Memo
Committee on Non Tenure Track Faculty Affairs
Co-Chairs: Ginger Clark & Jerry Swirling
To:
From:
CC:
Date:
Re:
Executive Committee of the Academic Senate—Peter Conti, Chair
Committee on Non Tenure Track Faculty Affairs
CNTTFA
January 5, 2011
Suggestions for NTT Faculty Policies Memo
The Executive Committee of the Academic Senate has asked the Committee on Non Tenure
Track Faculty Affairs (CNTTFA) to submit information about what should be included in a
memo to the Deans of USC regarding their policies for Non Tenure Track (NTT) faculty. The
CNTTFA has conducted research on the Faculty Handbooks of 10 peer institutions regarding
their policies around Titles, Definitions, Profiles, Workloads, Contracts, and Sabbaticals. The
institutions surveyed included: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UC Berkeley,
UCLA, UPenn, UWashington, and Yale. The results of this research, along with feedback from
the committee about what should be included in the Deans’ memo, will be outlined below.
The results of the research on the Faculty Handbooks of our peer institutions showed that, like
USC, other institutions have numerous titles for their NTT faculty according to the services they
provide for the university. However, in almost all of those institutions, each title, along with a
definition for that title, is listed in the faculty Handbook. The majority of schools also provided
narrative of an example profile for each title in the Handbook (no percentages were used). In no
case was workload (e.g., number of courses taught per year) listed in the Handbook for any title.
All but one institution had multiple year contracts for NTT faculty, particularly those in senior
ranks or esteemed positions. Contract terms ranged from 1 to 6 years. Tenure of Title was also
offered at Columbia. Sabbaticals (scholarly or paid professional leaves) were provided for NTT
faculty at Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UPenn, Yale, and Cornell (Cornell leaves
were paid through the academic unit).
The following recommendations resulted from a discussion of the results from this survey by the
CNTTFA. Some recommendations emerged from broader discussions about exemplar NTT
policies found in some schools within USC, and from concerns members had about the lack of
policies or access to policies in their own schools.
It is the recommendation of this committee that the university in general, and the deans in
particular, consider making the following adjustments:
Have clear, written, public, and accessible information regarding:

Each school’s hiring procedures, as well as accurate and detailed job titles, descriptions,
and opportunities for growth available for review by potential candidates.

Job title, profile, and workload, including a description of duties and responsibilities. As
a result of the research noted above, we also suggest including this information in the
University’s Faculty Handbook, as this would be in keeping with the practices of our
peer institutions.

Merit pay, including:
o What constitutes the five levels of meritorious work (i.e., How are rankings
determined? What rubric is used? What criteria are used? What weight is
assigned to various activities?).
o What the merit pool is for each year, and what percentage ranges are assigned to
the five categories of ranking.
o Guidelines for annual performance review document formatting, organization,
and content.

Promotion, including:
o Promotion or advancement opportunities within the school.
o The policy around time to promotion.
o How promotions are awarded (i.e., What process is used? Who is involved?).
o What constitutes promotable work (i.e., What rubric is used in evaluating a
dossier? What criteria are used? What weight is assigned to various activities?).
o What duties, responsibilities, and benefits accompany a promotion (e.g.,
mentoring responsibilities, administrative responsibilities, change in title, X%
salary increase, multi-year contract, ability to serve on esteemed committees,
ability to take paid professional leave, ability take leadership roles, etc.).
o Exemplar dossiers and electronic forms for use as guidelines for content,
organization, and formatting for submission of promotion dossiers.

Professional development opportunities, policies, and procedures in the school (e.g.,
professional leave (paid and unpaid), fellowships, training or leadership opportunities,
research or grant opportunities, travel or professional development funds, etc.).

School organization and available support (e.g., organizational chart with support staff
and reporting lines; website listing resources, procedures, forms, timelines, policy, etc.).
Policy recommendations:

Incentives should exist to promote recruitment, retention, and development of “Brilliant”
and “Transformational” NTT faculty in keeping with President Nikias’ first of five
priorities in his inaugural speech, the least of which being opportunities for promotion to
higher ranks (e.g., Assistant, Associate, Full), benefits associated with promotion (e.g.,
X% salary increase, new title, multi-year contract), and ideally professional development
leave and funding, and leadership opportunities.

Opportunities should exist within every school, and at every level, for NTT faculty to
participate in governance and the development of policy (e.g., Each school should
include NTT faculty as voting members on faculty council; general faculty meetings;
Salary, Promotion, and Tenure Committees, and should be seriously considered for
leadership positions such as committee chairs, associate deans, etc.).

Title should be commensurate with level of experience and expertise, and profile should
be in keeping with Faculty Handbook guidelines (e.g., Adjunct title should not be used for
full-time faculty).

Workload should not exceed reasonable limits of time and effort needed for high quality
productivity. Regular audits of workload should be conducted to ensure equitable and
reasonable expectations. Release from regular duties should be given to accommodate
additional assigned responsibilities (e.g., course release for additional administrative
duties; administrative relief for additional course or research load).

New faculty should receive regular and ongoing orientation to their position, department,
school, and the university during their first year. Consideration should be given to the
time it takes to orient, socialize, and prepare for one’s workload. Some initial course
release for course preparation and other orientation tasks should be provided.

Formal Mentoring and Professional Development should be instituted for all junior NTT
faculty, where 1 to 2 senior faculty, trained by the university in successful approaches to
mentoring, would be assigned to each junior faculty member. Professional Development
committees would also periodically review the junior faculty member’s work, and make
recommendations for strengthening their annual performance review, and promotion
dossiers.
We appreciate the Executive Committee’s suggestion to review the NTT policies of our peer
institutions. The results of that research, along with the discussions regarding best practices and
areas for improvement within the committee itself, led to the compilation of a number of very
effective strategies to better the working environment and experience of NTT faculty at USC.
We look forward to your feedback regarding this memo and remain eager to assist you in making
positive changes within the university.