Frustrations from non-tenured faculty dominated Tuesday’s meeting in Faculty Senate, which also addressed the approval of a new degree on climate change and issues with restrained grant use.
On behalf of the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Subcommittee, Florian Justwan, associate professor in politics and philosophy, updated the senate about the results of an anonymous survey. With 104 responses, the survey provided an opportunity for non-tenured faculty to provide perspective on their positions.
While responses were more positive when considering coworkers and staff within individual colleges, results showed that a number of faculty took issue with the University of Idaho’s administration.
“Where we clearly do see climate problems is when people are asked to evaluate support received by upper administration,” Justwan said. “There is a significant chunk of survey respondents who feel either not at all supported or only weakly supported.”
Of those surveyed, 52% felt strongly supported by their colleagues, 41% felt strongly supported by leadership within their college and only 10% felt strongly supported by university upper administration.
“It sounds like there is a sense of disconnect from upper administration,” Faculty Senate Chair Kelly Quinnett said.
Other poorly-rated areas included pay, job security, room for career growth, recognition for work and the accuracy of annual reviews.
Faculty Secretary Francesca Sammarruca said there have been situations where faculty with a doctorate, even full professors, were unable to join a committee simply because they were not tenured.
“It’s an issue overload, but the answer has to be there,” Sammarruca said.
To move the needle, Sen. Jerry Long of the law college suggested that the senate make a statement.
“If there are colleges that don’t allow non-tenured or non-tenure track faculty to participate on committees, it seems like Faculty Senate can make a recommendation,” Long said. “(Establishing) everybody is of equal value.”
Some senators suggested faculty support their peers more, offering a helping hand.
“Certainly, we can change the culture bit by bit,” Sammarruca said. “But real changes require more than that.”
New climate change degree
In an expanding market, the Department of Earth and Spatial Sciences proposed adding a Bachelor’s of Climate Change and Solutions.
The degree comes with the passage of a bill supported by President Joe Biden’s administration to invest more in addressing climate change. The bill aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030.
From 2020-2030, the Bureau of Labor estimates a 10% increase in employment of environmental science and geoscience technicians.
Here at UI, Department Chair Alistair Smith hopes to set students up for the new opportunities that have opened in the field.
“This is really exciting,” Smith said. “There’s no degree like this in Idaho.”
Careful to avoid overlap with the existing environmental science major, students were asked for their thoughts on the name when drafting up this new degree.
“They overwhelmingly went for climate change and solutions,” Smith said. “That’s why we proposed that name, that’s what our freshmen wanted.”
In other business, the department also moved to make the non-thesis option for the geography master’s available remotely.
Grant restrictions
Sharing his peers’ frustration, Sen. Jean-Marc Gauthier took issue with the university’s limitations on grants. A decision the senate agreed was likely made on an administrative level, UI standardized the purchase of computers with grant money, only allowing faculty to utilize university-approved brands.
Often funded by taxpayer money and given to programs, Gauthier questioned its controlled use. The senate planned to address this issue with administration and IT, with some discussions already taking place.
“If we cannot change the minds of the upper administration on that, then in the end, I don’t think we have a lot of legal recourse to fight,” Sen. Jerry Fairley said. “What we hope to do is to be able to make some reasonable changes.”
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq