The Faculty Senate passed a policy at its meeting Tuesday night that will define the guidelines, responsibilities, appointment and other details affecting non-tenure-track faculty.

“The purpose [of this policy] is to define non-tenure-track faculty positions,” said David Hopper, chairman of the Faculty Senate Non-Tenure-Track Transition Taskforce.

He also said differences among the types of non-tenure-track faculty, including the length of appointment, ability of faculty contracts to be renewed and review requirements were the main problems of the existing policy.

A motion was brought to the floor and passed that limits the amount of instruction a non-tenure-track faculty member can do. The senate did not limit the amount of time that may be spent on research and professional practice.

Hopper explained that the changes will limit the total amount of instruction done by non-tenure-track faculty in any department to 25 percent. The limit for the entire university was set at 15 percent.

“What we are trying to do is set a limit on the basis of instruction. We feel that will limit the proliferation of non-tenure-track appointments,” he said.

Economic pressure is put on department executive officers to hire more non-tenure-track faculty because, given the current budget situation, they can hire more non-tenure-track than tenure-track faculty.

“This criterion says you can do that up to 25 percent unless an appeal is brought from the department to the faculty senate for approval,” Hopper said.

The senate passed the proposal.

Max Wortman, president of the Faculty Senate, introduced the Taskforce on University Reorganization. The task force will look at reorganizations going on in the university and come up with a standard procedure to use in the future.

“It’s extremely important that faculty have a say in these reorganizations [because] these changes are extremely important to faculty,” he said.

Jack Girton, chairman of the task force and president-elect of the senate, said people don’t know what goes on during a reorganization so having a standard procedure will be useful.

Girton also announced the spring faculty retreat. The retreat will focus on the question of scholarship in regards to faculty tenure and promotion. The retreat will be April 18-19.

“How do we evaluate and assess [scholarship] in our faculty promotion and tenure process from a land-grant perspective?” he said.

The next Faculty Senate meeting will be held March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the North Room of the Gateway Center.