WHEREAS the BFC enacted BL-ACA-A3 in 2002 encouraging units to provide voting privileges to full-time non-tenure-track instructional faculty in unit deliberations as much as possible, and
WHEREAS robust shared governance depends upon the widest possible participation from faculty of all ranks, and
WHEREAS The Constitution of the IUB Faculty stipulates that the faculty governance structure at the unit level is in the hands of the unit faculty, and
WHEREAS over a 17 year period, units have come to widely disparate conclusions about how to deal with non-tenure-track voting rights, which affects the ability of full-time non-tenure-track faculty to participate in faculty governance in some units, and
WHEREAS faculty governance rights for non-tenure track faculty are subject to the provision of University ACA-18 whereby full-time non-tenure-track faculty may be granted voting rights by the tenure-track faculty as appropriate and the voting participation of non-tenure-track faculty "must be structured in a way that reserves at least 60% of voting weight to tenure track faculty," and
WHEREAS non-tenure-track faculty now comprise approximately 30% of all faculty on campus, teaching a substantial number of courses taken by students from diverse units across campus and also contributing substantially to the research mission of many units, and
WHEREAS the ability to attract the best non-tenure-track faculty to campus will contribute to the long-term health of the Bloomington campus, and depends in part on according them appropriate status;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the recommended practice with respect to full-time non-tenure-track voting rights for units on the Bloomington campus is as follows:
Faculty Participation in Governance
All faculty appointed in the Clinical, Lecturer, Professor of Practice, Research Scientist/Research Scholar, and future full-time voting non-tenure-track appointment categories (as defined by the Constitution of the Bloomington Faculty) should have voting and participation rights at the campus, school and department levels that are equivalent to the voting rights of faculty appointed in the tenure-track category. Voting which pertains to the election of unit heads, department chairs, committee memberships, curricular issues and routine administrative issues, but not to promotion and tenure of tenure-track faculty, should all follow the principle that full-time non-tenure-track faculty presumptively have voting and participation rights, subject to university policy that the tenure track faculty must have 60% of the voting authority.
Implementation of the 60-40 Rule
University policy requires that the tenure track faculty have at least 60% of the voting power within units. The rationale for the 60-40 rule is to protect the academic integrity of the school and its programs. Each unit should clearly define the situations in which the 60-40 rule applies.
Reporting to Provost
The provost or the provost’s designee should from time to time request that the deans of the units at IUB report on the participation and voting rights of full-time non-tenure-track faculty in the units and its departments, and present the results of such reports to the Bloomington Faculty Council at least once every three years.