Faculty Senate will continue discussion of non-tenure faculty

Laura Kennedy

Faculty Senate members will be continuing their discussion on the future of non-tenure track faculty at Iowa State during their meeting tonight. The meeting will begin at 7:30 in 260-262 of the Scheman Building.Margaret Torrie, member of the task force on non-tenure track appointments, said she and other members of the group met recently to discuss the proposal they created.”The proposal has been forwarded to the executive board, and they have decided to present the proposal for discussion at the Faculty Senate meeting,” said Torrie, associate professor of human development and family studies.She said the task force has had a unanimous vote of approval on the proposal.”There has been slight changes since the proposal was last presented to the Faculty Senate, but basically the important factors stay the same,” Torrie said.There have also been two open forums on campus, which have “helped receive healthy dialog [on non-tenure track faculty],” she said.Torrie said she doesn’t know what type of reactions the Faculty Senate members will give about the proposal.Max Wortman, task force member and chairman of the Academic Affairs Council, said non-tenure track faculty would be discussed “at length” during the meeting.Wortman, distinguished professor of management, said the task force has taken into consideration the opinions and comments of the faculty senators. While slight changes have been made, he said most of the major issues stay the same.One controversy may concern the percent of temporary faculty in the university, he said.”The proposal states that non-tenure track appointments shall be limited to 15 percent in any given department and 5 percent of any colleges,” Wortman said.He said he is not sure how the vote will turn out at the meeting.”I have learned to never guess the outcome,” Wortman said.