Skip to Navigation
University of Pittsburgh
Print This Page Print this pages

November 21, 2002

Some Senate committee recommendations on part-time faculty being implemented

Because Pitt's I.D. validation process is automated and linked to the University payroll system, an employee's I.D. card is valid only during months that he or she is on the payroll.

That can be problematic for part-time faculty members who don't teach here year-round. Among other things, it has meant that a new or returning part-timer did not enjoy library privileges during the weeks prior to the beginning of a term.

And that, in turn, made it harder for part-timers to prepare their courses.

To resolve the problem, the University Library System (ULS) will begin issuing temporary cards to part-time faculty who want to borrow library materials during the month before they're on Pitt's payroll.

To get a temporary library card, a part-timer needs a letter from his or her dean or department chairperson, stating that the faculty member will assume teaching responsibilities at the beginning of the following month.

Provost James Maher and ULS Director Rush G. Miller devised the temporary library cards in response to a recommendation from the University Senate's educational policies committee (EPC).

Last May, EPC released results of what is believed to have been the first-ever survey of Pitt part-time faculty. It included 23 questions relating to support of teaching. See the May 15, 2002, University Times at: EPC recommended several changes in Pitt policy toward part-time faculty. Provost Maher responded to each recommendation in a recent letter to EPC chairperson Evelyn O. Talbott, a professor in the Graduate School of Public Health.

In addition to issuing temporary library cards to part-time faculty, Maher wrote, Pitt's Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education (CIDDE) will add part-timers classified as "temporary" to its mailing list for information on faculty instructional training.

"This should rectify a gap in the previous distribution of such information," Maher wrote. "Until now, CIDDE's mailing list had only included 'regular' full- and part-time faculty, as well as administrative personnel on all five of our campuses."

The provost said he would ask Pitt deans and regional campus presidents to "take positive steps" to address the following EPC recommendations:

* Each year, departments should prepare statements of their grading policies.

* Each year, departments should inform part-time instructors exactly how their teaching will be evaluated. Departments should tell part-timers whether they are required to have Pitt's Office for Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching conduct student surveys.

* Any department or school that employs 10 or more part-time instructors should consider forming a part-time committee to facilitate communication among full- and part-time faculty.

Maher also said he would ask deans and regional campus presidents to distribute copies of his memorandum, as well as EPC's report of last May, to department and division chairs within their units.

During their meeting on Tuesday, EPC members hailed what they called the provost's "thoughtful" and "thorough" response to their report. EPC chairperson Talbott said she will arrange through the University Senate office to distribute summaries, at least, of Maher's memorandum to the 698 part-time instructors to whom EPC mailed surveys earlier this year.

— Bruce Steele

Filed under: Feature,Volume 35 Issue 7

Leave a Reply