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In late March, Molly Miranker received distressing, yet all-too-common news for non-tenure track (NTT) faculty members at Loyola Marymount University (LMU): Her contract for next semester was canceled, so she was out of a job.
It was bad timing for Miranker, 36, who was five months pregnant and carries health insurance through the university for herself and her husband.
The department told Miranker, a visiting assistant professor in Urban and Environmental Studies, that her role was no longer needed. Next semester, the department claimed it would be at full capacity with faculty members with her specialty, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) — tools that urban planners and environmental scientists use to map and analyze spatial data.
Miranker felt blindsided by the notice, which came the same day she was preparing her paperwork for maternity leave. In her nearly two semesters at LMU, Miranker had developed new curriculum and received strong reviews from students. She felt the department had signaled to her that she would stay on staff longer and contribute to growing GIS expertise among faculty members. She suspects she was let go because a tenured professor who was on leave will return next semester.
“It’s very striking to see a university that says it upholds Catholic and social justice values treat its employees this way,” says Miranker, whose contract was for one year with an option to renew for a second. “It’s hard to imagine an employer that believed in these principles would allow for a pregnant woman to be left without a job or health insurance when they hadn’t done anything to warrant being let go.”
Miranker adds: “It feels like I was misled. It’s the nature of these non-tenured positions. They can bring you in temporarily to fill a gap, then discard you. There’s no job security, no true career path. There’s no loyalty or recognition of the work and excellent teaching you’ve done so far. You’re just gone if they want to save money. There’s maximum flexibly on the employer side, but nothing but insecurity on the employee side. I could not in good conscience recommend working here to anyone else.”
With tenure-line jobs become scarcer over the years, NTT faculty now do most of the teaching at LMU. NTTs too often get hired on short-term contracts, leading to job insecurity and minimal opportunities to advance. Some instructors have taught on one-semester or one-year contracts for over 20 years.
For almost 10 months in 2024 and 2025, union faculty members attempted to bargain with the university for longer contracts and stronger protections against dismissal. That was before LMU, a Catholic school, cynically declared a religious exemption from labor law and refused to negotiate with union faculty.
“We need a strong union and for LMU to get back to the bargaining table with us,” Miranker says. “With a strong union contract, we can avoid issues like mine. LMU needs change. A union can help bring that change. I don’t see how you can have quality teaching when people like me are left wondering if they’re going to have a job in the next academic year.”
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Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Deserve Stability, Not Job Reapplications!