Has a professor ever changed your life? For many of us, there’s a specific professor that comes to mind, someone who teaches one of the most popular courses in Arts & Sciences and advises dozens of students on research and coursework. This lecturer, who we shall refer to as Dr. R, is the reason we’ve selected our field — we have taken multiple classes with them, had them as our advisor, and received their recommendation for graduate programs and internships.

It came as a shock to us when we found out that the University would be letting this professor go at the end of next year. Dr. R is a professor with a glowing reputation among students as an engaging instructor and a caring mentor, someone who goes above and beyond for their students and the department. Not only does this professor teach three classes a semester while constantly creating new courses and structures to encourage student exploration and interaction, but they also guide a great number of students as a thesis advisor, directed readings mentor, major advisor, and four-year advisor. Always happy to chat with students about academics and post-graduation plans, during office hours or otherwise, they’re a professor whose door is always open. Beyond all of this work in the classroom and advising, they’ve organized many events for students to meet each other and deepen their understanding of class material, from socials to book clubs. We couldn’t comprehend how the University arrived at this puzzling decision. As a group of students, we met to try and process this sudden news. 

That’s when we learned that our professor wasn’t alone. A lecturer here, a lecturer there — the more people we told about Dr. R’s situation, the more we found stories of professors across the University who were set to lose their jobs.

Teaching, research, and practice faculty, or “TRaP” faculty, are the backbone of this University and are an enormous component of what makes the student experience at Washington University so special. Because these professors do not have the same research obligations as tenure-track faculty, they are able to devote much more of their time to educating and advising. Where most tenure-track faculty teach one or two classes a semester, it’s common for teaching-track faculty to teach three courses at once in addition to serving the University in other ways, whether that means joining committees on the departmental, college, or administrative level, or assisting seniors with their thesis research and paper development. This lets teaching-track faculty spend far more time interacting with students and building close relationships as instructors and mentors. Yet the structure of the teaching track makes it less stable than a tenure-track position (provided the tenure-track faculty member obtains tenure, which is a challenging and demanding process in itself). It also means teaching-track professors rack up several dozen hours of work, some of which isn’t fully or fairly compensated — for example, assisting students with senior honors thesis research doesn’t count for committee or teaching hours.

According to a 2021 report by the American Association of University Professors, “contingent faculty” (defined as faculty that aren’t appointed on the tenure track, and including lecturers with renewable contracts and adjuncts with fixed contracts) are “the least secure, lowest remunerated, and generally least supported faculty positions.” The COVID-19 pandemic only made this precarity worse nationwide; since women and people of color are more likely to be contingent faculty, “among the more than 650,000 workers who lost jobs in higher education between February 2020 and February 2021, 58% were women and 56% were people of color,” per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

At Washington University, according to the Association of Teaching, Research, and Practice Faculty (ATRaP), “TRaP faculty represent just 33% of the full-time faculty on the Danforth Campus, [but] they teach 48% of student credit hours.” 56% of TRaP faculty identify as female, compared to 35% of tenure-track faculty. ATRaP has been successful in helping to get these faculty members benefits, but the hard work they have put in indicates that the University has been neglecting to recognize the contributions of TRaP faculty for far too long. For example, TRaP faculty were given paid parental leave for the first time in 2018.

It is the University’s obligation to balance its commitment to producing cutting-edge research with a desire to best educate its students. Relieving teaching-track professors, especially those who go above-and-beyond for their students and departments, unnecessarily sacrifices the latter.

WashU prides itself on the collaborative atmosphere it fosters and the supportive faculty it employs. This is due to the student body, the researchers, and the staff of the University, but it’s especially due to teaching-track faculty, who are largely responsible for the high-caliber education that one expects when enrolling in a prestigious university like Washington University. For the University to cast aside talented teaching-track faculty who receive nothing but praise from students and other professors is a serious blunder, and one that cannot go unacknowledged for WashU to preserve its reputation and its offerings.

As individuals, we’ve written to University and department leadership to advocate for this professor. We encourage you to do the same if you know of someone in this position. While many of these decisions are not publicized, researching who is a TRaP faculty member by looking for titles like “lecturer” and “teaching professor” plus writing to the University administration expressing your support of TRaP faculty in general can have tangible benefits. We also urge all students to complete positive course evaluations — these are incredibly influential for teaching-track faculty and pre-tenure tenure-track faculty. Positive evaluations can go a long way in advancing faculty’s careers and in benefiting students’ experiences at WashU. Finally, it’s important to just recognize the enormous contributions of TRaP faculty on this campus. We encourage students to learn more about these essential faculty members by visiting ATRaP’s website.

But it appears even with positive reviews and evaluations from students, strong teaching-track faculty can be let go without any clear rhyme or reason. We call on the University to extend a new contract to Dr. R and all other well-deserving TRaP faculty who are foundational to the excellent education that Washington University provides. 

Signed,

Jared Adelman, Class of 2024, Former Managing Multimedia Editor

Clara Richards, Class of 2024, Former Editor-in-Chief  

Lara Briggs, Class of 2024

Jordyn Ederer, Class of 2026

Kaylei “Kal” Knight, Class of 2026

Jade Zhang, Class of 2025

Torrey Taylor, Class of 2025

Taylor Miller, Class of 2025

Nicole Ambar De Santos, Class of 2026  

Max Remy, Class of 2024

Angela Yokley, Class of 2024

Bitta Momeni, Class of 2024

Robert Burch, Class of 2025