6.4. Lecturers
The large majority of faculty with Lecturer rank are in the College of Arts & Sciences (112), with the balance distributed among Academic Institutes and Centers/CELOP (31), CGS (17), SMG (15), CFA (7), COM (5), SED (4), MET (3), SAR (1), and ENG (1) (Appendices C7, 20, 14, 10, 8, 9, 13, 12, 11, 15).
The CAS Writing Program, Romance Studies (RS), and Modern Languages & Comparative Literature (MLCL) heavily rely on Lecturers and house close to 75% of all CAS faculty at this rank. Lecturers are not asked to be research-active, though a minority are; their primary commitment is to excellent teaching (in the humanities they teach 3/3, whereas tenured and tenure-track professors teach 2/2) and, in a circumscribed but also important way, to appropriate forms of service. Service expectations vary by department; in the language departments (MLCL and RS) many Lecturers have significant administrative, supervisory, and coordinating duties, provide program direction, develop new courses and curricula, and so on. Coordinators earn a small stipend, or in the case of the overall coordinators of Spanish and French (the largest language programs), course release. In Writing there are four such coordinators. Lecturers in MLCL increasingly offer Directed Studies for students to supplement normal course offerings. In Chemistry, Lecturers hold lab responsibilities, and some Lecturers work in the coordination of teaching fellows.
Throughout the University, whether at CAS, CGS, CFA, or COM, Lecturer responsibilities are consistently defined as primarily teaching with varying expectations for service and coordination. Teaching loads are typically higher than those of professorial faculty (CGS and MET are exceptions in this regard). Lecturers are not always included in invitations for fellowships, committees, and other professional opportunities, and support for scholarly work is scarce. This makes professional development very difficult and in the long term may negatively impact teaching quality.
The ranks of Senior and Master Lecturer appear in the Faculty Handbook but have not been much used. These ranks could, if promotions are made available in sufficient numbers, provide a Lecturer career path. The Handbook is silent on the differences in job responsibilities among Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, and Master Lecturers.
Recommendation:
- Schools and colleges should clarify the differences in responsibilities and expectations in teaching, program leadership, service and professional activities for Lecturer, Senior and Master Lecturer, and then make promotion to the Senior and Master ranks available to appropriately qualified Lecturers.