By Jackie Todd, University Relations
Lecturers at Clemson now have a second promotion opportunity, thanks to the Faculty Senate. At its Nov. 13 meeting, the senate approved a third lecturer rank to its existing classifications. The new rank, called principal lecturer, will reside at the top of the lecturer scale, making the rank progression: lecturer, senior lecturer and finally, principal lecturer. The rank of principal lecturer will be documented in the Faculty Manual to be published Aug. 1, 2019, and the first applications can be made for promotion in fall 2021.
Principal lecturers will receive a five-year contract as well as a raise ranging from eight to 10 percent. Officials say that the extended contract is a desirable benefit to lecturers who work on annual contracts and senior lecturers who enter into three-year agreements.
Efforts to create a third lecturer rank go back many years. The latest effort began in 2016 when then Faculty Senate president Mary Beth Kurz created a committee to study the status of lecturers and senior lecturers. The new lecturer rank was one of a number of recommendations that ad hoc committee members Raquel Anido, Paul Dawson, Pamela Dunston, Abdul Khan, Eric Lapin, Thompson Mefford and co-chairs Shannon Robert and Edward De Iulio, submitted to senate leadership with a proposal for further study.
The following year, 2017-18 Faculty Senate president Amy Lawton-Rauh charged the senate’s welfare and policy committees to continue discussion on the new lecturer rank. Senators built on the recommendations presented by the ad hoc committee and endorsed a recommendation for the third lecturer rank with a pay raise and an extended contract.
In fall 2017, 437 faculty members were listed as lecturers, according to the Office of Institutional Research. Of those, 152 were classified as senior lecturers. Senate leaders believe that the new rank will encourage retention and promote recruitment.
“This commitment from university administration and faculty leadership through the Faculty Senate demonstrates that lecturers are very valued members of the university faculty,” said Edward De Iulio, who co-chaired the ad hoc committee and is a senior lecturer in the College of Business.
“Additionally, this initiative provides an opportunity for all lecturers to advance in an organization results in more highly motivated lecturers with greater job security and job satisfaction resulting in a better classroom experience for our students, higher student retention, and higher graduation rates all contributing to the University’s ClemsonForward Strategic Plan.”
As a next step, individual departments will incorporate specific criteria for promotion and reappointment to principal lecturer into their departmental tenure, promotion and reappointment documents, which will require departmental, dean and provost approval.
“This is a piece of signature legislation that shows just how important and impactful faculty governance is at Clemson University,” said Faculty Senate President Jan Rune Holmevik. “Resolution 2018-5 that the Faculty Senate passed today is going to change careers and impact lives of many of our treasured non tenure-track faculty for decades to come. I could not be more proud of my Faculty Senate colleagues for all the hard work they have done to make this happen.”
