Inside Iowa State

Nov. 16, 2007

Faculty Senate continues research faculty debate

by Erin Rosacker

Most of the Faculty Senate's Nov. 13 meeting was spent on continued discussion of a resolution to establish a non-tenure eligible research faculty position. The resolution has been on the docket since April. A vote is expected at the senate's Dec. 11 meeting.

The resolution would create research positions at the assistant, associate and full professor levels. The executive board added a pair of clarifications to the resolution in November:

• Governance of the positions' rights and responsibilities remains at the department level.
• All funding must be external, including start-up money.

The topic received the lion's share of attention in last month's meeting. This month's meeting also included an all-senate debate, and added a panel discussion. Panelists represented different perspectives -- some in favor, some not -- in five-minute presentations.

Letter of support

Prior to the discussion, a letter was read to the senate body. The letter, submitted on Ames Laboratory letterhead and signed by five faculty researchers (Alan Goldman, Bruce Harmon, George Kraus, Bruce Thompson and Vikram Dalal), was sent to senators in support of the resolution.

Citing the research faculty designation as a valuable recruitment and retention tool, the letter emphasized that the position would "provide a means of ensuring that the best researchers on the staff of centers and institutes at the university are fully integrated into the academic mission of Iowa State."

The letter also stressed the importance of allowing professional and scientific employees at the P17 level and higher to hold dual P&S and research faculty appointments, language that currently exists in the resolution.

"We need to provide the most welcoming and enabling environment possible for these valued researchers," it read. "The NTER proposal is an important step in a positive direction. Ensuring that qualified P&S researchers are eligible for these positions is equally important."

Opposition

During panel discussion, former senate president Jack Girton presented the strongest argument against the resolution, pointing to the possibilities of a continued decline of tenured faculty and the replacement of tenure-track positions with NTER faculty.

"My personal feeling is that Iowa State is an institution and our business is setting academic standards and holding to them," Girton said. "And for a person to be a professor -- it should be the highest possible level of standard."

On the flip side, NTER task force member Hans van Leeuwen endorsed the resolution.

"It's not what some people see as a battle between good and evil," van Leeuwen said. "We have to recognize that there is a need for greater specialization in university work. Now there is a need to have research faculty, people that specialize in research only."

Up next month

In other business, the governance council introduced three items for a vote at next month's meeting:

• A policy to allow the governance and documents committee to make non-substantive changes (such as typos and updated links) to the senate policies in the faculty handbook without going through formal senate channels
• A new standing committee to oversee the continual review of all college and departmental governance documents, ensuring consistency with the faculty handbook
• A simplified version of the senate's open meetings policy, which removes outdated language and procedures.

"We need to provide the most welcoming and enabling environment possible for these valued researchers. The NTER proposal is an important step in a positive direction. Ensuring that qualified P&S researchers are eligible for these positions is equally important."

from a letter of support signed by five ISU faculty researchers