The study, Faculty Employment Rights and Hearing Procedures in Public Non-Union Universities, seeks to answer two essential questions:
(1) Do universities have effective policies and processes, in accord with professional standards and backed up by training of all involved parties, that can provide meaningful resolution in adverse employment situations/decisions involving faculty?
(2) What effects do the shifting dynamics in higher education (e.g. the rise in the number of contingent/contract faculty, more intensive public scrutiny, decreased public funding) have on how faculty employment rights are defined and adjudicated?
The University of North Carolina System provides an excellent test case. Its 16 higher education institutions vary widely in size, mission, location, types of faculty, and history. Yet all of the constituent institutions have requirements for hearing committees to protect faculty rights based on the UNC Code and Policy Manual. In fact, each campus must establish elected faculty committees to hear certain cases involving adverse employment decisions. Furthermore, the Code requires that the System and Chancellors ensure appropriate training for all parties involved in some of the hearing processes. How the institutions carry forward this directive, the adequacy of their processes, and changes over time will all be concerns of the study.
This research project has been approved by the Appalachian State University Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Even though most faculty employment disputes are, as they should be, resolved prior to any formal adversarial process, most higher education campuses (public and private) hold some hearings every year. When hearings occur, not only does a faculty member seek redress, but, ideally, the institution also stands to learn, by recognizing and addressing the circumstances that gave rise to the impasse and adjusting operations as warranted to avoid such outcomes in the future.
Close and careful examination of the purposes and functions of hearing processes can demonstrate the degree of institutional commitment to building a healthy working environment. In times of significant change, as in public higher education today, these reviews also prove necessary to remain current with evolving conditions.