RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FACULTY STATUS COMMITTEE

BASED ON SPRING 2013 NTT FACULTY SURVEY

FACULTY SENATE, JUNE 12, 2014

WE POWER ORANGE: SPRING 2013 NON-TENURE-TRACK FACULTY SURVEY

Survey administered in May/June 2013 to 2,771 non-tenure-track faculty members (professional, instructional and research faculty).

Response rate = 46% (1,262 respondents).

Issues identified:

- job insecurity: standard one-year contracts offer little assurance of long-term employment, funding uncertainties for research faculty and fluctuating enrollments for courses taught by instructors compound this problem;

- economic vulnerability, especially among instructors, due to a combination of low salaries, fixed-term contracts, and general inability to negotiate the terms of their employment;

- lack of university-wide standards, of internal coherence, and of transparency regarding expectations and compensation;

- limited prospects for professional growth and for promotion;

- lack of voice (limited access to governance).

RECOMMENDATIONS – COMPENSATION

- Across-the-board raise for instructors, and sustained efforts to raise wages for all NTT faculty.

- Compensation Program for NTT Instructional and Research Faculty comparable to the benchmarking process used for Professional Faculty comprising a thorough review and standardization of PDtaking into account years of service

- Systematically include NTT faculty for consideration for merit raises.

- Develop bridge funding for NTT Research faculty (suggested mechanism: gathering data at the college-level about best practices + working to generalize best practices).

RECOMMENDATIONS – JOB SECURITY

- Multi-year contracts

- not tied exclusively to promotion

- extended fixed-term contracts after 4 years of cumulative service across the University (objective: 2/3 of NTT faculty on multi-year contracts by 2016.)

- Monitor and limit the use of term-by-term contracts (to under 10% per College + no faculty member with more than 2 consecutive years of service should be on a term-by-term contract).

- Monitor and discourage the practice of setting FTE at less than .5 FTE for a half workload.

RECOMMENDATIONS – PROMOTION

- Increase the pace and number of promotions in the NTT ranks: ideally, 50% of the non-tenure-track faculty currently eligible for promotion should be considered for promotion by 2016, and 100% of currently eligible NTT faculty should be considered by 2018.

- Charge Faculty Senate Promotion and Tenure Committee with simplifying the process for the promotion of NTT faculty, determining requirements for compiling dossier evidence more in line with position expectations and more commensurate to the benefits received upon promotion, which do not include tenure.

RECOMMENDATIONS – SUPPORT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

- Revising standing rules for relevant Faculty Senate Committees (Faculty Economic Welfare and Retirement Committee, Faculty Status Committee, Promotion and Tenure Committee)

joint chairmanship by one TT and one NTT faculty memberideally no less than 50% of NTT committee members explicitly charging committees with addressing issues confronting NTT

- Mandatory annual reporting by the Provost of college-specific data on NTT faculty appointments.

COLLEGE-SPECIFIC DATA TO BE REPORTED YEARLY BY THE PROVOST + PUBLICLY POSTED

Number of Non-Tenure-Track faculty members in College Ratio of NTT to total number of faculty members in College If merit raises were granted this year, indicate the number of TT recipients and the

number of NTT recipients.

Number of NTT instructional faculty members in College Instructors Senior Instructors I Senior Instructors II Minimum salary rate for NTT instructional faculty in College Median salary for NTT instructional faculty in College Median length of service for instructional faculty in College Number of instructors eligible for promotion Number of promotions within instructor ranks in the last AY Number of instructors under .5 FTE Number of instructors on term-by-term contracts Number of instructors on year-long contracts Number of instructors on extended fixed-term contracts Number of non-renewals (if not renewed, please indicate length of service)

I. Quantitative information (sample for instructional faculty, similar questions for professional faculty, research faculty and professors of practice)

II. Qualitative information: identify best practices in College with regards to- rewarding service- supporting professional development- promoting NTT faculty members - providing bridge funding to NTT Research faculty- integrating NTT faculty into governance process

FINAL COMMENTS

QUESTIONS