2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The authors of this proposed paper hosted a 2-day conference that brought Latiné/x/a/o contingent faculty from the California State University (CSU) system together to better understand the barriers they must continually face while also identifying assets they bring to the classroom and institutions. Contingent faculty face mounting and compounding barriers that have devastating effects, not only on the faculty, but also the students they serve since a majority of contingent faculty are hired to teach first-generation, working class, and students of color (Hoff, 2014). This paper seeks to summarize a follow-up to the conference in where 8 STEM deans within CSU system were recruited to do a read and reflect. The deans were asked to read a summary of the findings from the above-mentioned conference and to thoughtfully respond to three questions. From these answers that are both reflective and forward-facing in nature, the authors outline strategic mitigation plans to larger systemic and institutional concerns specifically for Latiné/x/a/o contingent faculty.
The American Federation of Teachers reported “underrepresented racial and ethnic groups are even more likely to be relegated to contingent positions; only 10.4% of all faculty positions are held by underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and of these, 7.6%--or 73% of the total minority faculty population—are contingent positions. Contingent faculty make up 8.9% of full-time instructional faculty in U.S. engineering programs at four-year research universities (Fitzmorris et al. 2020). Overall, contingent faculty fill 69.5% of full-time teaching instructional positions in higher education (GAO, 2017). Given these statistics, the findings from both parts of the project have implications that far surpass Latiné/x/a/contingent faculty and can serve as a framework to address minority lecturers, part-time, and contingent faculty in STEM higher education.