textured and realistic picture of contingent academic workers’ working lives and working conditions.

We hope that sufficient numbers of respondents will complete this survey to permit developing a rich dataset that will help CAW and its member organizations advocate on behalf of professional compensation and working conditions for the contingent academic workforce. To that end, we deeply appreciate the time and effort given by all who fill out this survey.

Individuals who wish to be entered in a drawing for one of several $50 book gift cards may include contact information at the end of the questionnaire, but this information will not be used to connect survey data with specific persons.

We hope you will fill out the questionnaire today, but if you cannot, please do so by November 30, 2010.  Winners of the gift cards will be notified the following week. Thank you.

John Curtis, AAUP Director of Research and Public Policy

About the Coalition on the Academic Workforce
Organized in 1997, CAW is a group of the 21 higher education associations, disciplinary associations, and faculty organizations listed below who are committed to addressing issues associated with deteriorating working conditions and their effect on college and university students in the United States. For more information about CAW, please visit www.academicworkforce.org.

American Academy of Religion
American Anthropological Association 
American Association of University Professors 
American Federation of Teachers 
American Historical Association 
American Philological Association 
American Philosophical Association 
American Political Science Association 
American Sociological Association 
American Studies Association 
Association of American Colleges and Universities 
College Art Association 
Community College Humanities Association 
Conference on College Composition and Communication 
Linguistic Society of America 
Modern Language Association 
National Council of Teachers of English 
Organization of American Historians 
Society of Biblical Literature 
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.