SR 14-02 - Resolution on a Tenure-Track Hiring Plan

Approve Date: May 5, 2015
Senate Resolution File:
SR 14-02 Resolution on a Tenure-Track Hiring Plan

Drafted By: Senate Executive Committee: Jeanne Grier, Stephen Clark, Cindy Wyels, Simone Aloisio, Guisela Bahena, Colleen Delaney, Colleen Harris-Keith, Antonio Jiménez-Jiménez, Jim Meriwether, John Yudelson; ex officio: Nancy Deans, Genevieve Evans-Taylor, Gayle Hutchinson
Purpose: Tenure-track faculty are essential to building a modern university. Their role is especially important in advising students, in mentoring students in research, and in building new and innovative curriculum. In this way, they have a positive affect on quality of instruction, on student retention, and on student access to education. In terms of students, CI is the fastest growing university in the United States. The CI 2025 plan calls for further increases in students of 8% per year for the next decade. It also includes plans for growth in terms of physical space and buildings. However, there is no plan presented that includes the growth of the faculty.

CI has long had the lowest tenure-density of the 23 campuses of the California State University system. In Fall 2014, the tenure-density for CI was 38% compared to a system average of 56.3%. CI has 50 students (FTE) per tenure-track faculty member, well above the CSU average of 36. This has impaired our ability to provide students with advising and mentorship, and has undoubtedly negatively affected the quality of education at our university.

The Academic Senate of CI has long recognized this problem, and in 2011 passed SR 11-06 “Resolution in Support of Tenure-Track Hiring”. In that resolution, the Senate asks that tenure-track hiring be made a top strategic priority. It also calls for a plan to be made in consultation with the Fiscal Policies Committee to address this priority.

While the number of tenure-track faculty since 2011 has increased, it has not kept pace with the increase in enrollment. Our student to tenure track ratio actually has increased since that resolution, and our tenure density has decreased.

At the same time, management personnel (MPP) have been hired at a rate similar to that of tenure-track faculty. In Fall 2014, CI had 104 tenure-track faculty members, and 99 MPPs. Perhaps this was understandable during the initial start-up of a university, but no longer is CI in “start-up” mode, and priorities need re-ordering. CI now has more MPP than CSU Stanislaus, CSU Bakersfield, CSU Humboldt, and CSU Dominguez Hills – an institution with twice the number of students than CI. It seems difficult to consider tenure-track hiring as being a top strategic priority given budget allocations during these years.

This resolution calls for a plan to grow our tenure-track faculty by at least 10% per year for the next decade. This will allow the university to grow strategically, while improving quality, retention, and access for our students.

The Academic Senate believes this is a reasonable plan that relies on reallocation of resources, which could be augmented if state funding were to improve. Projecting out to 2025, following this plan would allow us to have at least 296 tenure-track faculty members. The CI 2025 plan projects our enrollment to be around 11,000 FTES, and that number of faculty would yield a ratio similar to campuses currently near that enrollment, such as CSU San Marcos, CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU East Bay, and CSU San Bernardino.

RESOLUTION
Be it resolved that the Academic Senate of CI support the inclusion of a hiring plan for tenure-track faculty as part of the CI 2025 plan for growth of the university, and that this plan has a growth rate of no less than 10% per year in net number of tenure-track faculty, and be it resolved that this resolution be distributed to the following:
Richard Rush, President of CSU Channel Islands
Timothy White, Chancellor of the CSU
Steven Filling, Chair of the Academic Senate of the CSU