Dear Colleagues,
Your bargaining team met with the administration’s team on Thursday, August 17 and signed a Letter of Agreement (LOA) on the creation of a new Professor of Teaching category.
Background
The Faculty Senate voted to recommend creation of this new fixed-term professorial category, which includes a majority of duties in instruction but also includes an expectation of scholarship, in June 2021. In June 2023 the administration approached your union to negotiate its parameters, and our team met with their team several times to hammer out the details.
How It Will Work
The new Professor of Teaching category will follow the minimum salary and promotion timelines and procedures of existing fixed-term professorial positions (Professor, Clinical; Professor, Senior Research; and Professor, Practice) until the administration and your union agree to new guidelines, which will likely occur during our upcoming contract negotiations.
The creation of any Professor of Teaching positions will depend on unit need and will be determined by unit leadership. There are three routes for establishing a Professor of Teaching position:
- Unit leadership can transition current fixed-term faculty who have already been assigned both teaching and scholarly work into the Professor of Teaching category.
- Between October 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024, fixed-term faculty whose current assigned duties fit the Professor of Teaching category may petition their supervisor, Human Resources, and the Office of Faculty Affairs to be reviewed for a transition to the Professor of Teaching category. Such transitions will only be made if a faculty member meets the minimum qualifications for the position and if unit leadership determines that the unit has a need for the new position.
- Units may create a Professor of Teaching position to fill through an internal or national search.
Important Provisions of the Agreement
Our priority in these negotiations was ensuring that this new category is implemented as fairly as possible. Our LOA includes the following provisions:
- A bargaining unit member who moves from an existing position into a Professor of Teaching position will receive at least one year of credit towards promotion or work assigned and performed in instructional and scholarship efforts commensurate with the new appointment.
- A bargaining unit member who moves from an existing fixed term position into a Professor of Teaching position may not be paid at a lower salary rate or receive a shorter contract length than they are eligible for in their prior position.
- When academic units fill a Professor of Teaching position through a competitive search, they must give meaningful consideration to candidates who hold active fixed-term positions and meet the minimum qualifications. Units must also consider a candidates’ contributions to OSU and their potential to produce valued research/scholarship/creative activity, even if they have not been assigned that work in their current OSU position.
During our discussions at the table, we expressed our concern that the creation of another fixed-term position could be used to reduce the use of tenure-track positions. The teams agreed that the Professor of Teaching category should not be used as a means to reduce tenured/tenure-track positions at OSU and our LOA includes a statement affirming this position.
We will be following the implementation of this new category carefully and are here to answer questions you may have as it rolls out over the next several months.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining team: Marisa Chappell (UAOSU Executive Vice President and Lead Negotiator), Louisa Hooven (UAOSU Grievance Chair), Joseph Orosco (UAOSU President), Steve Shay (UAOSU Organizing and Membership Chair), Filix Maisch (UAOSU Treasurer), Megan Dickison and Dan Andersen (UAOSU Executive Directors)