Once the contracts for the 2025-26 school year were delivered, many NTTF found their teaching load had been reduced. In the future, faculty members warn, if fewer NTTF are teaching full loads, students could face larger class sizes, fewer course options and reduced access to instructors.

NTTF are categorized as assistant, associate, full professors, senior instructors or academic specialists who are hired outside of the tenure system.  

"One of the ways the departments have been able to cut is not laying off people, but reducing workload," UNTF President Victor Rodriguez-Pereira said. 

Hannah Grisham, an assistant professor in the College of Education and vice president of the UNTF, said last school year she was close to being full-time, and this year her contract was significantly reduced. "Originally when I was offered a job this summer, it was only one class this semester, and that’s it," she said. 

For contracts, a reduction in workload means a reduction in benefits. At MSU, staff and faculty must hit a certain percentage of workload to qualify for employee benefits. For Grisham, the university now offers her less work than what is required for employee benefits, and she can not afford them on her own.

"I don’t have benefits right now," Grisham said. "And of course that affects my teaching."

Within the NTTF, designation B faculty hold contract renegotiations on a five-year cycle, unlike most NTTF members whose contracts are reviewed annually. Grisham said that those on designation B were prioritized by the university because they already held a 5-year contract that could not be edited in lieu of the budget cuts. 

Another NTTF member said the portion of healthcare they would have to cover went up by almost $800 a month because their workload was adjusted in their contract. 

While many departments were able to go unscathed from laying off faculty, the solution was to standardize teaching loads, which resulted in a reduced teaching load for some. One non-tenured professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences said they received an email saying they will be teaching seven classes next year, instead of the usual eight classes. 

"Standardizing the fixed-term teaching load to seven courses during the academic year allows us to reduce our adjunct teaching budget to help meet MSU’s cost reduction mandate and at the same time creates greater teaching equity for our fixed-term faculty," Heidi Hennink-Kaminski, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, said. 

Hennink-Kaminski additionally noted that in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, this will roll out over the next two years, similar to the 9% university-wide budget cuts. 

Research grants are also being cut, meaning NTTF who were largely doing research, are now finding themselves in the classroom. Assistant Professor within the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, Ruth Shillair, said she now has more teaching responsibilities.

"I love teaching, but I have less time for research now," Shillair said. "My concern is that we’ll lose a lot of the research we used to do simply because of time."

For now, NTTF says the cuts and workload shifts have revealed what they see as a deeper issue: their roles are undervalued despite being a large facilitator for MSU’s teaching mission. The UNTF has said it plans to raise these issues in upcoming bargaining sessions.

As one NTTF member put it, "It doesn’t have to be like this. If MSU cared about academics, it would be pretty easy to change."