February 19, 2018
Whereas (Conditions)…
- The Provost has announced that as many as 50 NTT to TT conversions will occur in the next several years.
- The administration has acknowledged that the proportion of NTT faculty members at NAU is too high and has been increasing. As a result, they have called to convert these positions to TT positions. (More than 50% of full-time NAU faculty members are NTT and Part Time.)
- NAU departments and programs have been consistently asking for more TT positions each year.
- A strategic goal for NAU is to increase its research capacity and many NTT faculty members have pursued research on their own time. Their demonstrated capacity for research is limited by their current positions and not captured in their SOEs, meaning that their work is not counting toward NAU’s research output. Failing to retain NTT faculty members has also negatively impacted the research of TT faculty members in existing scholarly collaborations at NAU.
- All NTT faculty members were hired in accordance with Affirmative Action policies.
- Many NTT faculty members have terminal degrees.
- Many NTT faculty members were hired through national searches.
- Many T/TT faculty have been hired through strategic hires without national searches.
- National searches are expensive in terms of time, money, and energy.
- Student learning and post-success are improved by having consistent faculty support and connections.
- Most NTT faculty members have committed relationships to their programs and departments, and ongoing relationships with students and community partners.
- Most NTT faculty members are core, valued members of their programs/departments, serving on curriculum committees, the faculty senate, etc.
- Tenure protects the academic freedom of faculty members, which is crucial to a strong research agenda and beneficial to students who then have access to teachers working on the cutting edge of their disciplines year after year.
- There is already a precedent of converting NTT faculty to TT positions at NAU and elsewhere.[1]
Resolution[2]
Be it resolved that full-time faculty members at NAU who are currently NTT and are qualified, hired through a national search or as strategic spousal hire, and desired by their department for a TT position may be moved into a TT position by the unit without having to apply for a new job. If qualified and desired faculty members are already in the department, then we should fight to retain them at NAU.
Units will develop their own process for defining discipline-specific qualifications, and identifying and converting NTT faculty members to TT members. This position asserts the value of our faculty and promotes faculty retention.
Further Reading
Some Policy Models
AAUP Subcommittee of the Committee on Contingency and the Profession, “Tenure and Teaching-Intensive Appointments.” website:
Boston University Office of the Provost, “Report of the Task Force for Non Tenure Track Faculty.”
Colleen Flaherty, “More Than Adjuncts: U. of Denver moves to new titles, a career path and multiyear contracts for those off the tenure track. Could this be a model for other institutions?” February 17, 2015.
Approved by Board of Trustees, “Otterbein Revised Faculty Appointment Categories Proposal.”
“Implementing a Teaching-Intensive Tenure Track at Portland State University”
[1] For other institutions see: https://www.aaup.org/report/tenure-and-teaching-intensive-appointments
[2] A Resolution is an expression of our values as a Senate: these values include shared governance, equity, and self-determination of departments.