Tenure, teaching and the Tennessee Board of Regents were the hottopics Tuesday at The University of Memphis' Faculty Senatemeeting.
The Faculty Senate is in the process of making recommendationsto TBR about proposed changes to its academic appointments andacademic freedom policies.
TBR, the governing body for all state funded colleges anduniversities except the University of Tennessee system, will bemaking fundamental changes to those policies which will go intoeffect in the 2004-2005 academic year. The policies are revisedperiodically to ensure they are in keeping with the board'sevolving universities and colleges.
However, when discussing tenure, it wasn't the proposed TBRchanges that faculty members found unsettling -- it was what TBRleft out.
The board omitted setting any standards for the academicappointments of non-tenure track full-time instructors. Theseappointments, according The U of M office of institutionalresearch, make up over 10 percent of full-time appointments at TheU of M.
According to TBR standards for any four-year university, afterseven years of uninterrupted service, faculty members must becomepermanent, or tenured.
Because The U of M is unlike any other TBR institution -- itoffers more doctorates, does more research and graduates moredoctorate students, the need for full-time non-tenure track facultyis key to The University's new direction of becoming a researchinstitution.
That's why the Faculty Senate will be sending TBR arecommendation to add a minimum standard for appointing full-timenon-tenure track faculty, said David Ciscel, faculty senatepresident.
"The verbiage we recommend is the verbiage (TBR) will use toassist them in making the final revisions" to its academicappointment policies, Ciscel said.
The Faculty Senate also voted to recommend changes in TBR'sAcademic Freedom and Responsibility policy. Essentially, the senatewill ask TBR to say implicitly that faculty members are "entitledto freedom of expression in the classroom in discussing orlecturing in their disciplines."
In other business, the senate debated but took no final actionon teaching for administrators who retain tenure.
"I think we all agree this (recommendation) is meant toencourage people higher in the hierarchy who never see a classroomto teach," said Thomas Stafford, assistant management informationsystems professor and senate faculty member during the meeting.
While the majority of senate members agreed that The Universityshould "encourage" administrators, like departmental chairs anddeans to teach, in the end they could not agree on the policylanguage.
Senate members also decided to request greater involvement in Uof M leases and contracts with commercial enterprises.Historically, the Faculty Senate is only notified of contractrenewals and new contracts The University plans to enter into as acourtesy by the Office of Business and Finance.
"The (U of M) administration has the right and authority to makedecisions about contracts," said Gayle Shiba, assistant nursingprofessor, to senate members. "And they have the right andauthority to do so with or without any input from the FacultySenate. Our position is that we would like to be included beforethings happen ... so we can do more than just react."
During the late afternoon meeting Ciscel, the newly electedFaculty Senate president, presented outgoing president CraigLangstraat with a plaque appreciating Langstraat for leading theFaculty Senate through the problem-plagued 2002-2003 academicyear.
Under Langstraat's direction the Faculty Senate approved thecontroversial Plus/Minus grading system, and dealt with severalbudgetary concerns affecting The U of M and the TBR system.
The Faculty Senate will meet again on Nov. 4 where issuesconcerning the Plus/Minus grading system, environmental improvementof the campus and the FedEx Technology Center will beaddressed.
