In the past five decades, the teaching load at the University of Colorado Boulder has been increasingly borne by instructors instead of tenured or tenure-track faculty, and the College of Arts and Sciences has formed a task force to recommend best practices. 

The college’s ad hoc Instructor Task Force was jointly formed by Interim Dean James W.C. White and Stephen Mojzsis, chair of the Arts and Sciences Council, the college’s faculty shared-governance body. 

The task force will conduct a “long overdue” examination of the role of A&S instructors, policies and workloads affecting their service, and the climate in which instructors work, White and Mojzsis stated.

“Rostered instructors and senior instructors on multi-year contracts now join tenure-stream faculty as the ‘core faculty’ of the College of Arts and Sciences, and of the campus as a whole,” the task force’s charge states, adding: “Their responsibilities and professional activities surely differ, as they should. But both groups contribute in vital ways to our undergraduate mission, and to the success of our students.”

The task force is co-chaired by Jenny Knight, associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and Rolf Norgaard, teaching professor and associate director of the Program for Writing and Rhetoric. 

Knight and Norgaard characterized the task force as a “timely opportunity to think strategically and intentionally about the roles of and policies concerning instructors in what is our larger shared mission.” 

The task force held its first meeting on June 8 and resolved to seek input from the faculty. The group is charged with completing a report with findings and recommendations by February 2019. 

The task force will solicit information and diverse views, and it will announce town halls or similar fora in the coming months. Meanwhile, please contact the task force co-chairs, Knight and Norgaard, with any questions. Information about the task force, its meetings and progress can be found at this web page.