Support Due Process Rights for Contingent Faculty, and Create Model Legislation and Contract Language Ensuring Due Process Protections for Contingent Faculty

WHEREAS, academic freedom is defined as the “right of faculty members, acting both as individuals and as a collective, to determine without outside interference: the college curriculum, course content, teaching, student evaluation, and the conduct of scholarly inquiry”¹; and

WHEREAS, this “right to teach, research, and speak about matters of public concern without being punished—even where their views, findings, or methods are controversial,”² is “critical for the development of society and for the health of a democracy, an idea often expressed by the phrase ‘for the common good’ or ‘for the public good’”³; and

WHEREAS, “the two most essential protections for academic freedom are tenure and appropriate due process,”⁴ and yet as of fall 2023, “68 percent of faculty members in U.S. colleges and universities held contingent appointments,”⁵ and “currently, neither peer review nor academic due process is available for most contingent faculty”⁶; and

WHEREAS, this lack of academic due process, and increasing anti-intellectual and anti-democratic environment has left contingent faculty vulnerable to discipline, sanction and termination; and

WHEREAS, “There is no academic freedom unless all academics are free to teach without fear of reprisal”⁷:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support the establishment of academic due process rights for contingent faculty; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT will create and advocate for model legislation and contract language that supports the establishment of academic due process language for contingent faculty, including the principles of forewarning, reasonable rule, investigation, fair investigation, proof, equal treatment, and penalty related to the offense.

Adopted July 18, 2026

1Weingarten, Randi. “Protecting Academic Freedom and Democracy,” American Educator, Summer 2025.

2“What Free Speech Rights Do College Students and Faculty Have in the Classroom?” FIRE, Aug. 22, 2024.

3“FAQs on Academic Freedom,” AAUP

4Ibid.

5Colby, Glenn “Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Higher Education, Fall 2023,” Academe Magazine, Spring 2025

6 “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession,” AAUP

7 Ibid.