Concern
There is a clause allowing FTE reduction without notice in career-track continuous contracts.
While I believe that the overall results of the new career track name and categories have been positive, my own career track faculty and I are still concerned about the clause in continuous contracts that reserves the right to reduce FTE at any time to (apparently) any level. The provision for 9-months’ notice may be good job security, but it is not good paycheck security. I have heard the argument more than once that such a sudden FTE reduction is extremely unlikely to happen; but if this is so, then we shouldn’t need the clause. All of us (tenure-track and career-track) faculty are subject to FTE reduction in cases of “financial exigency.” Why not have the same standard and criterion for both tracks?
Brian Saam
Physics & Astronomy
Response
02/14/23 Update: Thank you to Brian Saam for helping us to understand this issue, and to Laura Griner Hill for working to address it. Career track continuous contracts will no longer include the language re reduction in FTE without notice.
Original Response: Removing the ability to reduce FTE for continuous contracts would in essence turn Career Track faculty into Tenure Track faculty – providing greater job security to more people and tying the university’s hands. Like other American employers, the university is not going to want to reduce its degrees of freedom. Financial exigency is not a great tool because it has negative consequences, in particular, the lowering of the university’s bond rating, which would make it harder for the university to borrow money at a time when it might most need to. Universities need tools they can use before financial exigency in order to prevent financial exigency. Finally, there is the risk that if the university provided more job security to people with continuous contracts, administrators would give fewer of those contracts (just as they have with tenure track positions). Continuous contracts are a significant improvement over year-to-year contracts, but that advantage could be lost if administrators retreated to shorter-term contracts.
Faculty Senate is committed to improving the work lives of faculty. While we don’t think we can get traction on the issue raised in this concern, we continue to seek other ways of improving Career Track positions.
Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair
Comments
CT faculty are still subject to termination (with one-year notice on continuous contracts); this is still very far from the lifetime guarantee of tenure. I am only suggesting that our CT faculty shouldn’t have the rug pulled out from under them mid-semester or even mid-academic-year by having their FTE abruptly lowered during the year. With continuous contracts, we now effectively make a one-year rolling commitment to their appointments; we should be able to make a similar commitment to paying them at a given FTE level, or at the very least to putting a floor on any FTE reduction so that benefits aren’t also suddenly lost.
Thank you for this follow-up. Faculty Senate leadership is continuing to have conversations about this issue. More information will follow.