Letter: The new hiring plan will lead to excess work for lecturers

To the editor: I wish to add to the comments I made to the IC last week (“UT Plans for Loss of about 100 Professors”). While I appreciate some characteristics of Provost Barrett’s hiring plan, I remain concerned about other aspects, namely the consequences of potentially replacing too many tenure-track lines with lecturer positions. My concern is not with the level of commitment or qualification of lecturers, for I take it as self-evident that UT lecturers are dedicated to their disciplines, students and the institution. Lecturers already have a heavy teaching load, often teaching multiple sections with hundreds of students. A reduction in tenure-track faculty will likely add increased pressure for lecturers to perform even more service and committee work than they already do. Faculty are asked to provide more service learning and internships opportunities, in addition to traditional practicums, and clinical training for our students, activities which require coordination, supervision and evaluation. I fear that the decline in the number of tenured/tenure track faculty will mean that lecturers will have to shoulder even more of these responsibilities than they already do. My question is this: will UT respond to the commitments of tenure-track and lecturer faculty with the same level of commitment by creating a good working environment? Remember, faculty working conditions are student learning conditions.

— Linda Rouillard, Associate Professor