Go to CAW web site

The Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) is a group of higher education associations, disciplinary associations, and faculty organizations committed to working on the issues associated with the deteriorating faculty working conditions and their effect on the success of college and university students in the United States. Specifically, CAW’s purpose is to

collect and disseminate information on the use and treatment of faculty members serving full- and part-time off the tenure track and the implications for students, parents, faculty members, and institutions;

• articulate and clarify differences in the extent and consequences of changes in the faculty within and among the various academic disciplines and fields of study;
• evaluate both short-term and long-term consequences of changes in the academic workforce for society and the public good;
• identify and promote strategies for solving the problems created by inappropriate use and exploitation of part-time, adjunct, and similar faculty appointments; and
• promote conditions by which all faculty members, including full- and part-time faculty members serving off the tenure track, can strengthen their teaching and scholarship, better serve their students, and advance their professional careers.

NFM joined CAW in 2011 and is officially represented by Maria Maisto NFM president and NFMF Exec Dir; Esther Merves, NFM Membership Consultant and NFMF Director of Research and Special Programs; and Anne Wiegard, NFM Board Member and NFMF Board President.

CAW has just released "A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty Members: A Summary of Findings on Part-Time Faculty Respondents to the Coalition on the Academic Workforce Survey of Contingent Faculty Members and Instructors (2012)"

In an effort to address the lack of data on contingent faculty members and their working conditions, the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) fielded an ambitious survey in fall 2010, seeking information about the courses these faculty members were teaching that term, where they were teaching them, and for what pay and benefits. The survey received close to 30,000 responses, with more than 10,000 coming from faculty members who were teaching part-time at an institution or institutions of higher education in fall 2010. The responses from these part-time faculty members provide the basis for a detailed portrait of the work patterns, remuneration, and employment conditions for what has long been the fastest-growing and is now the largest part of the academic workforce.

Go to CAW web site