BY PAMELA MCLAREN
From Dateline (October 14, 2004)
Campus Committee Delves Into Faculty
Retention and Promotion
Life for junior faculty members is looking
up.
As part of his fall convocation address,
President Milton A. Gordon announced that he had “allocated
$300,000 for course release time this year to support junior, tenure-track
faculty as they progress through the retention-tenure-promotion
process.”
The president also announced that in recognition
of junior faculty research efforts, he was increasing the “allocation
for junior/senior research grants by more than 100 percent to $100,000”;
increasing general research grant funding; and instituting a new
allocation of $25,000 to assist faculty members with research travel.
His actions, Gordon noted, came about as a result
of the efforts of the Committee to Support Untenured Faculty and
Diversity, a group he recognized during his address.
The committee was convened in late 2002 at the president’s
direction and charged with investigating the status of junior faculty
and developing recommendations on how the campus can better support
faculty members working through the tenure process.
As members of the committee acknowledged, new faculty
members face many challenges, not the least of which is getting
in sync with the university’s operations, practices and procedures.
There’s designing course syllabi and selecting
books to use, developing and teaching multiple courses, grading
assignments and papers, establishing a scholarly or creative work
agenda, serving on committees and working with the community, meeting
peers, senior faculty members and administrators and learning what’s
expected.
“Not all of our new faculty hires are fresh
out of graduate school. Nonetheless, all faculty, regardless of
prior experience, must face and adjust to a new community of students
and scholars, and learn what their particular campus expects of
them to achieve tenure,” said Ellen Junn, associate dean of
the College of Human Development and Community Service, who served
as committee chair.
“Achieving tenure represents a landmark milestone
in an academic’s professional life – it is the final
judgment by one’s colleagues as to whether or not one has
met the standards set by the institution, and as such, the tenure
review process may become a very stressful life event.
“On our particular campus, junior faculty members
are expected to be good teachers and scholars, as well as engage
in some level of meaningful service,” she added. “Not
surprisingly, trying to meet all of these standards with heavy teaching
loads creates even more stress for new faculty.”
The committee reviewed and compared campus data with
comparable national surveys. Through their review, the committee
found that the university had “made significant gains in the
number of women junior faculty hired since 1998, with women comprising
41 percent of the campus faculty. . . . In spite of these gains,
women faculty still lag behind men in attaining tenure at the highest
ranks.” Members also found that the overall percentage of
minority faculty members on campus “appears slightly higher
than national norms. . . .”
Among specific ethnic groups, the campus faculty
includes significantly more Asian Americans and Hispanics than the
national average but significantly fewer African Americans.
In developing the report, the committee worked with
new-comers to the faculty, including a subcommittee of junior faculty
members. The subcommittee developed a qualitative survey that asked
untenured faculty members about scholarly activity, teaching and
service issues.
Some of the findings: a majority cited lack of time
as their most pressing concern, in terms of meeting their research
agenda, teaching well and allocating time for service activities;
and two-thirds of faculty cited a variety of concerns about the
tenure process. Overall, those surveyed were happy with their experience
on campus.
Among the junior faculty members who served on the
subcommittee was Debra G. Lockwood, assistant professor of theatre
and dance, who joined the campus in 2001. “It was wonderful
to be involved in this effort. I really gained an appreciation of
what other faculty members in other departments have to go through
in the tenure process. I felt less isolated. It was very empowering.”
In the final report presented to Gordon earlier this
year, the committee made recommendations that include strategies
aimed at improving the formal retention, tenure and promotion process;
providing more support for faculty at an individual level; improving
student understanding of their role in the faculty review process;
and building in greater institutional and infrastructure support,
such as release time and availability of child care.
To see the full report of the Committee to Support
Untenured Faculty and Diversity, go to http://diversity.fullerton.edu/committees/president.htm.
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