UTSA Academic Affairs recognized for exceptional support of fixed-term-track faculty

OCTOBER 24, 2022 — UTSA Academic Affairs has been named a Delphi Award finalist for its ongoing efforts to support the university’s fixed-term-track (FTT) faculty. The award is presented by the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).

The award recognizes several new or modified policies and practices UTSA incorporated over the last two years to better support its FTT faculty. The changes affected more than 700 FTT faculty and included: 

• Renaming faculty to fixed-term-track (FTT) from non-tenure-track (NTT)
• Developing clearer promotion processes to help FTT faculty aspiring for upward career progression at UTSA
• Establishing minimum salary pay scales
• Providing a range of teaching and professional development programs facilitated by Faculty Success and Academic Innovation—some with financial incentives—to help faculty grow professionally and supplement their teaching skills

The success of UTSA’s new FTT policies and practices will be the subject of an upcoming case study for the Pullias Center—a leading research institute addressing major challenges in educational equity. The Pullias Center also plans to showcase UTSA’s efforts as a national institutional model for how to best assist FTT faculty.

“UTSA faculty continuously provide our students with high-quality, transformational academic experiences.”

“UTSA faculty continuously provide our students with high-quality, transformational academic experiences, and we’re committed to supporting our faculty at all stages of their careers,” said Heather Shipley, UTSA’s senior vice provost of Academic Affairs and dean of University College. “The new policies we’ve put in place have not only helped faculty at our own campus, but they are also being recognized as a model for other universities across the nation. These strategies are just the beginning of our efforts to help strengthen FTT faculty and move towards one faculty at UTSA.”

Academic Affairs collaborated with members from across the UTSA academic community, establishing what was then known as the NTT Titles and Promotion Working Group to ensure a representative process when updating and creating policies. The group included members of the UTSA Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars’ NTT Faculty Task Force, as well as various department chairs and faculty senators.

In collaboration with the Faculty Success division, the working group began collecting data from various surveys and focus groups starting in 2014. The results revealed that many faculty wanted more clarity and equity regarding their workload and access to additional workshops, conferences and leadership development opportunities. This data was used to inform revisions to the existing policies, which were implemented during the 2020–2021 academic year.

The Delphi Award is a part of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, an initiative of the Pullias Center for Higher Education in partnership with the AAC&U. Its mission is to better support faculty off the tenure track while helping create new faculty models for postsecondary institutions to adopt.

— Chloe Johnson