Inside Higher Ed
August 13th, 2015
Lots of departments want to know what they’re doing right for non-tenure-track faculty members, what they can do better and how that climate affects student learning. But how to measure it? The Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success at the University of Southern California, which works with adjuncts and administrators on these issues, fields such questions all the time. So it created a self-assessment tool called Departmental Cultures and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty.
The anonymous survey tool can be used by provosts or administrators, department chairs, non-tenure-track faculty members themselves, or unions to understand departmental climates on campus. It collects information on basic demographics of non-tenure-track faculty members, such as length of service, whether respondents are part-time or full-time, and if they work primarily on campus or online. Questions on departmental culture explore treatment by tenure-track faculty members, participation at faculty meetings, salary and pay, hiring practices, communication, mentoring, and levels of institutional support. There’s a separate subsection for online-only faculty.