With a week and a half to go before the Temple University contract with Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP) expires on Oct. 15, negotiations have kicked into high gear and are expected to continue around the clock starting this week.

By meeting twice a week for most of the summer, the University’s negotiating team was able to review and discuss the 85 pages of proposals from the union. Two weeks ago, to allow more focused discussions, the university’s negotiating team broke into a smaller group of just the academic administration members-Dick Englert, Diane Maleson, and Concetta Stewart to meet with the union representatives. They’ve been reporting good progress and movement toward solutions.

“With all the background discussions that we had this past summer, we’ve been able to make significant progress in our smaller group meetings on academic issues,” said Maleson, senior vice provost for faculty affairs and faculty development. “In fact, there are many things we are able to work on right now.”

One example is multi-year contracts and re-titling for non-tenure track faculty. Currently most non-tenure track faculty are offered one-year contracts. Additionally, titles for non-tenure track faculty who are engaged to teach are limited to lecturer or senior lecturer.

“We felt that we could act on these issues immediately. As a result, meetings are already scheduled with key schools and colleges to implement a University plan for more multi-year contracts. And we’re helping the schools and colleges re-establish the more traditional academic titles assistant professor, associate professor and professor for non-tenure track faculty, a change that was already approved by Provost Lisa Staiano-Coico this past June,” said Maleson.

Dick Englert attributes the success of the small group sessions to the goodwill and rapport already in place.

“We've made great progress over the past three years in improving the relationships between administration and faculty across the university as well as addressing the specific needs and concerns of our faculty in the individual schools and colleges,” said Englert, deputy provost.

He cites several major initiatives for which faculty have played and continue to play key roles in working collaboratively with administrators: new guidelines for tenure and promotion; the overhaul of the General Education (GenEd) curriculum; the development of both the university's Academic Strategic Plan and the Master Plan; the creation of a comprehensive work/life balance program; and a more collaborative process on study leaves.

Additionally, explains Englert, the President and Provost have systematically placed more authority in the hands of the schools and colleges to permit local decision-making to address unique needs and environments. For example, schools and colleges have developed their own discipline-specific tenure and promotion guidelines. Also, the scheduling and assignment of teaching for GenEd courses have been handled entirely by the schools and colleges and their academic departments rather than by a centralized office.

Another signal that the environment has improved for faculty is the reinstitution of Diane Maleson’s position as vice provost for faculty affairs, which she held from 1993-2001. Only now, to better address the faculty’s professional concerns, she is senior vice provost for faculty affairs and faculty development.

“As the ombudsman for the faculty and their interests, my job is to be open and available. They come here to vent and I investigate and assist on their behalf,” explains Maleson. “On the development side, I’m working with the Teaching and Learning Center to explore creative options for faculty members over the ‘lifecycle’ of their careers. There are many ways to reinvent yourself over the course of a career for example, by doing administrative service or government service, visiting another institution or working abroad.

Just as important as faculty development is a healthy balance between one’s work and personal life.

To this end, faculty and administrators worked closely over the past year on developing a comprehensive plan for better work/life balance.

“The university’s proposal provides more flexibility and procedural consistency for tenured and tenure-track faculty members who have a newly arrived child through birth, adoption, or foster care or for a faculty member that has a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) qualifying event affecting their health or the health of an immediate family member,” explains Concetta Stewart, dean of the School of Communications and Theater.

Throughout the contract talks, the negotiating team has kept the President and Provost informed about the faculty’s concerns, as well as the progress of the talks. Last week, they delivered a full report to the Council of Deans.