Passed: March 9, 2005
Sponsor: University Faculty Senate
Senate Discussions:
The Resolution
A. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Whereas non-tenure-track faculty (NTT faculty) are continuing long-term employees of the University who support the central missions of the institution in teaching, research, and outreach; and
Whereas the University has a positive interest in the professional and intellectual growth of all faculty; and
Whereas equity across college, school, and other administrative boundaries recommends similar treatment of faculty in similar titles,
Be it resolved that the Senate calls on the Provost and officers of schools, colleges, and administrative units employing NTT faculty to create professional development opportunities for these faculty where they do not exist, in the form of paid and unpaid leaves and individual research and travel accounts corresponding as closely as possible to the following descriptions.
- Professional Development leaves. Senior lecturers, senior research associates, and senior extension associates should become eligible to apply for paid Professional
Development (PD) leaves at regular intervals.
i. Eligibility. Senior lecturers, senior research associates, and senior extension associates should become eligible to apply for PD leaves after their first reappointment after six years of full-time service. Part-time service should be prorated for progress toward eligibility. Interruptions in service, unless spent in a comparable PD or study leave or Prestigious Fellowship leave, should not interrupt progress toward eligibility. After a first PD leave, senior lecturers, senior research associates, and senior extension associates should become eligible for another after seven years of full-time service.
ii. Duration. Under this proposed policy a PD leave will normally be for a full semester (or in the case of 12-month employees, six months) at full pay and benefits. In exceptional circumstances it may comprise two semesters or 12 months at half pay.
iii. Proposals. Applicants for PD leaves will present proposals for projects allowing for concentrated thinking on or investigation of substantive topics of interest related to the their professional or intellectual commitments. Proposed PD projects need not be related directly to improvements in pedagogy or extension/augmentation of research skills, but they should
promise (and deliver) a yield of contributions to the applicant’s discipline or department that would not otherwise have been possible.
iv. Application. Applicants will submit proposals together with the endorsement of the chairs of their departments to their school or college deans or other officers of their employing units, or to their designees.
- Leaves without pay.
i. Unpaid leaves of absence should be available to senior lecturers, senior research associates, and senior extension associates after six years of service (and, by negotiation with the department chair or head of administrative unit, before that time).
ii. Leaves may be for one or two semesters with assurance of reemployment in the same position upon return.
iii. Under these conditions, unpaid leaves of absence should be granted upon suitable application. University contributions to retirement, medical, and Cornell Children’s Tuition Scholarship plans of those taking leave should be continued at the level obtaining immediately prior to the leave.
iv. A senior lecturer, senior research associate, or senior extension associate should not be unduly penalized with respect to salary increases by taking an unpaid leave for which she or he is eligible.
v. Those in these titles who win any of the prestigious awards which make tenure-track faculty eligible for unpaid leaves with continuing benefits from Cornell should be eligible for unpaid leaves with the same continuing benefits as tenure-track faculty receive.
- Research and travel support. Continuing NTT faculty in some schools and colleges are already provided with annually replenished individual research accounts and with funding for attendance at and travel to professional conferences. Where these opportunities do not exist, we believe they should be established
- Funding and implementation of these proposals. The University should work with the several colleges, schools, and employing administrative units to identify funds available and to seek them where they do not exist. Colleges and schools should keep NTT faculty informed of the availability of such PD opportunities as develop.
- Adoption of any part of this PD proposal should not diminish travel and research funding already made available to NTT faculty as members of a college school, or department. The granting of a PD leave to a NTT faculty member should not impair his or her eligibility for such travel and research funding as is available to other NTT faculty members in his or her college, school, or department
Background
