A subcommittee of faculty members put forth a proposal on Monday to hire up to 15 new faculty under the title of "Professors of the Practice." The plan would diversify the teaching staff at Tufts by bringing in individuals whose knowledge comes from the field as opposed to careers in the classroom.
Professors of the Practice are individuals who have reached a high point in their career and see a window of opportunity to use their unique skills as practitioners. The appointments will be non-tenure track and will not go beyond six years. No more than 15 individuals will maintain the rank at any given time.
"I think especially for graduate programs, but also for applied programs like art, music, and drama, having these exceptional people come in to teach on a temporary basis some exceptional courses is very beneficial to Tufts and we need to recognize that," Geology Department chair Ann Gardulski said.
Vincent Manno a member of the Subcommittee of Professor of the Practice Appointments, said that departments such as Urban and Environmental Policy, Child Development, and Mechanical Engineering would particularly benefit from the plan, as hands-on experience is an integral part of those fields. Someone who has spent their life working as a mechanical engineer, for example, would have a great deal of knowledge to impart to mechanical engineering students.
The rationale behind the plan is to "recognize the importance of the application of knowledge by providing a mechanism to attract, on a rotating basis, outstanding individuals whose accomplishments as practitioners are principally in non-academic venues," according to the text of the proposal.
Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy Rachel Bratt, also a member of the subcommittee, said that she does not see the "non-academic" aspect of the Professors of Practice to be a threat to the University's tradition.
"I view it as providing an opportunity to broaden the kinds of people we have here, keeping in mind that most of the students are going to be non-academic [after they leave Tufts]," she said.
Although faculty members seemed supportive of the actual Professors of Practice idea, many are worried that implementing the proposal could cause problems. The biggest concern is where the money to fund the new positions will come from. "As far as we know, there is not going to be a separate pot of money. Every year the deans put out a request to request to new positions and these are tenure and non-tenure," Bratt said.
Therefore, the funds for these positions would need to be decided each year as part of the rest of the faculty budget. Professors are worried that this will take money away from already-established positions and faculty. They also feel that Professors of Practice will want to stay with the University after their term is over, meaning that a new route to obtaining tenure is created.
"They don't want to see the evolution of a new track that bypasses the promotion and tenure process," Manno said. Clarifying the title of the appointments to differentiate temporary faculty from long-term faculty is key, he explained.
Any position that has the word "professor" without "visiting" attached to it infers that it is a tenure-track position. However, attaching the word "visiting" implies that the individual accepting the position is coming from another institution.
"I share personally the same hesitation with the naming of the position. I would like to see the word 'visiting' attached, which would mean the bylaw would have to be changed," Gardulski said.
While this new proposal may benefit several departments, it does not solve many of the other existing problems, such as the concerns of part-time faculty and lecturers. Faculty members such as Lecturer Judy Staicer of the drama department believe that the Professors of the Practice positions are adding faculty members when the exiting faculty members, especially lecturers, deserve more attention.
"It ignores something we have in place now that I think could stand a fresh look," she said. "I think that the Professors of Practice positions overlook the situation we have now and create a whole new teaching track without addressing the status of the lecturers."
While Staicer, a designer, explained that while she does not produce written words, the results of her hard work are seen on stage. She said that Professors of Practice, and lecturers such as herself, should get offered tenure positions.
"Most universities will tenure people such as myself," she said. "I think there's no reason why people who are distinguished in their field cannot be tenured. The objection to tenure people who are not in traditional academics comes from a somewhat more narrowly defined view of what professors do in this University and in general."
According to Bratt, there are many proposals in the works to recognize people like Staicer. "Right now, tenure is traditionally given to people who work on creation of knowledge, as opposed to people who disseminate, synthesize, and apply knowledge," she said. "I think tenure tracks should be broadened to people like her."
There is also a question as to how the money to hire Professors of Practice will be allocated between the different departments. "Certain departments are going to be able to grow," said English Professor Ammons, who expressed concern about the allocation of the faculty members. "Structurally, there will be up to 15 news lines. It seems to me that the issue of how these are distributed equitably [needs to be addressed]."
Gardulski explained that, because the Geology Department is small in comparison to other departments, with professors in her department on leave rather infrequently, having Professors of Practice in the department is rather unlikely.
"I think it has most of the immediate benefits for departments like engineering, drama, and music. There's less immediacy for a department like geology," she said.
Ammons expressed concern about how adding new faculty would affect the racial breakdown of the body. "The issue that's very important to me is what plan do we have to ensure that these new faculty lines will include significant racial diversity?" she said.
Manno explained that if the program were implement, there would be efforts to make sure the faculty is diverse in race and in gender. However, the process for hiring the Professors of Practice will not be like the traditional search, and Manno explained that the lapse of time between when a person is found and eventually hired could be two years or more.
