Voice your perspective here

The Faculty Perspectives page is an outlet for U-M faculty expression provided by the Senate Assembly. Any member of the University Senate is eligible to submit a Faculty Perspectives page essay. Prospective contributors are invited to contact the Faculty Perspectives Page Editorial Board at faculty.perspectives@umich.edu. Submissions are accepted in electronic form and are subject to review by the board. Essay lengths are restricted to one full printed page in the University Record, or about 1,500 words. Past Faculty Perspectives can be accessed through the faculty governance Web site at: http://www.umich.edu/~sacua/. Faculty members may express their views regarding any aspect of academic life, employment, or stated mission of the institution. The views expressed are those of the authors.

This year the issues before faculty governance are particularly rich and varied. The Senate Assembly will be grappling with initiatives promoted by University administration, and they present timely opportunities for commentary.

For example, over the past summer a new Standard Practice Guide policy (SPG Number 201.65-1) was enacted that is called "Conflicts of Interest and Conflicts of Commitment." For the first time faculty and staff are encountering policy that appears to claim ownership over activities conducted during evenings, weekends and vacations. The new policy calls on each academic unit to develop implementation mechanisms, and the shapes of these plans are not well defined yet.

Also over the summer, a committee selected by the provost has proposed revising regents' bylaws to extend the maximum length of the tenure period to 10 years
(http://www.provost.umich.edu/reports/flexible_tenure/contents.html), or even longer if the faculty member has less than a full-time appointment on the tenure track. Implications for individual career development and for the vitality of the academic institution probably warrant thoughtful scrutiny.

With the tremendous growth of clinical faculty ranks in the Medical School and elsewhere, there has come to be a large community of non-tenure track instructors who exist outside the regular faculty governance system. Whether and how to incorporate the voices of these people in University affairs is a fair question for discussion, as is the effect of these growing ranks on the character of the University.

In order to encourage timely exchanges of perspective, the board has decided this year to solicit compact, focused submissions of about 400 words each in addition to the conventional full-page articles. That is basically the length of this message. We hope that this new, optional format is an appealing invitation for expression of faculty opinion.

More Stories

• U-M community celebrates the power of a gift
• Genetic testing helps Kellogg physicians zero in on eye disease
• Coca-Cola has made progress toward U. requirements
• Publisher's $3M gift will aid student journalists
• Gates encourages students to enter 'amazing' field
• Honoree: 'I urge you ... to be a Wallenberg'
• SAPAC names new director
• Spotlight: The iceman
• Emerging technology could be option for in-vitro fertilization
• ISR symposium to address underrepresented groups
• Leader of hunt for WMDs to deliver Jacobson Lecture
• Intelligence agencies must work together in terrorism battle
• Voice your perspective here
• Special Collections Library tracks train history
• Solar house team shines in Washington, D.C.
• Geologist urges seismic shift for selecting EarthScope sites
• Tobacco use associated with dulled thinking, lower IQ
• Don't Miss
• Photo: U-M-Flint does Begosian's "SubUrbia"
• Photo: University Musical Society brings "Tall Horse" to Power Center