Full Time, Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Bernard G. Prusak and Jim McGann were elected on May 4 to the Faculty Congress to represent full-time, non-tenure-track faculty. In order to represent you effectively, we need to hear from you about your interests and concerns. We had an excellent turnout for the elections, which were followed by a constructive and informative discussion. Thank you to all the full-time, non-tenure-track faculty who attended the meeting. The twenty-five people who attended included a broad cross-section of colleges and departments.

Our discussion touched on a number of issues.

It was agreed that the full-time, non-tenure track representatives serve two purposes: 1) to give faculty with this type of position a voice in matters pertaining to the whole university and of interest to all faculty; and 2) to help identify and to speak for the interests and concerns distinct to full-time, non-tenure-track faculty.

Our discussion raised a number of questions.

1) Who we are, just how many of us are there, and what do we do? Are our numbers growing, or have they been more or less constant over the years? Are we across all colleges, or clustered in a few? Do we teach mostly introductory courses, or do some of us have jobs focused on research? How many of us have partly administrative roles? It was agreed that we need answers to these questions as a first step toward identifying our interests and concerns.

2) Are there college-wide, or university-wide, policies pertaining to us, or does each of us individually negotiate his or her rights and responsibilities? There are apparently significant discrepancies in our salary and retirement benefits; there does not appear to be any policy in place for “steps” in benefits (for example, salary or sabbatical) after X number of years of service; and, while some departments allow full-time, non-tenure-track faculty to vote on appointments and for the chair, others do not.

We hope to build on our initial, productive exchange when we meet again in the early fall. In the meantime, please look for news about a discussion board for full-time, non-tenure-track faculty to communicate with one another and your representatives.