A motion to extend faculty senate voting rights to faculty who are not on track to receive tenure was referred back to committee at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting.
The motion, put forth by the Faculty Advisory Committee, would have given voting rights within the USC Faculty Senate to any full-time faculty within a college, school or department, including those not on track to receive tenure. faculty senate chairman Augie Grant referred to the motion as “probably the biggest change in faculty governance made since creation of the Faculty Senate."
As an example of faculty who would have benefited from the motion, Grant said, "full-time faculty whose primary job is teaching, they might be teaching three or four courses, but because they're not on tenure track, they have no voice in curriculum or in other issues." He also noted that non-tenure track faculty would not have the ability to vote on matters of tenure and promotion according to Wednesday's motion.
According to Grant, the motion will now return to the Faculty Advisory Committee for further editing at their next meeting on Mar. 20.
Shortly after it was introduced, Professor Erik Doxtader of the English department countered with a motion to return the motion at hand back to committee. Doxtader said one of his greatest concerns with the motion was that it was vaguely worded and "inconsistent" with existing departmental standards regarding tenure and promotion.
“I believe this is a very important piece of legislation for the university and for the university community,” Doxtader said. “I simply have concerns that we do the best possible job in creating the clearest piece of legislation that we can have.”
Doxtader’s motion was followed by a number faculty senators who expressed similar sentiments. When Grant called for a vote on Doxtader’s motion, the Faculty Senate was unanimous in sending the non-tenure track voting motion back to the Faculty Advisory Committee.
Doxtader, one of six faculty senators representing the English department, said he is not necessarily opposed to notion of extending the voting rights to non-tenure track faculty.
“I want to have a piece of legislation where we can take that question up fully,” Doxtader said.
The faculty senate is scheduled to meet again on April 5 at 3 p.m.