We have often been told that post-secondary institutions are inherently hierarchical. However, after a century of struggle to democratize higher education, it is becoming clear that the most fruitful model for the future is a co-operative institution in which the discovery and dissemination of knowledge and creative activity are the common endeavours.

Nowhere is this more relevant than in the relations between tenure-stream faculty and contract academic staff. Thirty years ago, unlike today, only a small percentage of undergraduate teaching was done by contract academic staff. That changed in the 1980s as employers responded to government underfunding by greatly increasing the percentage of (particularly undergraduate) teaching done by contract academic staff. These staff members were paid inadequate salaries, with virtually no benefits and no opportunities to undertake research, creative activity or service.

More recently, employers have been pushing to create "teaching-only" full-time positions, with heavier teaching duties than considered historically appropriate and little time and few resources for research and service. Despite the additional workload, faculty in these positions are often paid less than regular-stream faculty.

To their credit, CAUT and its member associations have increasingly been reacting with a recognition that this double movement — towards more per-course and full-time teaching-only positions — will destroy our historic model of the "academic job" if left unchecked.

In fact, we have been rediscovering the idea that "academic work" is the same, regardless of the nature of the contract. Teaching and research are intimately connected, and so too, securely-employed tenured faculty and contract academic staff have many common interests. Both recognize that excellence in teaching requires that the academic staff member have an active mind, one that has been honed by active engagement in research and creative activity. Further, academic programs and institutions can only thrive if they are governed by active teacher-scholars. In many of our institutions we have witnessed administrators that try to turn academic programs over to non-academics, and the results are often unsatisfactory.

In his celebrated work on post-secondary education, Ernest Boyer speaks of a number of types of scholarship, such as the scholarship of teaching and the scholarship of discovery — but the important point is that they are all related forms of scholarship.

There is also increasing discussion about improving "research-based teaching" at the undergraduate level. We can and will do this every day, if continuing appointments that recognize teaching, research and service are the norm in the post-secondary sector. All teaching should be research-based, but this can only be the case if academic staff have the opportunity to conduct (and are compensated for) their research and creative activity and participate in the governance of our institutions.

In addition to resisting the introduction of new teaching-only positions and winning support for contract academic staff research and service work in negotiations, academic staff (part-time and full-time, on contract and those with job security) can work together on this common interest during Fair Employment Week, which will be held Oct. 24–28 in most parts of Canada.

Academic staff associations are encouraged to find creative ways to educate the campus and broader community about the important contribution contract academic staff make to the quality of education at our post-secondary institutions. Whether it’s distributing peanuts to draw attention to low salaries, or stuffing as many contract academic staff as possible into a shared office, or holding a forum to showcase scholarly activity, there are plenty of things associations can do. The message is even more powerful if colleagues of all ranks and contract status participate in the campaign.

Despite what we may have been told in the past, it is becoming increasingly clear that the interests of tenure-track and contract academic staff are more common than different. We all strive for excellence in higher education and recognize that this can only be achieved by academic staff who teach, do research and creative activity, and provide service. Each of these activities enriches the others, and we are coming to understand that a division of labour that assigns one or two of these roles to some staff and not others is a disservice to academic staff, our students, our institutions and society as a whole.

Commentary contributed by CAUT’s Contract Academic Staff Committee.