2008 Woodie Awards
Task force to meet on adjunct faculty concerns
The group was formed shortly after unrest last semester over augmented pay scales
By: James Chilton
Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: News
A task force to address adjunct faculty affairs, first announced by Executive Vice President Neil George in February 2006, is scheduling this semester's first session for early October, committee chairwoman Dorothy Marshall Englis said.
The group formed as the result of faculty concerns about pay scale ppolicy.
Originally scheduled to report to George by March 1, the task force met May 9 to determine the kind of data they needed to analyze. Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs James Staley said Institutional Analysis spent the summer collecting demographic data on Webster adjuncts, including their locations, class loads, experience and academic backgrounds.
Englis said the data will be compiled by the end of this month, and the task force will then be able to meet to begin analyzing it. The sheer mass of data she expects to receive, however, may require considerable effort to fully understand.
"We'll probably have a meeting where it's just questions about the data," she said. "We won't know what we'll recommend until we see the snapshot."
The task force's goal, according to Staley, is to "improve the resources and the development of our adjunct faculty," which he said could carry wide-ranging implications, based on what it chooses to focus on. He posted examples including recognition of different teaching roles, assigning classifications to different types of adjuncts, potentially determining guidelines for compensation that go beyond years of service, or simplifying some of the more complicated issues related to adjuncts.
Staley also said the adjunct faculty task force has representation from all schools and colleges at the university. Its 10 to 12 members include department chairs and deans, regular faculty and representatives from the Institutional Analysis, Administration and Finance departments.
Though the task force does not have any adjunct faculty on it, Staley said it will poll adjuncts as the data it studies begins raising issues of concern, maintaining a dialogue between the two. Staley said the task force hopes to eventually take an adjunct on, so long as they find someone with a broad view of the myriad roles adjuncts play at Webster campuses worldwide.
The group formed as the result of faculty concerns about pay scale ppolicy.
Originally scheduled to report to George by March 1, the task force met May 9 to determine the kind of data they needed to analyze. Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs James Staley said Institutional Analysis spent the summer collecting demographic data on Webster adjuncts, including their locations, class loads, experience and academic backgrounds.
Englis said the data will be compiled by the end of this month, and the task force will then be able to meet to begin analyzing it. The sheer mass of data she expects to receive, however, may require considerable effort to fully understand.
"We'll probably have a meeting where it's just questions about the data," she said. "We won't know what we'll recommend until we see the snapshot."
The task force's goal, according to Staley, is to "improve the resources and the development of our adjunct faculty," which he said could carry wide-ranging implications, based on what it chooses to focus on. He posted examples including recognition of different teaching roles, assigning classifications to different types of adjuncts, potentially determining guidelines for compensation that go beyond years of service, or simplifying some of the more complicated issues related to adjuncts.
Staley also said the adjunct faculty task force has representation from all schools and colleges at the university. Its 10 to 12 members include department chairs and deans, regular faculty and representatives from the Institutional Analysis, Administration and Finance departments.
Though the task force does not have any adjunct faculty on it, Staley said it will poll adjuncts as the data it studies begins raising issues of concern, maintaining a dialogue between the two. Staley said the task force hopes to eventually take an adjunct on, so long as they find someone with a broad view of the myriad roles adjuncts play at Webster campuses worldwide.
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