“Moving Toward One Faculty” at the University of Texas at San Antonio

As student enrollment increases, the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)’s strategic plan calls for retaining more diverse faculty and improving work environments and experiences of fixed-term-track (FTT) faculty, the new name given to non-tenure-track faculty at UTSA, to better support student learning and engagement. The campus engaged in a six-year, multi-prong change process. In 2020, based on the collected data and revisions to papers with FTT faculty policy recommendations, a committee composed of the representatives of student, staff, faculty and senior leaders voted for the revised policy to be approved. FTT faculty, which comprises 52% of all UTSA faculty, perceive that the recent changes in FTT faculty policies and practices is a positive step in creating a unified faculty. The improvement in FTT policies and practices have also led UTSA to reevaluate other policies and practices in other areas, such as overall faculty retention, to be more equitable. UTSA is advancing toward realizing its commitment to student success and its role as HSI by better supporting faculty.

Categories: Delphi Project