University instructors who have worked here for six consecutive years are now eligible for greater job security and better options for retirement plans: Extended three-year contracts starting in fall 2015 were approved at September’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Instructors are non-tenure-track, full-time faculty members who teach the same classes as professors but are not required to do research at the University. Until now, all instructors had annual contracts; their jobs were up in the air every year.
With the new approval, instructors who have been at the University for six years or more and have good evaluations are eligible for three-year contracts. Instructors who have been at the University for 12 years can earn the higher ranking title of “Senior Instructor,” said Jane Cassidy, vice provost for human resources and facilities management. 
Sharon Andrews, an instructor in the English department, said there are still problems with the new system of three-year job contracts for instructors. 
If the University has a financial crisis, the instructors who are at the end of the three-year cycle would be the first to be let go over instructors who may have worked for fewer years at the University but are in the middle of their cycle, Andrews said.  
During the University’s last financial crisis in 2010-11, Andrews, who has been at the University for 15 years and teaches English composition and poetry courses, received two termination notices, each followed by a rehiring notice. She still keeps them in her office. 
“I believe three-year contracts are a step in the right direction,” Andrews said in an email. “It’s important to note, however, that many non-tenure-track instructors are equally, if not more concerned about earning a fair salary that recognizes our worth and expertise.” 
Andrews said many veteran instructors, including  herself, earn less than the starting salaries of instructors at the University’s peer institutions.
She said many instructors have the same qualifications as tenure-track faculty members, but they primarily are focused on teaching. Instructors aren’t required to do research at the University, although many do work on research.
Andrews said instructors are focused on students’ education and nurture students who want to go into research or the realm of academia as well as students who want to pursue careers in other fields. 
English instructor Nolde Alexius, who has been at the University for more than 10 years, said the new contract system gives instructors more flexibility when choosing retirement plans because they are less likely to have to leave after only one year. 
University faculty members have a choice between two retirement plans — the optional retirement plan (ORP), which is similar to a 401(k) wheren money is put into the stock market, and the defined benefits plan, which is similar to Social Security. 
Alexius said it made more sense for instructors to put money into the ORP than the defined benefits plan because they cannot take money out of the other plan if they were to be terminated after a year. 
Andrews said extended contracts for instructors are also  important because instructors often teach general education courses and are critical to retaining freshman students. 
“One of my colleagues said we are the face of retention,” Andrews said. “Everyone has to take ENGL 2000, so we see every student who comes in.” 
Alexius also said the greater stability longer contracts provide feeds into greater stability with student retention. 
“Maybe it still doesn’t have as much of an impact because you still have to teach for six years,” Alexius said. “But it’s a little more hopeful.”  
Andrews said many students may not even know the difference between professors who are on the tenure track and instructors. 
Mass communication sophomore Chloe Huff said she appreciates the work experience her instructors bring to their teaching because some of them come to the University from other fields of work. 
“Like my writing teacher, she has a lot of hands on experience,” Huff said. “I think its very good [instructors] can have longer contracts.”