TASKFORCE

EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

NON-TENURE TRACK TASK FORCE REPORT FOR THE PERIOD OF JANUARY THROUGH JULY, 2003

Submitted: July 25, 2003

NON-TENURE TRACK FACULTY TASK FORCE REPORT

Submitted to Provost William Swart

July 25, 2003

Introduction:

In March, 2002, the UNC Board of Governors accepted recommendations submitted by The UNC Non-Tenure Track Faculty Committee (NTT). The NTT report provided six recommendations for review and action by the UNC system institutions. An Implementation Committee was created comprising members from all system schools with Dr. Betsy Brown of the UNC/OP serving as the chairperson.

This Implementation Committee met via video-conference twice during the Fall of 2002, and a third face to face meeting was convened in January, 2003 at the UNC/OP offices in Chapel Hill. Each UNC campus was asked to create an implementation committee to begin to address the six recommendations and to provide a progress report by June, 2003.

ECU Task Force Appointed:

In concert with the Faculty Welfare Committee of the ECU Faculty Senate, a task force was appointed. The membership was finalized at the beginning of the second semester of the 2002/03 academic year (Membership roster attached, #1). The ECU/NTTTF held its first meeting on February 6, 2003. The TF met six times over the semester: February 6^th, 11^th, 17^th; March 21^st; April 23rd; and May 7^th. On March 25^th co-chair Paul Spence provided an up-date report to the ECU Faculty Senate.

Activities:

Ø Faculty Staffing Plan-

The initial primary focus of the NTTF was to begin a process that would address the first recommendation of the UNC/NTT report: the development of a staffing plan for various types of faculty appointments. The NTTF prepared a draft transmittal memorandum and report form for review by the Provost and the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs [VCHS] (copies attached, #2) and a recommended reporting process to be completed by the June, 2003.

After review and approval of the documents and process by the Provost and VCHS, academic units were asked to respond and provide information regarding future staffing issues. These reports were to be submitted to the ECU Office of Institutional Planning, Research and Effectiveness (IPRE) as part of other required annual reports.

ü Status-

As of July 6, 2003, 53 units have responded and submitted reports to IPRE.

The information has not been analyzed or summarized. A review of the submitted information indicates that there is an uneven level of information and some units did not fully report over the three-year period requested. Three diskettes containing the submitted staffing reports are included with this report.

The current reorganization and realignment of academic units has probably presented some challenges for units in the requested reporting process; however, the information submitted does represent a first-step in beginning to establish potential understanding of NTT faculty needs at ECU. The submitted information may also help in developing a process that will facilitate a more advanced planning process in terms of faculty staffing needs and the acceptable mix of tenure track and non-tenure track faculty.

Ø Other Activities-

In an effort to fully inform the university community, the full UNC/OP report was posted on the ECU Faculty Senate website as part of the Faculty Welfare Committee’s section.

In addition, the ECU/TF developed a separate document containing the six recommendations and provided accompanying commentary indicating the status of the recommendation in terms of existing and policies on the ECU campus.

On March 25, 2003, Dr. Paul Spence appeared before the ECU Faculty Senate and reported on the work of the ECU/TF and the status of the activity as of that date (document attached, #3).

Summary/Future Issues:

This section contains issues and points that emerged during the TF’s deliberations. The TF thinks they hold important implications for the future activity of an on-going task force.

The current mix of professional educational programs and a major school of medicine present important challenges to the overall issue of traditional tenure-track faculty and non-tenure track faculty appointments. That is, the need for clearly defined and understood faculty appointments that are often referred to as “clinical” etc. need particular attention (It seems that UNC-CH’s health sciences area almost operates on a separate faculty appointment basis and perhaps this needs to be reviewed for any relevance it might have for ECU). This general issue is addressed in Recommendation 4 of the OP Report.

A concerted effort should be made to provide clarification and orientation to academic administrators (deans and department chairs) about the current acceptable policies and practices at ECU surrounding the hiring, appointment, reappointment, and evaluation etc. of NTT faculty. During TF discussions, it became clear that there is a high variability of both understanding and practice surrounding FT faculty on the ECU campus. This issue could be addressed simply by providing clear information on policies contained in the ECU Faculty Manual as to what is permissible, for example, multi-year contracts for FT faculty. This is the issue addressed in Recommendation 2 of the OP Report.

Probably the most daunting issue contained in the OP Report resides in Recommendation 8 regarding compensation, and will require close attention from the highest levels of the university.

Finally, through discussions in the TF it did emerge that there are areas of particular concern that will require particular attention, specifically departments in the College of Arts and Sciences that are required to provide major service instruction for General College and entering undergraduate students: math and English in particular. These departments, and others to a lesser degree, are subject to many variables that remain outside their immediate control: budget and enrollment. These factors then create a circumstance wherein there are numerous NTT hires, and many of these are of a temporary nature, some being only one semester in length.

Again, this situation is usually created when there is a very late need for additional sections of undergrad service courses, or when the budget for the academic year is finalized so late that there is no way to be sure just what resources are available thus making more substantive commitments difficult at best. Therefore, these academic units appear as having an inordinate number of NTT faculty, both full time and part-time. We do not find fault with the administrators of these units, we fully understand that they are faced with challenges that make staffing difficult at times. Nevertheless, the TF does think that attention to this issue would allow procedures to be developed that would allow a more predictable, planned approach to staffing these vital service courses.

Conclusion and thanks:

A report of the TF activities, similar to this document, was forwarded to Dr. Betsy Brown at the UNC/OP in June, 2003. Dr. Brown is gathering information from all the system institutions and preparing an up-date report for a fall meeting of the UNC Board of Governors.

The task placed before this TF is an important one. The committee that has served thus far has done an excellent job of attending and focusing upon the issues. Our discussions have been frank and forthcoming. As one of the co-chairs, I would hope that those currently serving on the TF would be provided the opportunity to continue if they so desired. Dr. Paul Spence has left the ECU School of Medicine for another position at another university.

I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to the TF members who were willing to not only serve, but to convene at 7AM.

Please contact me with any questions or needs for clarification.

Prepared and submitted on behalf of the ECU-NTTF Task Force:

Gary R. Lowe

Professor, Social Work

July 23, 2003

ATTACHMENT #1

FIXED-TERM FACULTY TASK FORCE, Spring 2003

Paul R. Spence, co-chair Gary R. Lowe, co-chair

Brody School of Medicine Social Work

744-4655 (office) 328-2121 (office)

561-9488 (pager) 341-0483 (cell)

pspence@PCMH.COM LoweG@mail.ecu.edu

Glen Gilbert Brett Hursey

Health & Human Performance Dept. of English

328-0038 or 328-1995 328-1543/746-3900

GilbertG@mail.ecu.edu HurseyR@mail.ecu.edu

Sandra L. Friend Jacinta McElligot

Industry & Technology Brody School of Medicine

328-4429 McElligottJ@mail.ecu.edu

FriendS@mail.ecu.edu

Rick Niswander Greg Miller

School of Business Human Resources

328-6970 328-4009

NiswanderF@mail.ecu.edu MillerG@mail.ecu.edu

Robert Thompson Dianna Lowe

Institutional Planning, Academic Affairs/Provost

Research, & Effectiveness 328-6242

328-6288

ThompsonRO@mail.ecu.edu LoweD@mail.ecu.edu

Linda Ingalls Lisa Sutton

Brody School of Medicine Brody School of Medicine

816-2201 816-2942

Ingallsl@mail.ecu.edu SuttonLI@mail.ecu.edu

ATTACHMENT #2

MEMORANDUM DRAFT

TO: Deans and Directors

FROM: William Swart

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Michael Lewis

Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences

DATE:February --, 2003

RE: 2003-2005 FACULTY STAFFING PLAN

All UNC campuses have been charged by the Office of the President to make systematic progress toward implementing eight recommendations from the report by the system-wide Committee on Non-Tenure Track Faculty (attached). We are in support of this effort and, in concert with the Faculty Welfare Committee of the ECU Faculty Senate, have formed a task force to implement the recommendations contained in the OP Committee report. This task force is currently co-chaired by Gary R. Lowe (social work) and Paul Spence (medicine). The task force membership list accompanies this memorandum.

As you can see, the eight recommendations vary considerably in terms of the degree to which they are currently implemented at East Carolina University, their complexity, and the amount of effort required for implementation. The one recommendation that is likely to be the most time and labor intensive is recommendation #1, calling for each campus to develop unit “faculty staffing plan(s)”.

Description of a Faculty Staffing Plan-

A staffing plan is a projection of a unit’s staffing needs over a defined period of time. Such a plan is NOT simply a laundry list of position requests. Rather, it is a comprehensive projection of the unit’s staffing needs, both in number and mix of all faculty (tenured, tenure-track, non-tenure track full time, non-tenure track part time, graduate assistants and special appointments) necessary to enable a unit to carry out its various missions in teaching, research, and service.

It is appropriate that we prepare staffing plans at the [department, program, college, and/or school] level and those plans be developed in conjunction with the various missions in teaching, research, and service articulated in each unit’s strategic plan. It is also appropriate for this purpose that staffing plans be developed on the basis of realistic growth projections about the availability of new faculty resources. (To assist you in this process, we have also provided projected/forecast enrollment figures compiled by the university.)

A faculty staffing plan should do the following: (1) project the number of faculty a unit needs to carry out its missions in teaching, research, and service articulated in each unit for the time period of 2003/04 through 2004/05 and clearly reflect the unit’s best judgment about anticipated balance between tenure-track and non-track faculty (effort should be made to note specific anticipated variables that would impact this balance such as new program development, retirements [full/phased], grants, and contracts); (2) provide a context in which the unit, the Dean/Director/Chair, and the Provost and VCHS can assess the impact of the budgetary changes on the unit’s projected faculty needs throughout the specified period noted in #1 above; and (3) provide a context to enable the unit, the Dean/Director/Chair and the Provost & VCHS to monitor the unit’s progress toward meeting their projected faculty goals.

Action Requested-

With this memorandum we are asking you to initiate a two-part process.

1. Prepare a document describing the current (2002-2003) faculty staffing make-up of your

respective units, and

Prepare a document that provides a future plan based on a realistic expectation of modest budgetary growth, but also taking into account projected enrollment goals and forecasts for your unit as well as program changes scheduled to implemented during this time frame.

Guidelines for Preparing your Faculty Staffing Plan-

Please initiate the process of developing faculty staffing plans within your respective unit using the following guidelines:

Each unit should articulate the relevant assumptions about factors such as enrollment projections, curricula changes, changes in mission(s) and other variables that affect its staffing needs. Each unit should also identify the workload equivalents for tenure-track and non-tenure track full time faculty used in its projections.

The staffing plan should account for all faculty (tenure-track and non-tenure track, including graduate assistants and special appointments) across each year of the designated period by each of the applicable funding sources.

There is no need to distinguish among tenure-track faculty ranks (Assistant, Associate, and Professor) unless such distinctions are important to accomplishing some portion(s) of the unit’s mission during the planning period. For all non-tenure track faculty (including full and part-time), units should project both the number of faculty and the nature of the responsibility associated with positions (e.g. instruction, clinical, research, grant-contract). In some cases, faculty will have multiple responsibilities and units should identify those multiple roles as appropriate (e.g. instructional/advising). It is not necessary to distinguish between primary and secondary responsibilities.

Project part-time faculty needed to address core unit needs, and express that projection on the basis of the full-time workload equivalent. For example, if a unit determines that it will likely need to cover 24 sections of core courses during a given year with part-time faculty and its teaching load for full-time non-tenure track faculty includes 8 sections of courses per year, it should project that it will need a pool of part-time faculty in instruction capable of fulfilling the workload equivalent of 3 full-time non-tenure track faculty.

The intent is not to identify the specific number of persons actually in the part-time pool; rather it is to identify the total workload for which a pool of part-time faculty will be needed. If the unit does not employ full-time non-tenure track faculty and has no workload established for such appointments, its projections will be based on the equivalent tenure-track workload. Part-time faculty for other purposes or combinations of purposes such as advising, clinical, or research responsibilities should be similarly expressed. There is no expectation that a unit can plan for all possible circumstances that might necessitate the need for part-time faculty.

Enclosed is a sample of a format we would ask each unit to use to construct its faculty staffing plan. Please submit 1 copy (disk) of the faculty staffing plans and appropriate narrative (guideline 1) for each unit in your College/School by May 1, 2003. If you have questions about this task, please contact Professor Gary R. Lowe, 328-2121, LoweG@mail.ecu.edu.

Attachments:

Summary of the eight recommendations
Enrollment forecast figures
List of the ECU Fixed Term Faculty Task Force
Sample Report Format

Staffing Plan		2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005	2005/2006	2006-2007
I	State Appropriations
	# FTE Funded
	# FTE Tenure Track
	# FTE Non-Tenure Track Full-Time	12	13	15	16	17
	# FTE Non-Tenure Track Part-Time
	Graduate Assistants
	(a) # Unit Self Funded
	(b) # Grad. School Funded
	c Total Amt of GA Funds

II	Split Funded
		1 (instruction)	2 (instruction)	2 (instruction)	2 (instruction)	2 (instruction)
		1 (instruction/advising)	1 (instruction/advising)	2 (instruction/advising)	2 (instruction/advising)	2 (instruction/advising)
	Graduate Assistant		2 (research)	2 (research)	2 (research)	2 (research)
	(a) Self Unit Funded		1 (clinical)	1 (clinical)	1 (clinical)	1 (clinical)
	(b) Grad. School Funded
	Amount of Funds

III	Non-State Funds
	(Grants, Contracts)
		2 (instruction)	4 (instruction)	4 (instruction)	4 (instruction)	4 (instruction)





IV	Medical Faculty/Practice Plan/Clinical

			1 (instruction)	2 (instruction)	2 (instruction)	3 (instruction)

ATTACHMENT #3

UNC-OP/NTTF/--Status document as of 3/25/03

BACKGROUND:

This document provides the recommendations put forth by the UNC-OP Fixed Term Faculty Committee that met during the 2001/02 academic year. The ECU campus task force currently working to seek implementation etc. of these recommendations has begun to develop information regarding policies/practices as they currently exist on this campus in relation to the recommendations. The information below is therefore “in process”, with content being supplied under the “status” heading to indicate the current status of the particular recommendation on the ECU campus. As a result of the “in process” situation, there are recommendations without any “status” commentary. The absence of such information does not mean that there is not currently anything in existence at ECU in relation to the particular recommendation; it merely means that the ECU TF has not yet been able to put what does exist into the document.

All sixteen UNC campuses are addressing the recommendations in cooperation with the UNC Office of the President. There is no specific established deadline for the system groups to complete their work because the UNC Office of the President recognizes the complexity between and among each system university. Dr. Betsy Brown in the UNC Office of the President is the coordinator for this system-wide effort and has chaired two video-conferences and one called meeting held in Chapel Hill.

The ECU Task Force has been meeting since the beginning of the current semester. A proposed approach/method to address recommendation #1 has been forwarded to both the Provost and the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences for their review. The ECU Task Force expects to have a faculty/staff plan developed by each appropriate school/college/department by early May. In the meantime, the ECU Task Force continues to meet and address the other recommendations.

The ECU Task Force will continue to work with the goal of developing suggested recommendations to be put before the appropriate faculty entities and university administrators for review, revision, and possible adoption as policy.

RECOMMENDATION 1:

Each UNC institution should develop a staffing plan defining a desired mix of various types of faculty appointments and monitor its progress in moving toward its staffing goals. These plans should be developed with input from a broad array of campus constituencies, including non-tenure track faculty. The staff of the Office of the President should also undertake periodic studies of the mix of faculty appointments across the University.

Status: ECU FT-Task Force has drafted a proposal for the review and approval of the Provost/VCAA and VCHS requesting academic units to prepare faculty staffing plans for the time period of 2003/04 through 2004/05.

RECOMMENDATION 2:

Each campus, whenever possible, should offer multi-year contracts (for three or more years) to full-time non-tenure track faculty who have successfully completed a probationary period or otherwise demonstrated their effectiveness and contributions.

With careful planning, departments should be able to determine their needs for continuing full-time faculty while reserving flexibility in some positions in anticipation of changes in enrollment, funding, and the availability of tenure-track and tenured faculty.

Status: There are currently no stipulations or policy issues preventing academic units at ECU from offering multi-year contracts to full-time non-tenure track faculty.

Appendix C, 1, A. (p. C-3) describes the unit administrator’s authority, in concert with the relevant vice-chancellor, to determine the “number and nature of positions needed” in any given academic unit.

RECOMMENDATION 3:

The Office of the President should develop a policy and guidelines for non-tenure track appointments, requiring each institution to develop the following:

A. a definition of “full-time” faculty load appropriate to the institution’s mission and program array;

B. a definition of assignment and responsibilities that constitute 50%, 75%, and 100% loads, with identification of the employee benefits available to faculty employed at a percentage of a full-time load;

C. a policy determining under what circumstances faculty on part-time appointments can be assigned full-time loads;

D. a policy determining under what circumstances, if any, part-time faculty should be issued two-semester continuing contracts with accompanying eligibility for benefits;

E. a policy for timely notice of appointment and reappointment of part-time faculty.

Status: At ECU there currently exist within individual academic units unrelated and uncoordinated practices and policies addressed in items A through D above. In terms of item E, Appendix D, II A & B specify the policies and procedures for appointment and reappointment, including fixed-term faculty. The ECU Faculty Manual does not specify any distinction between full-time and part-time faculty.

RECOMMENDATION 4:

Each campus should develop a set of clearly defined position descriptions and titles for full and part-time non-tenure track positions. The use of “advanced” titles with appropriate salary increases and other recognition should be considered to appropriately distinguish faculty with longer service records and accomplishments (for example, Senior Lecturer or Research or Clinical Faculty with rank).

Status: The ECU Faculty Manual does specify a set of position titles for both fixed-term and tenure-track faculty: Appendix D, IIA, 1a-c.

Currently there is no specific titles to denote longevity or “advanced” status for fixed-term faculty.

RECOMMENDATION 5:

At campuses which have not done so, full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty should be provided a specific description of the evaluation process and criteria by which their performance will be judged and how the evaluations will be linked to reappointment and salary determination; training should be provided to department chairs on effective means of evaluating and supervising non-tenure track faculty.

Status: Appendix D, II A & B currently provide guidelines for the evaluation and reappointment, or non-reappointment, of fixed-term faculty.

RECOMMENDATION 6:

Each campus should:

A. provide non-tenure track faculty adequate orientation to their responsibilities and access to office space, telephones, computers, email, clerical support and other assistance necessary to fulfill their responsibilities;

B. develop guidelines for the proper compensation, either through stipends or adjusted teaching loads, for advising and administrative activities assigned to non-tenure track faculty;

C. include non-tenure track faculty as appropriate in decision-making processes at the department, [school], college, and university level, particularly in decisions affecting their own responsibilities and employment conditions.

Status: There is probably a high degree of variability as to practices in relation to item A above. There is also variability as to how individual units explicitly address item B above. The ECU Faculty Manual stipulates the various arenas wherein faculty have the right to vote…………..

RECOMMENDATION 7:

Each campus should provide opportunities to non-tenure track faculty for professional development activities and for recognition of their accomplishments through campus awards.

Status:

RECOMMENDATION 8:

As part of their staffing plans, institutions should:

A. analyze the compensation of full-time and part-time non-tenure track faculty and weigh this compensation against the duties and responsibilities of these positions;

B. increase compensation where appropriate to ensure the continued employment of qualified, experienced, and professional faculty;

C. develop policies for the eligibility of full-time non-tenure track faculty for regular salary increases and for the increases in part-time faculty stipends, both across-the-board, within disciplines, and for individual faculty based on experience and performance.

Status: