Campus-Based Practices for Promoting Student Success: Faculty Policy Issues

The academic profession has encountered significant change over the past several decades, such as a higher priority on research; increasing enrollment of non-traditional students; the need to manage, advise, and instruct larger student bodies; and greater expectations to use instructional technologies (Gappa & Leslie, 1993: Geiger, 2011; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006, 2007; Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005). The faculty profession has transformed over time from a body of full-time tenured or tenure-track academics to a diverse group of employees with myriad designations: full and part-time, tenure and non-tenure track, adjunct, lecturer, instructor, and post-doctoral fellow (Kezar & Eaton, 2014). Full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty are characterized by duties related to teaching, research, and service. In contrast, full- and part-time non-tenure track or “contingent” faculty members often have more limited responsibilities. This article examines key issues that confront institutional leaders in creating faculty policies conducive to student success, including employment status, faculty roles and reward systems, and faculty development.