Junior Faculty Committee of the AAUP

TU-AAUP/Faculty Association JFC Report – Fall 2010

Introduction

The Junior Faculty Committee (JFC) of the AAUP is a committee of the AAUP representing all junior faculty.   

Any junior faculty person can be a member of the committee simply by attending any JFC meeting and participating.  The JFC was formed in January of 2003, in response to workload issues.  The JFC continues to advocate for those and other issues that affect junior faculty particularly.  It is the only university-wide group on campus that focuses on such issues. As such, the JFC functions as a kind of barometer to assess the concerns of junior faculty. The more junior faculty that attend the meetings, the more effectively the JFC can represent the range of junior faculty issues at TU.

Fall 2010 Report

On November 12, 2010, the JFC – including 26 tenure-track faculty—met with the Provost to discuss issues of concern to tenure-track faculty.  The JFC met once in the spring and again in the fall of 2010 to prepare for this meeting and to identify discussion topics. The letter sent to the Provost on November 4th in preparation for the November 12th meeting posed questions particularly about her vision for Towson University, specific promotion and tenure concerns, research funds and travel, and teaching load. Some responses from the Provost from that meeting include the following:

• All faculty should read the TU Strategic Academic Plan (2010-2016): www.towson.edu/provost/provost/documents/TUAcademicStrategicPlan2016.pdf.
• TU is evolving into a Research Intensive university with a metropolitan mission (http://www.towson.edu/president/md_metro.asp).
• Those who were hired before August 23, 2010 may use either Chapter 3 of the Faculty Handbook or the TU policy on Appointment, Rank & Tenure (ART) of Faculty document to guide the evaluation of their work. Those hired after this date will follow the ART document. Regardless of hire date, the calendar in the ART document is to be used henceforth.  The new ART document may be found on the provost’s website:  https://inside.towson.edu/generalcampus/tupolicies/documents/02-01.00%20Towson%20University%20Policy%20on%20Appointment,%20Rank%20and%20Tenure%20of%20Faculty.pdf.
• The Provost favors evaluations of faculty teaching performance that provide formative feedback, enabling the faculty member to use evaluations to shape and improve their teaching.
• The Provost stated that a 3rd year review must occur in the middle of the 3rd year for faculty (i.e., not at the end of the 3rd year or beginning of the 4th). The intent of this 3rd year review process is for faculty to receive honest feedback about their progress towards P&T. The Provost will not ask that 3rd year review materials be included with the P&T materials when a faculty member applies for P&T.
• The Provost was asked specifically if the due date for third year review could be changed, but this request was denied.
• The Provost is seeking ways to provide additional funding to support tenure-track faculty, and to expand research capabilities at TU.

Also, those who attended the October 8 JFC meeting were in support of a motion to change the title of the Junior Faculty Committee to the “Tenure-Track Faculty Committee” (or TTFC). (The use of “junior” confounds tenure-status with age.) Such a motion will be made at the spring 2011 TU-AAUP/Faculty Association meeting.

Pamela Lottero-Perdue (plottero@towson.edu)

TU-AAUP/Faculty Association JFC Chairperson

Assistant Professor of Science Education, Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences