Ohio University professors understand their roles, but their Faculty Senate is hoping to make those roles clearer to other institutions and new hires.
Faculty Senate, in conjunction with OU’s provost office, is working to clarify job descriptions for its five classifications for faculty members.
“It’s less of getting rid of a distinction among the groups (and more of) providing names that are transparent to people not in the Ohio community,” said Ben Bates, chair of Faculty Senate’s Professional Relations Committee, which spearheaded the effort to change the wording of the Group II positions in the Faculty Handbook.
The effort to modify faculty groups’ titles and job descriptions is still in the early stages and will include Human Resources, college deans and assistant deans, said Faculty Senate Chairwoman Elizabeth Sayrs.
Group I, or tenure-track, are faculty members who have reached the highest promotions as a faculty member. Group I faculty can be hired full or part-time, but they can’t be demoted without that faculty member’s written consent.
“To really meet that core mission for undergraduate education, you need a stable core of Group I Faculty,” Sayrs said.
Group II faculty members are primarily instructional faculty, dedicated to teaching courses at OU.
A recent amendment to the Faculty Handbook offers several distinctions within the Group II faculty category, including titles of assistant lecturer, lecturer, associate lecturer and senior lecturer.
Senior lecturers are allowed to use the courtesy title of professor.
“We can’t guarantee that there’s an increase in salary with that (opportunity), but we know the provost expressed the desire to have greater income come with greater rank,” Bates said.
Group III faculty include adjunct professors, hired contractually based on a college or department’s needs. Group IV faculty comprises the remaining faculty, including visiting professors, other adjunct professors and special appointments.
There is also a separate faculty category for clinical faculty for hires by the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the College of Health Sciences and Professions, who work in a classroom and clinic.
The titles are outlined in the Faculty Handbook, but other schools do not use the “group” distinction, so it can be unclear on resumes, Sayrs said.
“I think it’s really important that when we’re looking for high quality faculty, they know what our names mean,” Sayrs said.
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@DanielleRose84
