The Reporter

www.stetsonreporter.com Friday, October 2, 2009 ilBilillRlll^lii! NoG Employment nerves Faculty ........... by.S^annejR^ffel Some faculty members recently received notices that they might not have a job next year. On September 15, a number of faculty members received notification that their contracts were going to expire and that they might not be re-hired again. These notices were sent specifically to faculty members were are under one- year contracts and who had been so for more than two years. According to Dr. Beth Paul, university provost, the notices were not based on the faculty members' performances in their positions. "I have reassured them that these letters are not based on the quality of their contribution to Stetson," said Paul. Actually, these notifications were required by a recently re-discovered university policy that required this notification of employment by September 15 to allow the university to begin academic planning (the process of evaluating academic needs for the upcoming year). Unfortunately, the new administration was unaware of this policy until very recently. Paul and the new president, Dr. Wendy Libby, are currently working very hard to familiarize themselves with Stetson policies and procedures. "This policy was uncovered shortly before the deadline and it was September 14th before we realized we would have to send out these notices," said Paul. According to Paul, it appears that this policy hasn't been followed recently, for whatever reason. However, the notifications still had to be sent out to allow the process of academic planning to begin. "I respect policy and we had to uphold it," said Paul. "I had to serve them this letter. Of course, it's very jarring and upsetting [for the faculty who received them]. I would have loved more time to prepare." However, since the policy was uncovered so close to the deadline for notification, the administration was not able to contact the faculty members first. The result was that, on September 15, many faculty members received a terse legal notice that their employment for the next year could not be guaranteed. The university could not guarantee these faculty positions because they don't know yet whether those positions will be there next year or not. "We weren't planning to decide right now - [next year's staffing need] is not something that we can know as early as this," said Paul. Still, if Paul and the university wanted to consider changes in academic planning, which they do, then they had to send out the notifications Understandably, these notices caused quite a bit of anxiety for the faculty who received them. According to Michael Branton, Chair of the Faculty Senate, faculty the notifications were especially distressing because they had to be written in a very terse, legal language. There was not much comfort or explanation in the notices and they came with no forewarning, because of the late discovery of the policy. However, after the notifications, Paul personally contacted each faculty member individually to explain the situation. Additionally, the Deans were also asked to contact the faculty in their colleges to discuss and explain the circumstances. "Ideally, the two actions should have been switched," said Branton. It would have alleviate the terseness of these notices if Paul had been able to speak with the faculty prior to sending them. However, the late discovery of the policy made this impossible. All the same, this policy created a lot of anxiety in the faculty. However, somewhat ironically, it is actually in place to serve the interests of the faculty. The policy tries to ensure that most faculty are tenured and thus ensure their academic freedom. There are several types of faculty that fill the academic needs of a university. The title with the most value is that of the tenure. It is important for faculty to earn tenure because it protects their academic freedom. The university has made a commitment of employment to tenured faculty and this allows them to teach, write and publish freely without worrying about their future employment. Alternatively, adjunct faculty are hired by the course. "All sorts of things happen in the academics of a university and you have to have some wiggle room," said Paul. "Ideally, most of the professors should be tenured but sometimes you need these adjunct faculty members to meet temporary needs." And finally, whenever there's a special kind of curriculum need, occasionally faculty members are hired full-time .on a one-year basis. However, this situation is meant to be only temporary as it hinders academic freedom. There are different policies and rules that govern each. level of faculty and each is hired under a different contract. Adjunct faculty should have no expectation of employment beyond the courses they are teaching and faculty members hired under annual contracts should have no expectation of employment beyond that year. (This is laid out in the Stetson University Organization, Policies and Procedure Manual.that faculty receive with their contracts and have access to online. The newly dis*. covered policy in question is in this manual.) If a university employs too many faculty under these temporary^ non-tenure track contracts then academic freedom suffers because these professors will be bound by the fact that they need to be re-hired every year. For this reason, the policy is supposed to discourage hiring faculty members under continually renewed one-year contracts. However, the university was employing faculty members under these exact circumstances. There were faculty members on a non-tenure track who were re-hired every year under annual contracts. The enforcement of this policy is supposed to help fix that problem and ensure the academic freedom of the faculty. "You have to consider two things," said Branton. "First, we followed a policy, which is good. Second, if we can, through academic planning, resolve this problem of annual contracts then that would be an improvement." "What we really want to balance is the right of the faculty with the need for careful academic planning on an annual basis," said Paul. Nevertheless, Paul wants to make it clear that decisions have not yet been, made. "We have not made decisions about staffing for the 2010-2011 school year. Our most important job is to ensure quality learning for our stu- Bob Ddnee-Kia-i the Mytftopmics mg© 7' vj * * ii i. ¥ s* * v " .i' ''■ j* ii i- i i1 ■* .' 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