The University of Iowa has approved a new employment policy expected to improve the status and strengthen the role of the nearly 280 lecturers employed at the UI. Faculty Senate committees, the Office of the Provost, and the Council of Deans developed the UI Instructional Faculty Policy through a shared governance process. The policy outlines new rules for colleges that “employ non-tenured faculty who are primarily engaged in the teaching mission.”
The policy grants lecturers and other instructional faculty grievance rights, representation on the Faculty Senate, a pathway to promotion, and more transparent expectations for workload.
“It’s an example of shared governance at its best,” says Diane Finnerty, assistant provost for faculty.
Finnerty says Faculty Senate officers drafted the policy in consultation with faculty, lecturers, deans, and the Office of the Provost. The Faculty Senate approved the proposal on March 22 in a nearly unanimous vote. The new policy will be discussed at the next meeting of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, on June 8–9 in Ames.
The Office of the Provost will work this summer with individual UI colleges to draft college-specific adaptations of the policy. The Office of the Provost expects colleges to vote on and implement the policy over the 2016–17 academic year.
Christina Bohannan, professor in the UI College of Law and Faculty Senate president for 2015–16, was a driving force behind the new policy, which followed a two-year study examining UI lecturer quality of life.
“Lecturers are crucial to the university’s mission,” says Bohannan, “and this study showed us that we need to do more for them. The new policy advances everyone’s interests. It’s a matter of fairness, and it’s a win-win.”
The study, conducted by the Faculty Senate Lecturers Committee, included a survey of UI lecturers, data from the Office of the Provost, a review of peer institutions, and recommendations from professional associations. Reports indicated that UI lecturers had unclear workload expectations, inconsistent pathways to promotion, no representation on the Faculty Senate, and lacked access to faculty dispute procedures.
Surveyed lecturers reported compensation as their top concern. According to Bohannan, though faculty salaries are determined by each college, measures ensuring a clear path to promotion now provide faculty with avenues for possible salary increases.
Anne Stapleton, English department senior lecturer and chair of the Faculty Senate Lecturers Committee, says, “Since the Faculty Senate approved the policy, we have heard from many lecturers across campus who were very pleased with the outcome and are anxious to see the policy’s implementation.”
“Lecturers are crucial to the university’s mission, and this study showed us that we need to do more for them. The new policy advances everyone’s interests. It’s a matter of fairness, and it’s a win-win.”
—Christina Bohannan, professor in the UI College of Law and Faculty Senate president for 2015–16
College deans expressed interest in a policy that would attract instructors with considerable professional experience, Bohannan says. Such instructors might be highly successful in the classroom but have no history of research or scholarship, which traditionally are major criteria for hiring faculty.
Chaden Djalali, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), advocated for the new policy because it more fully integrates lecturers into the faculty body, providing a more stable career path. “It will give us more flexibility in recognizing, nurturing, and rewarding the strengths and interests of faculty members, including lecturers, who prefer to focus on teaching,” Djalali says. “This is in line with what some of our peer universities do, and we believe it will aid in recruiting and retaining outstanding teachers.”
CLAS has the most UI lecturers, employing 61 percent; the Tippie College of Business is the next highest, employing 15 percent.
Bohannan combined the interests of deans and lecturers in early drafts, which were then reviewed by the Faculty Senate Lecturers Committee and vetted by the Faculty Policies and Compensation Committee (FPCC). The FPCC aimed to ensure that lecturer protections would not result in a decrease in tenured faculty.
“We went over this with a fine-toothed comb,” says Lois Cox, clinical professor at the College of Law and chair of the FPCC. Cox, who also chairs the local American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chapter’s Committee A, says everyone she’s spoken to shares a desire for improving lecturers’ status and protection.
“For many years, on this campus and across the country, lecturers have been in a kind of academic limbo,” Cox says, “and that’s just not the way we should be treating our colleagues.”
The Office of the Provost notes that many peer institutions are now implementing or have already instituted similar policies.
The new policy mandates a review within five years of implementation. At that time, the Faculty Senate will appoint a special committee, which will include instructional faculty, to review usage of the new grievance procedures and the policy’s effect on the composition of UI faculty and the Faculty Senate.
The Office of the Provost is developing a website to offer more detailed information on the Instructional Faculty Policy. The website will be live July 1, 2016. For information before that date, please contact the Office of the Provost at faculty@uiowa.edu.