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NTT FLC Climate Survey Working Group

November 28, 2023

NTT FLC 2023 Climate Survey Summary

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Survey Highlights

Overview of participants
Participation in faculty activities
Teaching loads
Availability of resources and opportunities
Experiences as NTT Faculty
Perception of overall UGA climate
Priorities for improving the conditions and experiences for NTT faculty
Intent to remain at UGA
Challenges or concerns
Advice for promotion

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Work Locations

Arts and Sciences (n=143)
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (n=89)

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Years at UGA

50.2% of respondents have been at UGA longer than they have been in their current track. The other 49.8% have been in their current track for their entire UGA career.

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Awareness of NTT FLC

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Participation

in Faculty Activities

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The mean breakdown by semester for respondents that teach is roughly 3 courses each in the fall and spring and 1 in the summer.

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This slide is a summary of the data from the previous two slides and gives an overall view of how NTT faculty rated their overall experience at UGA. If you remember from the previous slides, participants rated on a 5-point scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) their level of agreement with statements about their experiences at UGA. On this slide, participants’ mean score ranges are on the bottom, and the two red colors represents those who strongly disagreed or disagreed with the statements, the yellow are those who are neutral or neither agree or disagree, and the green represent those that agree or strongly agree. Another way to view it, red represents negative experience, yellow is neutral experience, and green as positive experience. You can see that the most common rating of overall experience was neutral, followed by 31% with negative experience, and 28% with positive experience.

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Top 8 Priorities

Salary equity
2. Offer multi-year contracts for NTT
3. Better access to support/funding for travel and professional dev.
4. Equal/appropriate voting rights for NTT faculty within the department/unit
5. Better detail on expectations, responsibilities, and privileges...
6...enhance the campus climate for and understanding of NTT roles by tenure track faculty
7. Professional development available to NTT faculty
8. More awards for excellence available to NTT faculty

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We also asked about the likelihood that participants will be employed at UGA five years from now. A majority or respondents (65%) reported they were very likely or likely to still be here, 20% were undecided, and 15% were unlikely or very unlikely to still be here.. Those who answered unlikely or very unlikely, were asked why they are unlikely to still be here. The pie chart on this slide shows the most common reason is retirement, followed by seeking a new job, other, relocation, and end of funded position. Some of the other responses overlapped with seeking a new job and include responses such as: seeking a better work environment and more support, returning to industry where there is more work-life balance, health reasons, difficulty being in the minority as a clinical faculty member in the department, workload is too much, would like to have more freedom, and visa sponsorship.

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Challenges/Concerns: Resources

“As someone who does not work on campus, it can be frustrating that very little outreach happens for those of us who do not work on campus.”

“More opportunities for NTT faculty from satellite campuses to participate via Zoom would be nice.”

“Sometimes feel like a forgotten child and not included in the efforts put on by the university, since we are so removed from main campus.”

“I spend all my time just trying to keep up. I can’t take time to learn about these things.”

“The resources for NTT faculty are there, I am just not able to get time and/or support for them.”

“I was not given or pointed toward any of this information. Because it has never come up for discussion, I didn’t know it was even available. The focus tends to be on tenure-track, and if you’re not tenure-track, then you are on your own, or at least this is the way it feels.”

“I’m brand new to this position (moved from staff position to faculty recently). It would be nice to receive some sort of university or college resource related to what is available.”

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Challenges/Concerns: Improving Conditions

“A little bit lower teaching load and/or higher compensation. I do not need more awards or more opportunities to serve on committees.”

“I feel like I deserve to be paid the same as other faculty but am paid much lower just because I am NTT. Pay equity and multiple year contracts would me feel like I am a valued member of my community.”

“I don’t understand why, when I’ve been promoted once, and likely will be promoted a second time in the near future, I can’t be offered more job security. It’s the biggest downside of a NTT position.”

“I’d like to feel more secure in my job. I’d love to have a multi-year contract.”

“I genuinely wish that my department did not treat us as an after thought. It would be amazing to even just be informed of what TT faculty discusses and votes on. We are not included in departmental faculty voting at all.”

“NTT faculty are allowed to serve on search committees, spending all that time reviewing up to 100 applications, ranking, and interviewing candidates, but we aren’t allowed to vote. What a way to remind us of our 3^rd class ranking in the department.”

“Every department should have an NTT chair, similar to a department chair.”

“I believe everything on this list is essential. Unfortunately, as a NTT faculty member, I feel like I have very little opportunity for growth, and I am hoping to leave this position soon.”

“Ability for senior NTT faculty to advance to high level administrative positions.”

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Challenges/Concerns: Promotion

“I am unclear what the expectations are for me to be retained from year to year.”

“The promotion process is unnecessarily long, tedious, and cumbersome. It needs to be simpler and more straightforward. We lose a lot of productive work time that could be spent serving our communities and clients, working on dossiers. Nowhere else is it so difficult to get a 5k raise.”

“The expectations seem to vary wildly across units.”

“I feel that different program areas in my department have different levels of expectations and accomplishments for successful promotion, which seems unfair.”

“I think the process is absurd for those of us on annual contracts. It does not result in meaningful job security for those of us on annual contracts, and it is a lot of effort.”

“I have never received any advice/guidance on the promotion process from my division.”

“Unclear guidance for NTT faculty. Department Chair does not know process and cannot provide guidance.”

“Unit heads need training on the promotion process for their employees.”

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Advice for Promotion Process

Start early

Find a mentor

Review dossier examples

Keep good notes of your work

Ask for help & feedback

Ensure unit head understands the process

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Thank You