After nominations close on Friday, a vote to elect members of the newly constituted Workplace Environment Committee for adjunct faculty will begin next week, and the committee will be up and running by mid-October.The WEC's charge is to hear, report, and suggest resolutions for workplace issues affecting the lives of adjunct faculty members across the university. The committee will forward issues of academic policy and governance to Faculty Council and its Committee on Contingent Faculty. The WEC is one of the recommendations submitted by the Adjunct Faculty Task Force in June.
"We believe that the WEC will strengthen the voice of adjunct faculty members and help fulfill our commitment to providing an exceptional teaching environment in which adjunct faculty members feel valued and respected," says Provost Marten denBoer.
Last week, the dean of every college or school invited his or her eligible adjunct faculty members to submit WEC self-nominations by the end of this week. Any adjunct faculty member who taught at least six courses over the three-year period immediately preceding the academic year of the vote (three courses in the last three years in the College of Law) and, as of the first day of Autumn Quarter, is teaching or is scheduled to teach in the academic year of the vote was eligible to become a candidate. Eligible adjunct faculty can submit a self-nomination using the online form by 5 p.m. on Friday.
Online elections will begin on Sept. 28 and end on Oct. 7, with results announced no later than one week after the end of the voting period. Adjunct faculty members will have the opportunity to review candidates' self-nomination forms online before voting.
The number of representatives from each college or school in a particular academic year will be determined by the number of adjunct faculty in that college or school. During the 2016-2017 academic year, 14 adjunct faculty members will serve on the WEC. Each college or school will have one representative each, except for the Driehaus College of Business and the College of Science and Health, which will have two representatives each, and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, which will have three representatives.
Representatives are elected to a two-year term and are eligible to serve the length of the entire term provided they teach or are scheduled to teach (as of the first day of Autumn Quarter) at least one course during each academic year of the term.
In the initial year, half of the adjunct faculty representatives will serve one-year terms to achieve staggered terms in subsequent years.
Click here for more details about the WEC.