Members of the Faculty Senate will continue to discuss a policy to determine the future of non-tenure track faculty.

Faculty Senate member Barbara Mack, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, said the policy will affect three types of non-tenure track faculty.

This includes temporary instructors, professional and scientific employees and long term adjuncts.

Faculty Senate members will meet tonight at 7:30 in rooms 220-230 of the Scheman building.

“The policy’s main focus is on temporary instructors,” she said.

Many employees and adjuncts are satisfied in their positions, she said, because they chose to focus on one particular area of teaching in which they have acquired a substantial amount of skills and knowledge.

Mack said non-tenure track faculty do not have the same privileges and rights of tenure-line track faculty. She also said the policy focuses on providing positive changes for non-tenure faculty.

“I like the idea of providing protection for non-tenure faculty,” she said. “Too often they have been treated like migrant workers of a higher education.”

So far, Mack said the issue has generated controversy from the university.

“Some departments are heavily dependent on temporary faculty,” she said. “They are reluctant to change a structure that is working for them.”

Iowa State needs to decide how to include non-tenure track faculty as part of the university, Mack said, without having them dominate any specific department.

“Temporary faculty are part of the reality for our fiscal world,” she said.

Max Wortman, Faculty Senate president-elect said he will discuss the principles of a communication program which will benefit ISU students.

Wortman, distinguished professor of management, said the program would train faculty to institute more speaking and writing in classes to better prepare students.

The program would improve students’ education and will better their future and job opportunities, he said.

“What all types of organizations want from an educated student is that they can speak and write well,” he said.