The Faculty Senate hopes to change the amount of time in advance a lecturer or clinician receives notice of their contracts not being renewed.

The senate governance council proposed modifying sections of the faculty handbook that involve non-renewal notices for lecturers and clinicians at the Faculty Senate meeting on Tuesday.

The current policy says that lecturers who have been employed at the university for more than three years must have 12 months notice of their contract not being renewed.

Martha Selby, chair of the senate governance council, said the problem is that many lecturers sign contracts for as little as two semesters. Most of these faculty teach courses that are highly dependent on student enrollment, a factor that can’t be predicted a year in advance.

In short, the university is required to tell lecturers that a contract they haven’t even signed is going to be terminated in one year. To deal with this, many departments send out non-renewal notifications to all lecturers, even those they will likely keep.

“Lots of them have nine-month contracts,” Selby said. “A lot of [lecturers] get a notice every May that a year from now they’re not going to get another contract for the contract they haven’t even received yet. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but it happens. It’s happened for some people over and over again.”

Rob Wallace, president-elect of the senate, said the system isn’t logical. 

“It’s a non-sequitur that you have to tell someone that they’re not going to be renewed and then three months later hire them for the first contract before you can even get to a second contract,” Wallace said.

Selby hopes to change the 12-month notice to six months instead. She said six months will make things easier for everyone.

“The hope is that can we really give real notices and not just give notices that give us the most flexibility,” Selby said. “[The lecturers] are actually in that current contract then, so it makes a little more sense.”

The senate will continue debating the proposed rule change at the next senate meeting on April 21.