Resolution on Creating Additional Clinical Faculty Lines

Whereas: Rutgers University is committed to preserving academic freedom and academic excellence in teaching, research and service.

Whereas: The institution of tenure remains unsurpassed as a means of safeguarding both the professional integrity of the faculty and its freedom of thought and expression.

Whereas: The proportion of non-tenure-track faculty has grown dramatically in recent decades and now constitutes 23% of all full time faculty at Rutgers.

Whereas: The trend toward contingent appointments at Rutgers has seldom been the subject of serious inquiry and discussion, rarely coming to the attention of governance bodies responsible for educational policy.

Whereas: Three decades of experience in the Rutgers University Libraries and Rutgers Cooperative Extension based at Cook College has demonstrated that alternative tenure criteria have been successful in promoting excellence in activities central to the Rutgers mission.

Whereas: Ten years of experience has also proven that the clinical positions in Law, Nursing, and Pharmacy provide essential instructional and practical experiences for Rutgers students.

Therefore be it resolved that: The Faculty Council holds the professional activities of faculty in the proposed Professional Practice tracks in Mason Gross School of the Arts (MGSA), the School of Business Camden (SBC) and the Rutgers School of Business- Newark and New Brunswick (RBS) to be an important and continuing part of the Rutgers mission and therefore strongly recommends that these faculty members be appointed to tenure-eligible positions.

Be it further resolved that: The proposed Clinical Faculty track in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) be established and maintained by the conversion of already existing non-tenured research or staff lines to clinical titles thereby allowing proper professional recognition in terms of promotion and defending the principle that present tenured lines not be converted to non-tenured ones.

Be it further resolved that: Each unit/division, in cooperation with the appropriate faculty and administrative bodies, develop tenure, or promotion and evaluation criteria suitable for the proposed appointments.

Be it further resolved that: Tenure eligibility for the proposed new professional practice faculty positions in MGSA, SBC and RBS shall be in accordance with University Regulation 3.3.17 on Academic Tenure.