Staff title debate reflects national trend

Should academic staff be called professors? Some people at UW–Madison think so, prompting a discussion among top leaders of the academic staff, the faculty and even the Board of Regents.

The discussion reflects one that is occurring nationally, as universities grapple with impending retirements of large numbers of professors and academic staff, and as more and more academic staff take on duties that for years were exclusively the domain of faculty.

Part of the issue is that the title “academic staff” is used almost exclusively in the UW System, while many universities provide non tenure-track professor titles to staff who teach or conduct research.

“We are in no rush, but this is something that needs to be addressed,” Bernice Durand, chair of the University Committee, told the Faculty Senate March 6. “We really do need to make some changes to keep (UW-Madison) strong in the future.”

The Academic Staff Executive Committee is currently developing a non-tenure-track professor title series, at the direction of the Academic Staff Assembly. That work is continuing, ASEC chair Barry Robinson says.

Supporters maintain that the titles would give departments and deans more flexibility in hiring academic staff, and provide staff more credibility when dealing with external agencies and other universities, such as when they apply for grants as principle investigators.

Detractors, though, say the titles could be misleading to the public and could create divisiveness and animosity among academic staff and in departments.

The assembly’s faculty counterpart, the Faculty Senate, gave its initial review March 6 to a University Committee plan that would broaden an existing definition of academic staff as “collateral faculty.”

The proposal would also allow departmental executive committees and schools/colleges to grant departmental governance rights (called “faculty status” by UW System) or school/college faculty status for academic staff. In addition, the proposal would create zero-dollar professor titles for academic staff, such as professor (instructional collateral faculty) and professor (research collateral faculty).

Durand explained that the University Committee has been discussing this topic for two years now, “and is particularly concerned with recognition for and participation by academic staff in the university community.”

But several senators spoke against the proposal at the meeting. They stressed that the titles were not appropriate for “academic staff and could negatively affect department decision-making.

Durand said March 20 that the University Committee has been in close consultation with ASEC, as well as campus personnel officers, in revising the proposal in response to senators and others.

The senate is scheduled to review a revised version of the proposal at its meeting Monday, April 3. Should the assembly and/or the senate approve title proposals, they would also need the approval of the campus administration and the regents.

At the UW System level, the regents on March 10 adopted eight principles “to guide staffing decisions in the UW System.” Those guidelines include revising titles for “non-tenure-track instructional and research staff” to reflect national trends, and “integrating non-tenure-track instructional staff into departments and institutions.”

During the board’s discussion of the staffing principles, Regent Patrick G. Boyle complimented UW–Madison for taking a hard look at staffing and titling issues related to academic staff. “Other institutions should do the same,” he said. “These are longstanding, divisive issues, but there are options to improve the situation.”