University Senate
Non-Tenure-Track, Instructional Faculty Committee Meeting
2:00 PM November 6, 2002

Present:
Members: Robert Davis, Susan Fagan, Margaret Hallock, Lynn Kahle, Jim Long, Greg McLauchlan, and Jeanne Wagenknecht
Guests: Rachel Raia (Admin. Director, CAS) and Gwen Steigelman (Asst. Vice Provost for Acad. Affairs)

1. Co-Chair Hallock called the meeting to order at 2:00 PM. She presented the Agenda and asked each person present to introduce him- or herself.

 

2. Steigelman and Raia presented the project they are working on to develop a set of University-wide guidelines on fixed-term, instructional faculty. They are gathering information at present from campus documents as well as from our comparable universities. They are planning to complete the entire project by the end of the school year. The standards developed would become part of the Faculty Handbook, then departments would be asked to develop their specific policies using these guidelines. Some topics that are likely to end up in the guidelines and/or the departmental policies are: recruiting rules, timely notice, merit increases, professional development, promotion, office space, computer access, evaluations/appeals, governance participation, voting rights, retirement programs.

Steigelman and Raia fielded questions from the committee members. Affirmative Action already provides rules for recruiting and hiring. The OAR's spell out appeal processes, and other areas. They see the process of developing these guidelines as an iterative one in which the committee can help identify areas that need attention, finding gaps or inequities.

It was noted that many items that will end up in the guidelines already exist, but are not widely know to current non-tenure-track, instructional faculty. PARS and AEI were noted as "variations" in the non-tenure-track, instructional faculty patterns that need to be included in the guidelines. This emphasizes that the purpose of the guidelines is not to dictate policy, but to indicate what each department needs to include in its policies for non-tenure-track, instructional faculty.

Steigelman and Raia agreed with the committee that it would be useful to include some unionized campuses like Rutgers and Queens Universities in their examination of other school's policies.
 

3. Survey: The committee worked through the current draft of the survey. Current plans are for the web-based survey to go on-line early in 2003. Many changes were suggested to the draft. McLauchlan will develop a question that gets the long-term FTE profile from the respondent. It would be useful to know if the respondent is paid by the course or paid a salary. Long will rework the survey, using the committee's suggestions, and distribute it to each member, as well as Steigelman and Raia, and any others on the committee's mailing list.

 

4. Future Meetings: The committee decided to ask to meet with representatives from three campus units (The Lindquist College of Business, The College of Education, and the Department of Romance Languages). These were picked because they already have well-developed procedures in place for non-tenure-track, instructional faculty. Three meetings (one for each unit) were set up for 2:00 PM each: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 (Romance Languages); Thursday, December 5, 2002; and Monday, December 9, 2002. Hallock will contact the remaining units and schedule them appropriately. She will also arrange for each unit's procedures to be sent to the committee members before its meeting.