8.10.23 Professor of Teaching Negotiations
Dear [Colleague],
Your bargaining teams have been busy beavers this summer! Now that we have come to agreements on how Paid Leave Oregon will be implemented at OSU and dropping the letter requirement for Instructor, FRA, and Research Associate promotions for the upcoming year, we turned our attention to the new Professor of Teaching category, which Faculty Senate has been working on for some time. We are excited to sit down with the administration to hammer out how it will work in practice.
We met with the administration team four times in July and August to exchange proposals for establishing and rolling out the new employment category. The new Professor of Teaching category will be distinct from the Instructor category in that it will include some percentage of assigned scholarly activity, with a majority of the FTE in instruction. The new category is expected to share similar promotional pathways with other fixed-term professorial positions. The establishment of Professor of Teaching positions will depend on unit need. Administration has agreed with us that this new fixed term category will not be used as a means to reduce the use of tenured/tenure-track positions at OSU.
In our dialogues with administration, the move to incorporate the new position is being conceptualized in two phases. We are scrutinizing these possible scenarios to ensure maximum consideration and protections for our bargaining unit members. In the first phase, units will have the opportunity to transition fixed-term faculty who have already been assigned both teaching and scholarly work into the Professor of Teaching category. Since scholarly work assignments are generally not part of instructors’ position descriptions and teaching assignments aren’t always reflected in researchers’ position descriptions, we asserted that it may take some effort to identify faculty whose assigned work fits the new category. We are working to negotiate enough time for the needed conversations between units and our members who think their work fits the Professor of Teaching category.
In the second phase, units may identify a need for a Professor of Teaching position and go through an internal or national open search. We have proposed that our bargaining unit members who meet minimum qualifications be given meaningful consideration for these positions. Whether faculty are part of the initial transition to a Professor of Teaching position or hired into one later, we are working to ensure that hiring units acknowledge the contribution they have already made to OSU and offer some credit for service towards promotion. Additionally, we want to protect existing salaries and appointment lengths for anyone transiting into the new category. You can find our latest proposal here.
The Professor of Teaching category has been in the works for a while, and we are determined to make sure it is implemented fairly. We will continue our negotiations on Monday, August 14, 2023 at noon. If you would like to observe that session, just mail info@uaosu.org for the zoom link.
We have a lot to celebrate this year! Please save Saturday October 8th for our Annual Picnic. More information to follow.
We want to remind everyone that next year we will be back at the bargaining table to negotiate our second contract. Our organizing committee is eager to connect with folks about this early in the school year. Keep an eye out for more info soon.
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 (Organizing and Membership Chair), Filix Maisch (UAOSU Treasurer), Megan Dickison and Dan Andersen (UAOSU Executive Directors)