PULLMAN, Wash. – About one-third of non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) at Washington State University responded to a survey about working conditions that was initiated by a faculty senate task force last fall. Findings and recommendations are expected to be reported to the provosts, senate and NTTFs as early as next week and then shared with the university community.
Of 1,650 NTTF identified at WSU, 631 participated in the survey. The average years of service at WSU for respondents was 6½, and almost 75 percent of participants indicated that they plan to stay with WSU “for the long haul.”
“Non-tenure track” encompasses many classifications of faculty. During the survey, WSU Extension faculty pointed out that it did not really address their situations and reflected a basic lack of understanding about extension.
“We didn’t know what we did not know,” the task force reported. “We should have asked someone from extension to be on the task force, and we mean to follow up with the comments we received.”
The task force was comprised of Lydia Gerber, Paul Krouss, Kurt Wilkie, Judi McDonald, Sheila Converse, Leslie Jo Sena and AG Rud.