University Times

Governance changes aimed at giving voting privileges to some non-tenure stream (NTS) faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences and better defining the role and career path of NTS faculty within the school are on their way to a faculty vote.

Lack of a quorum prevented formal votes on five motions presented at a May 21 called meeting of Dietrich school faculty. The Dietrich school council approved the motions before they were placed on the faculty meeting agenda, said John Cooper, dean of the school.

Changes to school bylaws must be voted on through an electronically mailed ballot. In accord with school bylaws, a majority of members present at the meeting exercised the option to send the other three proposals to a mailed ballot as well.

According to school officials, the deadline for voting will be July 15 and changes will be effective upon ratification, with full implementation taking place over the coming academic year.

The dean’s office plans to send an email on June 10 to all Dietrich school department chairs providing instructions for voting, ballot numbers and a list of eligible voting faculty members in their respective departments.

Department chairs will be asked to contact eligible voting faculty members within their departments and encourage them to vote.

A reminder email is to be sent to chairs June 17 and, during the week of June 24, an email from the dean’s office is to be sent to eligible voting faculty members to encourage them to vote.

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James F. Knapp, the Dietrich school’s senior associate dean, explained at the faculty meeting that the process of clarifying the NTS issues began with a visit by Irene Frieze last fall. He noted that faculty had presented a petition in February seeking voting privileges for NTS faculty.

Frieze, a faculty member in psychology, chaired the non-tenure stream faculty subcommittee of the Senate anti-discriminatory policies committee’s gender subcommittee, which recently made recommendations that were approved by the University Senate. (See Jan. 10 University Times.)

Frieze said that as incoming vice president of the University Senate, she plans to examine issues related to part-time NTS faculty as well. She encouraged faculty members to contact her with their thoughts on those issues.

Cooper said that the Dietrich school has about 500 tenure/tenure-stream (T/TS) faculty and last fall had 145 full time NTS faculty, creating a ratio of approximately 3:1.

He noted that an effort has been made over the past five or six years to consolidate part-time positions into full time, adding that he intends to look again this summer for other consolidation possibilities.

Proposed bylaws changes

On the meeting agenda were two amendments to Dietrich school bylaws:

• One change would remove full-time NTS faculty from the list of “persons excluded” from the school’s voting faculty.

Currently, the bylaws exclude from Dietrich school membership adjunct professors, research professors, visiting professors, lecturers, research associates, teaching associates, assistant instructors, acting instructors, instructors not in the tenure stream, teaching fellows and teaching assistants.

Cooper noted that, by excluding lecturers and senior lecturers from the Dietrich school’s voting faculty, school bylaws are inconsistent with University bylaws.

• A related motion would amend the school’s bylaws to give full-time NTS faculty representation in school-level faculty government.

The proposed amendment would place three new NTS representatives, elected by division, on the school council, undergraduate council and planning and budget committee.

The amendment also would require that the slate of candidates for the Dietrich school’s nominating committee be made up of two tenure-stream faculty members and one full-time lecturer from each of the school’s three divisions.

In addition, the motion redefines faculty representation on the school’s graduate council to include six elected members of the graduate faculty.

Other proposed changes

Three other proposals do not involve bylaws changes.

• One would establish criteria for appointing, evaluating and re-appointing non-tenure stream faculty in the Dietrich school. In addition to setting criteria for lecturer and senior lecturer appointments, the change would create a working title, lecturer/master teacher, to provide a promotion for lecturers.

Knapp explained that the new “rank” is actually a “working title” because “to actually put a new title through the whole University system is extremely difficult.”

Lecturers

Under the proposal, lecturers are defined, in part, as full-time NTS faculty whose main responsibility is teaching, but whose duties also may include such activities as advising, supervising graduate student teachers, administering programs and technical or artistic support.

Their initial appointment is for one year and may be renewed for up to two more years. Lecturers in their third year may be recommended for three-year subsequent renewals and, in their sixth year, be considered for promotion to lecturer/master teacher.

Evaluations and recommendations for contract renewals or promotions would be by a vote of T/TS faculty and NTS faculty at the lecturer/master teacher and senior lecturer ranks.

Lecturer/master teachers

Lecturer/master teachers are defined as full-time NTS faculty with the same duties as lecturers, but who have “demonstrated consistent excellence as a teacher, and, if appropriate, as an advisor, or in other assigned service to a department.”

Appointments are for three years and are renewable, with evaluations and recommendations for renewals, as well as recommendations for promotion to senior lecturer by a vote of T/TS faculty and NTS faculty at the senior lecturer rank.

Senior lecturers

Senior lecturers are defined as “persons of considerable professional attainment, of eminence, or with recognized expertise in their fields of scholarship or in the creative arts.” Their appointments are for five years and renewable. Evaluations and recommendations for renewals are by a vote of T/TS faculty.

• Another proposed change adds to the basic departmental governance guidelines to be observed across the Dietrich school.

The proposal would add that:

— In consultation on major departmental issues, T/TS faculty should take the lead on curricular issues.

— In decisions on appointing and reappointing department chairs, “A secret ballot shall be used to determine the balance of faculty judgment” with “a full and complete report of the faculty recommendation” to be provided to the dean, “including a distinction, if appropriate,” between the views of the T/TS and the NTS faculty.

It also would add that “open discussions of departmental directions and challenges is encouraged” and that, in formulating recommendations regarding appointment and reappointment, T/TS faculty would take the lead.

• The final proposed change would modify departmental procedures on first appointments to bring wording into alignment with the expectation that faculty vote on appointments at their rank or below and that tenured faculty have a vote on appointments with tenure regardless of rank.

Procedures already note that all members of a department should participate in the new faculty appointment process; the addition would state that “faculty have voting privileges on appointments at their own rank or below” and add that certain considerations apply particularly to the appointment of TS instructors and assistant professors.

The proposal states that, after candidates for a position have been fully evaluated, the chair shall canvass the views of all department members “with voting privileges at the rank of the appointment” to determine whether there is consensus favoring a particular candidate. It would add, “In the case of a tenured appointment, each tenured faculty member has a vote on the award of tenure, even if he/she does not have a vote on rank.”

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The full proposals appear here: http://www.as.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/SpecialMay2013Gazette.pdf.

—Kimberly K. Barlow