Faculty Affairs Committee
Charges
Mandate from Policy B2.0
The Faculty Affairs Committee shall be responsible for policy recommendations concerning faculty tenure, rank, welfare, leave, and professional conduct and shall review all policies and procedures concerning the extended part-time and adjunct faculty of the university. The committee will also oversee the needs related to the professional development of quality teaching and serve to foster collegiality and mentorship among faculty. The Faculty Affairs Committee shall consist of the following: one faculty member per college, each to be elected by their collegial faculty; one dean elected by the Deans Council; three members at large elected by the Faculty Senate; and the provost or their delegate (ex-officio, voting).
Charges for AY 2025
Carryover Charges
1. New NTT clinical faculty ranks (impacts policies: B2, E6, E7, E10, E20).
2. Longer evaluation cycles for faculty (Policy E7).
3. Summer Deadlines (Policies E5 and E6, and E4 and E4.1).
4. NTT faculty title change
5. Policy E9.0 Visiting Scholar Policy
6. Policies on Dismissal for Cause E23 and E23.1
7. Policy E4.0 Faculty Employment Policy
8. Follow up on the implementation of the Watermark system selected in cooperation with the previous Faculty Activity System Task Force, and communicate updates to Senate.
New Charges
1. Provide clarification and specification for the conditions for a change in a chair’s term or the conditions for the removal of a chair including the definition of “extraordinary circumstances”. Clarify the definition and weight of what a “formal consultation with faculty” might entail.
2. “Assess best practices and propose policy changes to (1) support faculty appropriately allocating time for scholarship, teaching and/or service; and (2) maintain a healthy work and life balance.” - This new charge requests FAC to explore policy options to appropriately apportion time for faculty to engage essential tasks–research, teaching, and service, and maintain a healthy work and life balance.
3. Policy E21 (Assignment & Transfer of Tenure Track Faculty) requires consultation by and with all affected parties regarding such issues as best interest of students, tenure, etc. prior to any action being taken. The term “consultation” is mentioned five times without definition. Similarly, the policy mentions the term “recommendation” on three occasions, without specifying the form of the recommendation. Both these terms need to be defined.
Further: There are no clear steps or rules for all cases. The rules for moving faculty from one college to another are more robust than moving from internal to a college. In reality there are no firm steps or rules especially for department level shifts.
4. (1) Currently there is a gap in academic policy about the faculty assessment of associate deans who hold faculty ranks. We only have such policies for department chairs, but chairs are faculty while these associate deans are administrators. The lack of such an upward evaluation policy has enabled some associate deans to implement academic policies without taking faculty fully into account, and the chair evaluation policies do not apply to them since they are not faculty and faculty do not have any channel to assess them.
(2) Standardize the implementation for upward evaluation of chairs. Currently this is implemented with great variability across campus. Currently in some colleges chairs are evaluated only by deans regularly, possibly leading to them advocate more for the needs of administrators than faculty.
5. Currently, for self appraisal (see Policy E7, "Annual Review of Faculty") faculty are not permitted to include childbirth under the life circumstances impact statement. I would like to see this policy reconsidered to allow faculty to describe the impact childbirth has had on their work.
6. Determine appropriate policy for AI use in the Tenure and Promotion process (e.g., as seen in Policies E05.0 and E06.0).
7. Explore whether college promotion policy (and updates to these policies) should be reviewed and approved by the Faculty Senate. (Policies E05.0 and E06.0).
