‘We Are the Most At-Risk People on Campus.’ Non-Tenured Instructors Can Now Serve in U. of Mississippi’s Faculty Senate.

Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson moved from Washington, D.C., to become a writing instructor at the University of Mississippi. Where she came from, the lack of federal representation in elections was frustrating, she said.

“We could vote for presidents, but had no senators, no congressperson,” she said. “It’s still an uphill battle.”

When she arrived in Oxford, in 2016, to teach at the University of Mississippi, she started fighting a different battle for representation — this one on campus. At the time, her status as a non-tenure-track faculty member made her ineligible to serve in Ole Miss’s faculty senate.

This time the battle wasn’t so uphill, and Wilson won. After a two-year effort, non-tenure-track faculty members will be represented in the University of Mississippi senate this academic year.

At many colleges, non-tenure-track professors can advocate as senators for issues that affect them. But not at the University of Mississippi, until now.

Wilson’s crusade went beyond simple voting power. It was about giving every member of the faculty the ability to have a voice in important decisions.

At Ole Miss, the issue of non-tenure-track instructors in the faculty senate had come up at least twice since 2009, said Brice Noonan, the faculty-senate chair. But it needed an advocate willing to rally support and file a proposal.

Wilson, a writing instructor, took on that role. “We are the most at-risk people on campus. We have fewer job protections than the tenure-line faculty. So bringing up contentious issues can be scary,” Wilson said. “We also have instructional positions. We would come in, do our work, and leave. So I’m not sure that we were seen as potential assets in other ways.”

Wilson wanted better working conditions for other writing instructors without tenure. She started her campaign in the spring.

At the time there were other barriers to non-tenure-track faculty members’ influencing university policy. University standing committees at Ole Miss may make recommendations on anti-discrimination policy, student affairs, and building renovations and improvements. But without a seat in the faculty senate, non-tenure-track faculty members were rarely given the chance to serve on university standing committees, according to a policy on Ole Miss’s website.

Undergraduate and graduate students served on some of the committees as representatives of their respective governing bodies. Wilson didn’t understand why they had official representation, but non-tenured faculty members didn’t.

Non-tenure-track faculty members were sometimes called on to make recommendations to administrators, said Noel Wilkin, provost of Ole Miss. A faculty committee reviewing all promotions invited non-tenured instructors to participate just last year, he said. In those meetings, the non-tenured helped decide which faculty members without tenure would be promoted, he said.

“The committee recognized that they were seeing large numbers of promotions for non-tenure-track faculty,” Wilkin said. “So it felt that there should be non-tenure-track faculty to make recommendations for people in those ranks.”

Carrie Smith, another advocate who became a tenure-track faculty member this fall, said it didn’t make sense to her that administrators could decide when to call them for advice.

“We kind of got to serve, or got asked to help, at their discretion,” Smith said, “as opposed to the expectation that our voice should be heard.”

Throughout 2016-17, Wilson worked with her committee, the Task Force for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and Shared Governance. It asked for two changes in the bylaws: Have the number of faculty senators from each department or unit be based on the maximum teaching capacity of its faculty members, regardless of their tenure status. And allow any full-time or part-time members to serve in the senate.

Angela Green, a writing instructor, noted that having only tenured professors advocate on their behalf was antiquated. That strategy “was used by men against the suffragettes, saying, ‘Your husbands will represent your concerns,’” Green said. “It’s a similar sort of paternalistic argument, ‘We know what’s best for you.’”

In May 2018, senators unanimously passed the proposal to allow non-tenure-track faculty members to serve as representatives. (The proposal to allow part-time faculty members to become senators was rejected.) In August the entire faculty voted on the proposal, and it passed, 323 to 66, and went into effect immediately.

Separate Councils

Other universities have grappled with how to facilitate non-tenure-track faculty members’ involvement as their numbers have increased on campuses.

New York University has a separate “council” for non-tenured faculty members to serve in the faculty senate. In 2013 non-tenure-track instructors proposed that they be incorporated, and the senate passed it a year later.

Mary Killilea, the senate chair at NYU, said non-tenure-track professors served on a separate governing body so that the group could have separate discussions on issues affecting them. Their inclusion in the senate has led non-tenure track faculty members to become more influential in university policy, she said. This year the group passed a resolution calling for non-tenure-track professors to be eligible to earn emeritus status. The resolution is awaiting a vote by the Board of Trustees.

At Portland State University, non-tenure-track instructors are not prevented from serving in the faculty senate. But it is an opportunity few without tenure pursue, said Robert Liebman, who has served as a presiding officer of the body.

Similarly, American University saw limited senate involvement from non-tenure-track faculty members, despite having no restrictions to prevent them. To amend the problem, advocates for non-tenure-track instructors got the senate to pass a rule that “at least one seat” would be dedicated to a non-tenure-track faculty member, to ensure at least some representation. Lacey Wootton, who was the first to serve in that position, said the change had resulted in more non-tenure-track professors in leadership roles.

In Oxford, Wilson said her hard work had made a difference.

“Tenured and non-tenured faculty have slightly different interests, concerns, and cares,” she said. “It is important to get all kinds of faculty members in a room to make decisions that affect curriculum, or any other kind of decision.”

Clarification (9/19/2018, 12:57 p.m.): This article has been updated to clarify the nature of changes to the University of Mississippi’s bylaws proposed by Sarah Wilson’s task force.