We describe the development and implementation of a holistic annual review process for nontenure-line faculty in the management department at a large, research university. We also discuss the department's evolution from solely utilizing Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) to a broader array of review criteria, developed by the department's…

Public universities have assumed business-minded practices and norms that more closely align with goals and values of corporations than social institutions charged with creating and disseminating knowledge. One pervasive cost-savings strategy is the outsourcing of instruction to a contingent workforce. This case study explores the experiences of…

Applying O'Meara, Campbell, and Terosky's (2011) faculty agency framework, this qualitative case study examined full-time, non-tenure-track faculty (FTNTTF) members' perceptions of their agency at an elite public research university. Participants experienced greater agency over time and in the classroom, but felt their agency was constrained by…

Despite decades of research indicating that active learning techniques (ALTs) are more effective than traditional lecture, ALTs are not widely implemented in STEM undergraduate classrooms. While ALT implementation is happening in a number of disciplines, including the geosciences, most STEM teaching remains lecture-based. Understanding the…

Early-career faculty (ECF) are faced with maintaining excellence in teaching and research for tenure. However, many enter academia with little or no teaching experience. Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence, a year-long professional development program, was designed to mitigate these pressures and help faculty become fast, efficient, and…

We provide a simple framework that helps explore the need for contingent (teaching) jobs in academia alongside the usual tenured-professorship positions. It also explains the coexistence of these two types of jobs in research universities as an equilibrium phenomenon. Imprecisions in the academic editorial process, combined with the increasing…

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA), a public research university, has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to improving working conditions for non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) with a 20-year track record of progressive policies to improve the support for them. This commitment is manifested through a series of improvements in policies,…

This study retrospectively examines the emergence and development of a new class of full-time non-tenure track employees in a large land grant research university in the U.S., which created the employment category in 1980. We employ cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to explore how this class of employees became institutionalized within…

This study details the experiences of new faculty in tenure-track positions without prior experience in academia beyond the post-doctoral level. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted using phenomenological methodology with six faculty members meeting the criteria at a mid-sized, public institution in the southeastern United States…

Developments in the academic world--particularly among research universities--have been pushing US institutions of higher education towards structures and practices that defy the very values of equity and quality they profess to uphold. This is evident in the increasing quantification of scholarly productivity as well as in the growing division of…

The dynamics of state funding for public higher education in the United States are changing. Per-student state appropriations to higher education have decreased over the past few decades and have become increasingly volatile from year to year. As public higher education institutions seek ways to educate more students with fewer and less…

Faculty members are critical assets to universities, and large losses to institutions occur if they are not successful. Although institutions value publications and grants in the tenure process, newer professors receive little guidance in writing for these endeavors. Faculty writing retreats help apprentice professors in the craft of writing;…

Non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty are playing an increasingly larger role in the instruction of students in higher education. They provide a flexible workforce with specialized expertise, often prefer to work part-time and frequently teach large introductory courses. Concerns about their treatment and the environment in which they work are often…

Based on interviews with 16 international tenure-track and tenured faculty fathers from collectivist cultures at 2 U.S. research universities, this study explores how these men reconcile the demands of parenting with those of the academic career. Adding to a robust body of literature on the concerns of domestic faculty parents, this study focuses…

The State University System of Florida Board of Governor's Annual Accountability Report provides retrospective year-over-year and longer time periods of tracking for how the System is progressing toward its goals. This Annual Accountability Report provides information regarding the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) from 2015-2016. The Executive…