When Gary Brill was granted early retirement from his job at Bell Labs in New Jersey and came to the University three and a half years ago, he wanted nothing more than to teach.
"I set out with great enthusiasm to be one of the best teachers my students ever had," said Brill, a psychology instructor.
But now - in his fourth year as a fulltime non-tenured-track instructor - Brill faces losing his job at the end of the academic year.
He was one of several University professors and students offering testimony Tuesday as part of a Contingent Faculty Rights Hearing, sponsored by the Rutgers American Association of University Professors chapters and groups representing graduate students and non-tenured faculty members.
The hearing - held at the Graduate Student Lounge on the College Avenue Campus - was part of Campus Equity Week, an annual national event designed to draw attention to the role and concerns of non-tenured faculty members and teaching assistants.
Senior staff representative of the University Chapter of AAUP Richard Moser said 61 percent of all faculty members at the University are either not on tenure track or are part-time lecturers, graduate assistants or teaching assistants.
Additionally, Moser said non-tenure-track faculty comprises 23 percent of the fulltime faculty at the University. Contingent faculty teaches about 50 percent of undergraduate courses, he said.
Many speakers discussed the lack of job security faced by contingent faculty - particularly the four-year rule, which demotes or dismisses faculty members after they teach at the University for four years, regardless of their performance, according to Moser.
Calling it an "antiquated rule," Moser said the four-year rule hinders the development of enduring relationships between students and faculty
One of the AAUP's goals is to terminate the four-year rule.
According to many at the hearing, a myriad of things - job insecurity, the low pay they receive, lack of health benefits, among others - result in contingent faculty who feel they are treated as second-class citizens by the University.
"This uncertainty for part-timers here at Rutgers limits their freedom of thought and that makes some of the free conception and robust debate that should go on in our classrooms not occur because there is always that cloud hanging over their heads of possible dismissal," said Lisa Klein, president of Rutgers Council AAUP.
Don Siegel - who teaches in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology - said his work life and ability to teach undergraduates would be enhanced with more job security.
Siegel works under one-year contracts that often keep him from making long-term commitments, such as multiyear changes to curriculum.
Many external grant agencies are reluctant to grant money to instructors who are not guaranteed to be at the University the next year to complete their work, he said.
Contingent faculty - who often have other jobs besides teaching - bring valuable real-life experience to the classrooms, said Amy Bahruth.
Bahruth, a part-time lecturer in the Labor Studies Department, said she and others provide a glimpse into the real world of what may be expected of students after graduation.
"We are the backbone of this University - out of sight, but support the whole system," Bahruth said.
Many not on tenure tracks, these part-time lecturers and graduate and teaching assistants teach many of the University's introductory level courses, Siegel said.
"What kind of message does it send to our undergraduates when the people with the least power, the least authority, with no ability to think long-term are the first people that they encounter [at the University]?" Siegel said.
Brill offered some advice.
"Eliminate the 4-year rule, provide multi-year contracts that allow greater access to university resources and possibly even find a way to raise salaries to reflect the true value of non-tenured track instructors," he said.
At the University there are currently 642 fulltime non-tenure-track instructors; 1100 part-time lecturers and 1822 teaching assistants and graduate assistants, according to Rutgers AAUP chapters.
The University Senate endorsed a plan in April that would add full-time, non-tenured faculty to more schools at the University.
Some senators said making the track available to those schools would encourage people to apply as faculty.
Others said the University has too many non-tenured faculty.
"There are a lot of ways to hire people without tenure," said Sen. Robert Boikess, professor of chemistry. "Why do we want to hire full-time faculty without job security?
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