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Research, Teaching, Practitioner, & Clinical-Track Faculty Affairs

Charge

The Committee on Research, Teaching, Practitioner, & Clinical-Track Faculty Affairs monitors and evaluates the working environment, terms and conditions of employment, job security, compensation, benefits eligibility, opportunities for participation in governance, opportunities for professional advancement, and participation in the academic life of the university provided for non-tenure-track faculty.  It monitors compliance with the Faculty Handbook and with stated school policies of the schools or units as they relate to Non-Tenure-Track faculty.  It makes recommendations to relevant Senate and University committees, and to the Academic Senate, concerning any policy issues that have an impact on non-tenure-track faculty.

Membership will include primarily research, teaching, practitioner, and clinical-track faculty, as well as one member from each of the following committees:  Part-Time Faculty Affairs and Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Affairs.

Meetings: Contact committee chair for the date/locations of the committee meetings.

Specific Charge for 2021-2023 Academic Years

This year’s Faculty Affairs Committees (FAC’s) will work in tandem to assess the current labor being done on each track at USC and how trends in higher education might affect this work in the coming years. Therefore, the  RTPC, Tenure/Tenure Track  and Part-time Faculty Affairs Committees will work on a shared charge from January through December 2022.

In exploring the Future of Faculty Work, the Faculty Affairs Committees will examine work profiles, primary activities, and the relevance of “tracks” in context of a changing higher education eco-system. The changes in the academic environment include pressures that colleges and universities are facing in funding, rising costs and tuition affordability, a decline in public support for postsecondary education, changes in academic publishing, volatility in the availability of grant funding, changes in the healthcare and clinical environment, the emergence of innovations and technology that has enhanced or improved clinical, teaching or research capabilities, and a decline in traditional-aged college students (both domestically and internationally).

Each FAC committee chair will guide their team’s research toward a combined report making recommendations about how USC might better support faculty on each track and/or how our tracks could or should be reimagined to ensure that our faculty is best positioned to help USC continue to improve its research, teaching, and clinical mission.

The context for the future of faculty work is USC, and how faculty work might change, adapt or transform in the next decade. However, the university is subject to some of the same pressures and challenges as other research universities, so the committees are encouraged to look both within and outside of the university in responding to the exploratory questions guiding this charge.

Some background materials will be provided to the committees for reference, but each is encouraged to seek out studies and trend data relevant to various tracks and disciplines. 

Chair

Reyes Enciso (Co-Chair) – renciso@usc.edu

Amber Foster

Amber Foster (Co-Chair) –  anfoster@usc.edu

Committee members

Reports