Ohio University administrators have joined a long-standing discussion about inequities in promotion and contracts among non-tenured faculty.
Group II faculty, instructional personnel who are not eligible for tenure, have complained that some academic departments interpret the Faculty Handbook to allow promotions of some Group II faculty, which the handbook does not permit, said Carolyn Cardenas, chair of the Faculty Senate Professional Relations Committee.
People have applied the rules inconsistently
said Phyllis Bernt, Faculty Senate chair, at the Oct. 17 senate meeting. A lot of people just don't follow them.
Provost Kathy Krendl has met with Group II faculty and has been receptive to their concerns, Cardenas said. The Directors and Chairs Committee, made up of the heads of academic departments, invited Cardenas' relations committee and senate's Executive Committee to their next monthly meeting Nov. 7.
Cardenas said Group II faculty have had to watch certain departments promote their Group II faculty to more attractive positions while other departments have abided by the strictures of the handbook. Also, many Group II faculty have been asked to take on responsibilities such as student advising, normally handled by higher-paid Group I faculty, tenure-track personnel who research and advise in addition to teaching.
Over time we've had Group II faculty members in one area who have now been teaching for 10 years Cardenas said. Ideally
that's a Group I position.
Because Group II faculty members are playing an increasingly large role in education at OU, concrete guidelines about their contracts must be outlined in the Faculty Handbook, Cardenas said. There was a 42.5 percent increase in undergraduate credit hours taught by Group II faculty on the Athens campus between 1998 and 2004, according to the OU Office of Institutional Research's Fact Book. Meanwhile, there was a 6.7 percent decrease in hours taught by Group I faculty.
Group I tenured faculty have free rein over their research, which is important at a university, Cardenas said.
A lot of times
researchers who have broken through have often been ones who have had unpopular positions
she said. They probably would have lost their jobs if they hadn't been tenured.
Cardenas stressed that many Group II faculty are extremely skilled instructors, which is why they were hired. Students benefit from Group I faculty not because their class instruction is necessarily better but because of their long-term commitment to students manifested through advising.
Many (Group II faculty) are excellent teachers
and they come in and do a fantastic job
Cardenas said. They just have a different investment.
Faculty were grouped for the first time at OU in April 1973, when Faculty Senate passed a resolution delineating three groups, Bernt said. OU found it hard to attract full-time faculty at the time because demand exceeded supply, and the senate drafted rules to govern the contracts of the incoming stream of part-time faculty.
Faculty and department communication needs to improve if the problems of Group II faculty are to be understood, said Janet Duerr, Professional Relations Committee member.
A lot of the Group I faculty are unaware of their condition
Duerr said. I hope this is the time that something's going to happen.
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