Encouraging Accountability in Instructional Staff Selection: Experience of One University’s Journey to Creating a Simplified Staffing Model

Carol A Carrier, Nancy Wilhelmson
Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education  •  Volume 2  •  2017  •  pp. 013-022
Aim/Purpose: Appointment systems in today’s universities must now accommodate not only traditional tenured/tenure track faculty (TTTF) but a broad array of other professionals who collectively, are often labeled “contingent faculty” and who share the university’s teaching responsibilities for both undergraduate and graduate courses.

Background: Regardless of appointment type, providing institutional clarity on available appointment choices and their preferred use was meant to promote consistently across units and reduce confusion and misunderstanding.

Methodology : This paper used a case study approach.

Contribution: This paper detailed the process used to arrive at a system for classifying teaching personnel in a complex, multi campus system. It demonstrated how faculty and administration closely partnered to bring about this new system.

Findings: A new classification system was implemented that brought more clarity to important roles that were formerly less well defined.

Recommendations for Practitioners : Establish strong rationale for beginning this work on classification and then create a partnership between the administration and the faculty to work out the details of the new approach.

Recommendation for Researchers: Once a system is created, follow up on the implementation of that new system from the perspective of the faculty incumbents in the system but also those who administer the system.

Impact on Society: Higher education systems prepare our future scientists, educators, writers, medical personnel, along with many other professionals. Creating systems that adequately attract, retain and reward the individuals who teach in these systems, regardless of their titles, will be essential to sustaining that future workforce.

Future Research: Examine the trends in staffing structures across major universities to discern similarities and differences.



tenured faculty, tenure track faculty, contingent faculty, instructional staff appointment systems
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