Two recent presentations at the American Association of Colleges and Universities annual meeting in Washington, D.C., demonstrated LMU’s commitment to ensuring the representation of all faculty members as well as the university’s dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
LMU is a 2023 winner of the Delphi Award, a prestigious recognition that honors innovative and strategic approaches to supporting contingent and non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF). The award, presented by AAC&U and the USC Pullias Center for Higher Education, comes with a $15,000 cash prize to continue supporting contingent faculty, an amount that has been matched by various offices on campus such as the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Provost’s Office, Mission and Ministry, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the President’s Office, and Faculty Affairs. This money has been used to fund a professional development grant specifically for NTTF teachers, artists, and scholars.
Christopher Daily, instructor of theological studies, and Leon Wiebers, Faculty Senate president and professor and chair of theatre arts, participated in a panel at AAC&U to discuss the collaborative work being done to support NTTF at LMU.
“At LMU, we have a tight-knit faculty community which is really special,” said Daily. “As faculty, we care about each other and want to work together to help each other succeed. This activism is grounded in our university mission. We all know that we’re much stronger when we join together, and the Pullias Center’s award recognizes the many years that LMU’s faculty have been advocating for each other.”
The panel highlighted LMU’s work on involving NTTF in shared governance; NTTF have six seats on Faculty Senate, which allows for important representation in university affairs.
“Representation is important,” said Daily. “By ensuring that all faculty have representation in our shared governance structure, we can look at things from many different perspectives, hear a wider variety of concerns and issues, think holistically, and make the best decisions to benefit our community, including our students.”
The LMU panel was both well-attended and well-received, with many higher education administrators voicing surprise and admiration at the steps that LMU has taken to ensure that NTTF have a voice in shared governance.
“We deeply value the contributions of our NTT Faculty,” said Wiebers. “Over the past decade, through shared governance and data collection, many people, including previous faculty senates, senate presidents, and faculty advocates have contributed to the efforts supporting our colleagues and their working conditions. There is still more work to do, but we learned through this application and AAC&U that LMU is farther ahead of many institutions in this work.”
Karie Huchting, professor and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Maryann Krikorian, clinical associate professor, and Kat Weaver, professor and vice provost for research, professional development, and online learning, were collaborators on the Delphi Award proposal. Weaver sees the award as the recognition of a long tradition of faculty advocacy and bold, collaborative leadership on campus.
“This goes back to past faculty senate leaders — faculty over the years have really supported each other,” said Weaver. “That’s a testament to our faculty leadership as well as administrative and faculty partnership.”
Provost Thomas Poon’s HEDs UP presentation at the annual meeting also demonstrated LMU’s mission-driven commitment to cultivating an atmosphere that is equitable and inclusive for all faculty. Poon’s talk focused on LMU’s promotion and tenure standards DEI initiative. By mandating that all departments recognize DEI work in teaching, research, and service, LMU has empowered faculty to undertake critical work in DEI and addressed inequities in the promotion and tenure process.
“This initiative is another key example of LMU’s emphasis on collaboration and commitment to shared governance,” said Poon. “The development of the criteria was a shared effort, with senior leadership working in community with students, faculty, affinity groups, and department chairs to develop these promotion standards.”
Coming away from the conference, Wiebers and Daily are inspired to continue working collaboratively to improve conditions for NTTF at LMU. The other winner of the Delphi Award, the University of Arizona, presented thought-provoking ideas about different titles for contingent faculty that Wiebers and Daily are excited to bring back to LMU.
“I think there are things we’ve accomplished in the past decade that other universities and colleges are only now starting to address,” said Wiebers. “This was amazing to us. We were inspired by the work done by the University of Arizona. We are already in discussions with the administration about addressing the inconsistent titles we use at LMU for contingent faculty. That is our next project.”
The Pullias Center and AAC&U will be hosting a webinar on Feb. 21 for those interested in learning more about the 2023 Delphi Award-winning entries. For more info, visit here.