The One Faculty Campaign

Watch Video: Frank Cosco on The Vancouver Model

“VCCFA: One Tier & How It Spread in BC”

The overwhelming majority of faculty in higher education are part-time, temporary employees, with little-to-no job security, doing generally the same work as, but paid much less than, their tenured colleagues. This over-reliance on, and exploitation of, "adjunct" faculty is widely acknowledged as one of the biggest problems in higher ed. Although minor improvements have been made over time, this situation has remained essentially unchanged for over 40 years.

The standard response from labor unions, faculty senates, and professional academic organizations has been to call for more full-time hires. Year after year this strategy has been the focus of legislative lobbying, resolutions, bills, and budget allocations, yet on the whole there has been no change in the ratio of courses taught by tenured and contingent faculty.

Many have come to realize that to simply call for more tenure lines is a failed strategy that has been utterly ineffective.

There is a movement, taking inspiration from the one-tier system instituted in Vancouver, to directly challenge the idea that there should be a permanent underclass of contingent faculty in higher education, specifically in the community college system, where tenured and contingent faculty do the same work. Summarized by the slogans of "end the two-tier system," "it's time for a one-tier system," or simply "the one faculty campaign," this movement seeks fundamental change in how higher ed is structured.