Pathways to career security for fixed-term faculty in Harriot College and ECU

Dr. Marianne Montgomery’s latest book chapter shines light on pathways for faculty focused on teaching in fixed-term appointments at East Carolina University.

Montgomery, associate professor in the Department of English and associate dean for faculty and student affairs in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, has published “Using Power for Illumination: Advancement Paths for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty” in Strategic Shakespeare: Transformative Leadership for the Future of Higher Education.

The new book is a collection of contributions from Renaissance and Shakespearean scholars in leadership roles in higher education throughout the United States, demonstrating the value of humanities-trained scholars. Edited by Ariane M. Balizet, Natalie K. Eschenbaum and Marcela Kostihová, the collection “aims to leverage traditional assumptions about Shakespeare in the service of a more inclusive and sustainable academy.”

“Making a powerful case for the liberal arts, the contributors demonstrate how training in the humanities creates a baseline of skills in collaboration, deep listening, tolerance for ambiguity and a range of other positionalities,” the editors said. “As this innovative collection showcases, these skills are crucial in the current climate, as higher education struggles with declining enrolments, decreasing budgets, growing public distrust and (often) hostile legislative oversight.”

In her chapter, Montgomery demonstrates that the motif of the sun and clouds in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy shows how power and authority tend to mystify their own workings. Academic leaders, she argues, should not follow that model.

“Academic leaders should use our power to illuminate processes, making them more visible and thereby more accessible and equitable,” she said.

Drawing on her experiences at ECU, Montgomery describes efforts to promote career advancement and development for fixed-term faculty.

“ECU, Harriot College and the Department of English have charted advancement pathways that recognizes the sustained contributions of fixed-term faculty,” she said. “We are lucky they have chosen careers at ECU. They are an important part of the work of the institution and the university’s mission of student success, public service and regional transformation.”

Montgomery said that many fixed-term faculty feel cut off from opportunities. Their heavy teaching loads, limited roles in shared governance and fixed-length contracts keep them feeling perpetually precarious, even when their teaching is essential. As a leader, she said she had to try and make things better.

“In the last decade, particularly in the last five years, we have made a lot of progress on fixed-term advancement,” Montgomery said.

For several decades, ECU has offered a path to career advancement for fixed-term faculty. However, until 2018, the process was only available to faculty with terminal degrees, who could move from teaching assistant professor to teaching associate professor to teaching professor. According to Montgomery’s research, as of fall 2023, 39% of ECU’s fixed-term faculty did not hold terminal degrees. Many fixed-term faculty, including those in Harriot College, have earned a master’s or juris doctor degree.

In 2018, a new title of senior teaching instructor was added to the ECU Faculty Manual, which Montgomery said was a vital first step toward making advancement in title available to faculty without terminal degrees. The master teaching instructor title was added a few years later.

“In English, several fixed-term faculty with M.A. degrees had been waiting for over a decade for an advancement path, and they immediately advanced to senior teaching instructor,” she said.

When she served as chair of the Department of English, and in collaboration with the department’s personnel committee, Montgomery wrote a guidance document for advancement in title for the department. Advancement became a regular occurrence in the department, with at least a few English faculty members advancing every year. When she became an associate dean for Harriot College in 2022, Montgomery instituted a similar process at the college level, with the assistance of the college’s personnel coordinators.

The year before becoming associate dean, Montgomery said three fixed-term faculty members advanced in title from two departments in Harriot College. The next year, after writing the procedure for advancement, 17 faculty members advanced across 10 departments. Now, Montgomery said the college averages between 10 to 12 advancement cases per year.

“We are creating a culture where advancement becomes routine, where faculty look forward to it and departments know their fixed-term faculty will be pursuing it regularly,” she said. “What is cool is that in a few years, the big group of 17 people will be eligible for their next advancement. Advancement is not a one-time thing. It snowballs.”

She said the next steps include continuing to promote the advancement process, training personnel and transitioning from the informal college process to fully operationalizing the university’s recent changes in the process toward advancement, which are more defined in the Faculty Manual. She also said one of the next steps is to acquire better raises associated with advancement, something that the Faculty Senate is working to rectify. Currently, there is no standardized, centrally funded pay raise for advancement in title. Raises have been entirely funded at the college level, and Harriot College has funded raises of $1,000 for each faculty member who has advanced.

“At ECU, we have worked to make advancement processes more transparent and humane, ensuring that fixed-term faculty see career paths and professional opportunities for themselves at the university,” Montgomery concluded in the book chapter. “Illuminating these career paths produces stronger departments, better teaching and a more stable workforce.”