Ask TRUFA: Tripartite and Bipartite Faculty Complement?

Ask TRUFA is a venue for members to ask questions anonymously and receive answers from TRUFA Stewards or Executive. Submit your question at Ask TRUFA.

QUESTION:

ANSWER:

Dear Concerned Faculty Member,

In the TRU / TRUFA Collective Agreement (Article 5.4) TRU and TRUFA have agreed that a minimum of 70% of all teaching and instructional support work campus-wide at TRU be delivered by tenure-track or tenured faculty members, and that at least 60% of all work in any individual Faculty or School must be delivered by tenure-track or tenured faculty members. Nothing directly in the faculty complement language refers to any ratio of bipartite to tripartite faculty or new faculty hires in either appointment category.

Without further information we can only surmise that this Dean may be considering the impact of hiring a tripartite faculty member, whose workload teaching or professional role workload is reduced and a research/scholarly activity obligation is imposed.  In order to compensate for the lower teaching level (5 courses instead of 8) or lower level of instructional support work, the result could be an increase in hiring of non-tenured contract faculty, which might increase the possibility of non-compliance with the faculty complement ratio.

TRUFA, however, believes that contract academic staff should be hired only for temporary replacements or to provide specialized instruction or to pilot new courses or programs until such time as they have been fully adopted.  To use faculty complement as an excuse for not appointing tripartite faculty when programs may need to ensure a research capacity for both accreditation and student success, is not acceptable.

Thanks for asking TRUFA.