As a profession, we are failing to socialize newer generations of faculty concerning the professorate's social contract with society and the critical importance of faculty professionalism (our ethical duties as professors) to the social contract. We strongly assume that the apprentice model of graduate education will acculturate the next generations concerning faculty professionalism. This essay will first provide a brief overview of the social contract and its protection of our autonomy--both as individual professors and as "the faculty" in peer review. Second, this essay will explain how faculty professionalism is the foundation for the trust underlying the social contract. This essay then explores both some possible reasons why we have failed to undertake generational renewal of our ethical duties as professors and why Catholic higher education should lead in vitalizing the academic profession's social contract.