Dreams of Tenure and the Program for Change

The author is adjunct instructor of English at Olympic College, WA. MANY nontenuretrack faculty members dream of a tenured position, to put their days of precarious contingent employment behind them, to receive a stable income, to be accorded the dignity and respect and professionalism they likely do not receive. But fulfillment of that dream is improbable at best, especially for those in disciplines in which the majority of faculty members are nontenured and parttime, such as En glish as a second language, adult education, En glish composition, and foreign languages. Even if all tenured professors were to resign, the resulting job openings still wouldn’t be enough to accommodate all the nontenured faculty members. The dearth of tenured positions, compounded by the lack of meaningful workplace improvements through conventional collective bargaining or legislation, creates a demoralizing outlook. Nontenured faculty members’ dismal prospects recall a 1951 Langston Hughes poem that asks: