As the acting chair of the Department of Family Practice, Linda French works in the clinic three to four days a week and spends other time teaching or in administrative meetings leading the department.
But when French, a fixed-term faculty member in the College of Human Medicine, came to MSU six years ago, she tried to become involved in university decisions but could only participate in committees that dealt with naming buildings, not any council in the Academic Governance system.
"To me, it didn't seem to be things of importance," French said. "They really didn't have to do with that fundamental mission of institution. I found that a little disheartening."
French is one of 928 fixed-term faculty at MSU out of 1,841 total faculty. Fixed-term faculty is a group of faculty members that are hired at the university in a variety of positions for a limited time, said Robert Banks, assistant provost for Academic Human Resources.
In contrary, fixed-term faculty are different than tenured faculty, who are guaranteed a job after a seven-year probationary period, during which they must demonstrate themselves as quality faculty members. But fixed-term faculty members can be candidates for tenured positions as they become available, Banks said.
Fixed-term faculty members can serve in different roles than each other and tenured faculty, such as instructors, academic specialists and professors. But often, both types of faculty have similar job duties.
"The folks make an important contribution," Banks said, adding that about a third of MSU's fixed-term faculty members are in the human, osteopathic and veterinary medicine colleges. "They do it in a variety of ways in medical schools."
Fixed-term faculty can be granted voting rights by their individual college's governance level, but not within the university's Academic Governance system. Fixed-term faculty members are often left out of important university decisions, such as the decision to expand the College of Human Medicine to Grand Rapids, because their status can limit their involvement in Academic Governance.
Management Professor Mike Moch said he works with some of the 10 fixed-term faculty in his department within the Eli Broad College of Business, which has proportionally smaller numbers of these faculty members than other colleges at MSU.
"They feel they are treated like second-class citizens," Moch said. "How do we embrace these people and utilize their services? How do we deal with the increasing proportion?"
Moch, a member of Faculty Council, said he has heard many debates surrounding the role of fixed-term faculty at MSU and what involvement they should have in Academic Governance.
The governance system is creating a task force that will look at the role of fixed-term faculty to allow for a larger presence.
Banks said the issue is very perplexing, but added that he can see the arguments from both sides.
"It really turns on whether these people have an assigned role and a continuing role and in that context," he said. "But they are here on a limited basis ... They really shouldn't have a major decision in curriculum."
Department of Radiology Chairman Jim Potchen said he works with several fixed-term faculty members and hopes the task force will advance the issue in the future.
"The university faculty should speak as one voice," Potchen said. "I don't see that it is healthy for us to have the hierarchy, to have a major subset that is disenfranchised. They aren't going to support anything if they have nothing to do with it."
