Task Force On Faculty Leadership Positions

Background

The Task Force On Faculty Leadership Positions was created by the Faculty Senate and SFT in Fall 2018 to critically examine the history, scope, and nature of the positions covered in the Coordinators Agreement of 2018, ascertain the opinions of the individuals who hold or have held these positions as to how they might be improved, if at all, and to research how similar such positions are conducted at other institutions to compare and contrast them with our current system.  More details about the charge to the Task Force and the membership can be found here.  

Upon the final approval of both the SFT and Faculty Senate in late Fall,  the Task Force held our first meeting in December 2018. The initial few months of the task force's work focused on information gathering.  Subcommittees began to explore the questions given to the group in the charge. To determine the faculty leadership models for our sister institutions, the committee reached out to public colleges and universities across New Jersey.  In order to obtain a historical perspective, the committee reached out to veteran faculty members to discuss the original motivation behind the coordinator model and how the role has evolved over time. To begin to ascertain the current financial cost of Stockton’s faculty leadership positions, we gathered data from Assistant Deans as well as faculty to acquire workload information for those serving.  Administration and Finance provided additional workload data about those faculty serving in positions covered by the 2018 MOA. Finally, the task force began internal discussions as to the various duties outlined in the agreement, how faculty leaders view the role and constituent responsibilities, and the nature and extent of faculty leadership responsibilities and expectations that are not outlined in the agreement.  

In the summer of 2019, the task force employed our initial findings to design a detailed survey for faculty leaders (past and present) to obtain data regarding their thoughts about various elements of the leadership positions covered in the agreement.  A draft of the survey was shared with several administrators for comment with some of their feedback incorporated in the final version. The survey went live to the faculty on September 6, 2019 and was open to all faculty until October 1, 2019. The task force than spent the months of October and November analyzing the quantitative and qualitative responses.  The results of the survey and the other work of the task force will be presented in School meetings in November and December.

In the interest of transparency, the task force has created a series of White Papers summarizing the findings of our work so far (linked below).  

 

Leadership Positions at Peer Institutions in NJ

Service and Compensation: Are they mutually exclusive?

 

Task Force Presentation to School Meetings (Updated 1/30/2020)