In this article, the author discusses the issues surrounding contingent faculty. Contingent faculty members are central to academe's future because prevailing logics of the market can confuse accountability with accession to any and all "customer" demands; faculty organizations can instead take the opportunity to hold academic managers and institutions accountable according to educational and professional logics of faculty that speak to quality. Contingent faculty, like their tenure-track and tenured colleagues, constitute and create vitally important intellectual, cultural, and social resources and capital for our country. If one's profession, the academy, and society are to realize more fully the benefits of this workforce, they must invest in them, and teachers must support and protect their academic freedom to conduct their work creatively.