April 26, 2018
Dear Faculty Colleagues,
Following up on Fr. Engh’s email from April 18th, I write to you today to express my renewed commitment to improve the vitality, professional fulfillment, and personal well-being of our faculty by advancing much-needed systemic changes and promoting a culture of greater dialogue and respect between Santa Clara’s administrative leaders and our faculty.
In recent months, I have met with several lecturers, including Barbara Kelley, Chair of the Committee on Lecturers and Adjuncts (COLA). Two weeks ago, John Ottoboni and I met with the Faculty Senate Council regarding the concerns of adjunct and lecturer faculty. Next week, I will meet with representatives from the organizing committee to more deeply hear their priorities. I have heard the pain and frustration of many of our faculty colleagues, especially adjunct faculty and lecturers, who do not feel adequately respected at SCU. In response, I am working, with my team in the Provost’s Office and with the Faculty Affairs Committee, to address many of the concerns that have been expressed.
As a follow-up to Fr. Engh’s April 18th email, the Provost’s Office team is:
- Developing a rental support program for our renewable-term lecturers that will be implemented by September 1, 2018
- Working with the deans’ offices to streamline adjunct faculty hiring processes and timelines for 2018-19
- Identifying approaches to promote greater respect for adjunct and lecturer faculty within departments and schools.
In addition, the Faculty Affairs Committee is working on the following tasks:
- Drafting policies and procedures for a streamlined academic-year adjunct faculty reappointment approach and the term renewal process for renewable-term lecturers
- Developing a robust, equitable teaching track with respectful appointment titles to clarify a career path for our committed teaching faculty members. This effort will be informed by the important work already underway by the Task Force on Best Practices for Lecturers.
- Creating a subcommittee, inclusive of adjunct and lecturer faculty, to assist the Faculty Affairs Committee in drafting policies that are sensitive to adjunct and lecturer faculty concerns.
Santa Clara University has a longstanding culture built around generosity of spirit and mutual respect. We are committed to addressing adjunct and lecturer faculty concerns through sustained, direct dialogue and recognize the need to establish internal structures which would enable issues to be heard and addressed in a timely fashion going forward. Towards that end, I have asked Amy Shachter, Senior Associate Provost for Research and Faculty Affairs, to connect regularly with COLA, as she does already through her membership on the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Task Force on Best Practices for Lecturers. Amy and I will work closely with the Faculty Affairs Committee and in consultation with the Faculty Senate Council as we coordinate, across the Provost’s Office and the Deans’ Offices, the implementation of key initiatives and policy changes to respond to adjunct and lecturer faculty concerns.
I thank you in advance for your willingness to dialogue and collaboratively establish a more stable and sustainable future for Santa Clara University. I will provide you with more specific updates on our progress through regular communications every two weeks.
Sincerely yours,
Dennis Jacobs, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs