1) It's my personal view that colleges should offer one-year contract extensions right now to all contingent faculty. To put this into perspective, the following:

2) The entire economy will have to be put on ice. This would not be some kind of special favor for academics.

3) Most other jobs are not term-limited. That's not to say they're not also contingent in other ways. But for academic jobs with self-destruct contracts (you do great, but no matter what it's over in x years, by contract) you're deliberately shutting people out of the economy.

4) It's not a good time to shut people out of the economy. And higher ed. institutions will need all the help they can get recovering and restabilizing after this.

5) Spending money now, keeping people on their feet, will increase chances of things holding together long enough to weather this. Knocking people down knowing there won't be a hiring cycle to pick them back up is a disservice to the broader cause of restabilization down the line

6) Finally, this is also an opportunity for higher ed. institutions to model what a stronger economy could look like: An economy that doesn't have to scramble every few years to offset the catastrophic effects of ideological neglect of its most vulnerable.

7) Another way of putting that: Just do the right thing. /end