After a vote occurred on Friday that dismissed a proposal for pathways to promotion for Non-Tenure Track (NTT) Faculty, professors who favored the initiative shared their disappointment and the significance of the poll and its impact on the future of academia at Fairfield.
“I am disappointed in the dozens and dozens of committee meetings and dozens and dozens of people who have worked on this over this time to see the work fail,” Professor of Mathematics Nicholas Kapoor states. “There are many times at Fairfield that, as an NTT faculty member, I feel like a second-class citizen. The failure of Motion #2 solidified this feeling.”
This proposal, written by the Academic Council and the Committee on NTT Faculty, originally appeared in 2020, gaining traction in 2022 and was an effort to change the “Fairfield University Faculty Handbook.” This handbook describes Fairfield University’s organization, policies and faculty rights and responsibilities. This proposal was eventually supported by Deans across campus but not by all tenured faculty members.
“This was the most major change to the handbook proposed in the fourteen years I’ve been at Fairfield,” Dr. Sonya Huber, Professor of English, states.
Professor of Communication and department chair Sean Horan explains that the skillsets of NTT Faculty and tenured professors offer a variety of perspectives that are each needed in the classroom. “Together our students benefit like a puzzle,” Horan states. NTT Faculty “are my equal peers and just like I have a path to promotion, they deserve a path to promotion. It seems in many ways to go against our mission to not give them a path to promotion.”
The Mirror reached out to faculty members who voiced their opposition to the proposal during the meeting in time for publication.
If achieved, the plan “would specify a pathway for full-time NTT faculty promotion by specifying different criteria for appointment to rank (instructor, assistant, associate, and professor) for tenure track and non-tenure track faculty,” explains Dr. Steven Bayne, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Secretary of the General Faculty.
Professor Kapoor further explains, “If passed, this vote would have delineated clear, explicit, and precise guidelines for non-tenure-track faculty to go up for promotion in rank.”
In December 2024, the proposal was unanimously passed by the Academic Council, propelling the Handbook amendment to the General Faculty for approval. However, for the amendment to pass, a two-thirds majority is needed.
Last week’s General Faculty meeting was a continuation of one that took place on Feb. 28, in which Motion 1, a proposal to establish a teaching professor lane, passed only by eight votes, 160 in favor and 68 against.
This Motion “allows professors of the practice to remain in their titles of professors of the practice or become teaching professors. This designation will be decided by Deans and the Provost in the coming months,” Professor Kapoor explains.
“The General Faculty meeting was the first time that faculty, as a group, have had the opportunity to share their views and make suggestions in a neutral and open forum,” Dr. Huber said. “Any major proposal like this also has to fit with other policies already in place.”
She adds that there is still a future for the motion: “The good news is that we have so many templates that have been developed, and I am optimistic that the best parts of these can be combined that will address all the issues.”
“I thought we might have had a shot. We certainly got close with 57% of the room voting for it, but, of course, this isn’t the 2/3 majority required. It feels like we won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College,” Professor Kapoor states.
Proposals like these are not only being discussed at Fairfield University but also in other universities across New England. On March 28, NTT faculty at Wellesley College in Massachusetts initiated a strike because of compensation concerns.
According to WGBH, The Wellesley Organized Academic Workers union says “compensation, workload, and other benefits remain key sticking points” in their proposal for promotion. Students at Wellesley are now facing the repercussions, having to change their class schedules and work loads to adapt to their striking professors.
While other campuses across New England are being affected, faculty at the university consider what the future may look like on Fairfield’s campus.
“Moving forward, this means that if [the] Academic Council wants to make a change to the Handbook regarding a pathway for full-time NTT promotion, it needs to come up with a new proposal that can get the required 2/3 support from the General Faculty,” Dr. Bayne states.