Nontenure-track instructional faculty — who make up about 45 percent of the University’s teaching faculty — are calling for improved salary, compensation, hiring practices and working conditions.
Members of the University Committee on the Status of Nontenure-Track Instructional Faculty presented their draft of recommendations to an audience of about 60 people at a town hall meeting Thursday. The committee’s proposal seeks to address the needs of these faculty members, who teach about 40 percent of undergraduate student credit hours.
“We’re talking about a big part of the University of Oregon instructional labor force,” said sociology Associate Professor Greg McLauchlan, the committee’s co-chairman.
Tenure-track faculty members must undergo intensive six-year reviews to achieve the status of tenured associate professor. And because nontenure-track faculty are often part-time or have less stable contract renewals, many feel they do not enjoy the same job security, opportunities for advancement or recognition as their tenure-track counterparts, according to the committee.
For three years, the committee has been compiling data about NTTIF, including information on hiring, promotion and employment policies. McLauchlan said the committee is now moving from a focus on studying to a focus on policy implementation.
“We’re really at a crossroads right now,” he said.
The policy recommendations include five themes, the first of which is based on the need for a well-informed and integrated instructional faculty. Committee members conducted a survey of 161 instructional faculty members and found that many were unaware of issues concerning salary, raises and how their salaries compared to others.
“Many nontenure-track instructional faculty don’t have basic information,” McLauchlan said.
The recommendations call for a University-wide process for informing these faculty members and their departments.
Committee members also noted the importance of implementing written policies governing hiring and employment practices that ensure these faculty members receive teaching assignments and contract renewals in a timely manner. Out of 41 departments surveyed about NTTIF policies, 31 reported having no written policies.
McLauchlan discussed the need for a systematic performance review process that would lead to opportunities for NTTIF to achieve step increases, merit pay and seniority status.
“We feel that it’s perfectly reasonable for departments and units to develop paths for NTTIF,” he said.
Another recommendation calls for more compensation equity
compared to peer institutions and tenure-track faculty. The average salary of University instructors working at or near full time in winter term 2003 was $37,100, which is 55 percent of the average salary of all tenured ranks, according to the survey.
The final recommendations focus on creating a culture of inclusion and respect for these faculty members throughout the University community. The committee recommends that departments develop policies that allow NTTIF to participate in decision making and to include these faculty members in the “departmental culture.”
However, political science Assistant Adjunct Professor Joel Bloom expressed concern about placing constraints on departments by implementing promotion policies.
“Adding more layers of bureaucracy seems to be a bad idea to me,” he said. “We just have to keep in mind the law of unintended consequences.”
Others noted that the committee also needs to address the discrepancy in pay during the summer session and the need for their workload to remain consistent with their work hours.
Committee co-chairwoman Kassia Dellabough of the Career Center reminded audience members that the recommendations are in a draft stage and that input is required to ensure all needs are being addressed.
“This is not written in stone,” she said. “This is the beginning of the process.”
Vice President for Academic Affairs Lorraine Davis, who also attended the meeting, said the issues addressed are more complex than many realize and that it is not realistic for all of the recommendations to come to fruition.
“Does that mean we don’t want it to work?” she said. “No.”
After the meeting, Davis said the administration has always been concerned about these issues, and she agreed nontenure- track faculty deserve to be better informed about their employment.
The next step for the committee is to revise the draft of recommendations for submission to the Faculty Senate and the administration for endorsement in the fall.
“I’m hoping that we can keep this momentum moving forward,” McLauchlan said.