The Faculty Senate held a working session yesterday where members focused on faculty titles, the Commission on the Future of the University and the role of faculty in the process of creating new schools and initiatives within the University.
During the fall semester, Provost Gene Block approached the Academic Affairs Committee and asked that they review the issue of non-tenured faculty members holding professional titles, according to Faculty Senate Chair Kenneth Schwartz.
"What is confusing is that when you give people the same title it becomes unclear as to what defines a professor," Schwartz said.
According to Medical School Prof. Marcia Childress, the American Association of Universities, which represents the University's faculty, is concerned about the rising percentage of faculty members who are not on a tenure track and how that increase will lead to the erosion of the protection provided by tenure.
A report given by the committee includes a plan to place all newly hired faculty members under a title system that avoids the use of the terms "professor," "associate professor" and "assistant professor" for non-tenured faculty members.
Childress also discussed the current state of the Commission on the Future of the University.
The commission, chaired by Medical School Dean Tim Garson and Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge, has recently enlisted members from the University community including students, faculty members, staff, administrators and alumni, she said.
The commission will consist of four committees: the Committee on Schools and the Medical Center, the Committee on Programmatic Initiatives, the Committee on Student and Faculty Life and the Committee on Funding and Other Resources.
Smaller groups discussed the role of the Faculty Senate in creating new schools and initiatives at the University, with several members expressing concern over ideas going forward within the University without the senate's knowledge.
"We imagine three kinds of roles of the Faculty Senate in new initiatives which include helping to develop proposals, participating in the customary review process and studying the ultimate affect of new initiatives on the University as a whole," said Darden Assistant Prof. Lili Powell.
According to Schwartz, the senate will take these ideas and reach out to the University in two different ways.
"There are two main ways that we will reach out with these ideas," Schwartz said. "One is sharing the information with the faculty as a whole and the other is directing this same information to the Commission on the Future of the University to give them a snapshot of what the faculty is discussing," Schwartz said.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will be held May 2.
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