Date on Which You Will Mail Or Fax Advisory Is Centered at Top of Page

[Insert date on which you will send advisory--before event]

Media Advisory

Contact: [Insert name, phone numbers, and e-mail]

Contingent Facultyto Hold Ghost Rally at Anyplace University

Sixty-five percent of the nation’s faculty members are now off the tenure track. Many earn extremely low wages and receive few benefits.

WHAT: [Insert brief description of event]

WHEN: [Insert date and time]

WHERE: [Insert location]

[insert name of your city]—The Anyplace AAUP chapter will hold a ghost rally at Anyplace University on [insert date]. The rally will begin at 1:00 outside the main administration building.

Faculty members and others who care about quality higher education will dress as ghosts to highlight the fact that non-tenure-track, or “contingent,” faculty are often treated as if they are invisible on campus. Though the university relies on contingent faculty year after year to teach vital undergraduate courses, it maintains the fiction that these positions are only temporary. Many part-time faculty are not listed in course catalogues; others do not have offices in which to meet their students.

At the rally, faculty will passout ghost pins along with information on the growing overuse of part-time and non-tenure-track instructors.

Nationwide, more than50 percent of college and university faculty are classified as part-time,but few receive adequate professional support, healthcare, or other benefits. An additional 19 percent are full-time, but are not eligible for tenure. These faculty face the threat of dismissal if they teach controversial subject matter or draw negative public attention.

The ghost rally is part of Campus Equity Week, a weeklong series of events held across the United States, Canada, and Mexico to build solidarity among contingent faculty and highlight their poor pay and working conditions. For more information, see The American Association of University Professors is a sponsor of Campus Equity Week.

The American Association of University Professors is a nonprofit charitable and educational organization that promotes academic freedom by supporting tenure, academic due process, and standards of quality in higher education. The AAUP has about 45,000 members at colleges and universities throughout the United States.