Staffing Initiative

Staffing Initiative to Create 25 Shared Tenure Related Positions.

In 07-08 University Studies initiated a staffing proposal to create twenty five tenure related positions over three years. This initiative is designed to facilitate shared hiring by the University Studies program and academic units by providing full salary support on an indefinite basis for specific faculty hires.

University Studies is Portland State University's four-year, interdisciplinary general education program. The mission of University Studies is to facilitate the acquisition of the knowledge, abilities, and attitudes which will form a foundation for life-long learning among its students. Critical to this mission is the need to establish Shared Appointments where faculty have teaching, service and research obligations to University Studies and Academic Units. The staffing proposal also supports PSU's leadership position in engagement by setting the following objectives for the hiring initiative:

• Support the mission and values of University Studies, teach undergraduate students especially freshman and further develop the core competencies of University Studies.

• Improve student success through engaged learning experiences: The arguments for enhancing the quality of the core undergraduate experience by investing in tenure-track positions rather than fixed term or adjunct faculty are well known and need not be detailed here. This staffing initiative will change faculty mix by increasing instruction by TT faculty across University Studies.

• Expand innovative scholarship and creative activities that address regional issues and have global significance: This staffing initiative will provide opportunities for collaboration between academic units on emerging issues and support the multi-disciplinary themes.

• Improve internal engagement: Shared positions, collaboration between departments on scholarship and research, connections between University Studies and departments, and increase in the number of tenure related faculty to support student advising.
  

Phase 2

Phase 1 of the staffing initiative was launched in 07-08 via a campus-wide proposal process and 13 shared TT positions were created. University Studies proposes creating six tenure track (TT) positions in Phase 2 of the staffing proposal. Four positions will be filled by national searches and two by transitioning current fixed-term full time faculty with an appointment in University Studies (UNST) to TT positions. We make the following recommendations using criteria outlined in Provost Koch's memo Academic Investments for the 2007-09 Biennium, University Studies' need for increasing capacity in science instruction, and programmatic need for distributing the positions between arts and letters, sciences and social sciences.

Shared positions will be housed in the Academic Units. Funds for the shared positions will be retained by University Studies. In the event that a Shared Faculty resigns from Portland State University or is not granted tenure, there is no guarantee that the replacement position will go back to the same department.