The Academic Workforce Advocacy Kit brings together a set of reports
and guidelines on faculty workload and staffing norms developed by the
Modern Language Association since the 1990s. Armed with these facts and figures,
buttressed by goals and guidelines endorsed by the largest professional
association of scholars in the country, we can begin to do the hard
work of describing the situation in our own institutions; comparing it
with the situation on the national level; confronting administrations
with the facts, needs, and relevant standards; and educating the public
at the local and state level.
The MLA Advocacy Tool Kit is found at
http://www.mla.org/advocacy_kitIt contains links to the following items of interest to language program directors and department chairs:
The MLA Executive Council created this issue brief to inform members of
the profession and the general public of the circumstances faced by the
academic workforce in the humanities. It provides background
information and explains the council’s working assumptions. The brief
then lays out an agenda and recommends a course of action to improve
working conditions for the academic workforce.
This report presents statistical information from United States
government sources about the composition of the faculty across the
modern languages in United States institutions of higher education.
"In the context of globalization and in the post-9/11 environment . . .
the usefulness of studying languages other than English is no longer
contested. The goals and means of language study, however, continue to
be hotly debated. Divergent views concerning language and its many
functions are reflected in differing approaches to the study of
language."
This report examines current standards and emerging trends in
requirements for tenure and promotion in English and foreign language
departments in colleges and universities throughout the United States.
The report is based on a survey of more than 1,300 departments at
institutions across the nation and includes 20 major recommendations
for change.
