Professional Faculty Interests Committee

Voting members present: Connie Caddis, Jason Tanenbaum, Jennifer Thornhill, Carlea White, Katheryn Yetter
Voting members absent: Justin Fleming, Kate Moses, Richard Riggs
Ex-Officio members present: Lizette Stone – Professional Faculty Leadership Association

Introductions

Approval of February and March 2023 minutes

• Connie Caddis motion to approve the minutes as submitted; seconded. The motion passed with 5 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

Debrief March meeting re: career progression

• What does it look like and how can this group help create narrative around career progression? How do we define career progression within the structure of higher education?
  • Given the variety of positions in the professional faculty category, a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a position progression would not be ideal. Implementation of any career progression plan/program should be customized to the position type since, again, lots of different job types.
  • Consideration should be given to new hires vs. current employees (what do steps mean, when to bring someone in at a step other than one, how to have equity in hiring with existing employees).
  • Create a portfolio of all of things available that might meet the goals of career progression – title change, pay bump, career counseling based on experience, knowledge, and skills.
  • Market positions internally and make concerted effort to recruit from the inside to give opportunities for progression and career advancement. Maybe have job fairs for people who want to work on campus.
  • So many people move around – tell some success stories about how they made that happen. This is also a PR move since it gets the word out the moving around within OSU is a positive, acceptable practice.
  • Can we do temporary detail like the feds do? Basically, doing another job for the experience (for a certain period of time) and then returning to former position. Good way to sample different units, positions, gain skills, etc.
• Action item possibility: Recommend that we update position profiles and pay grades based on comps.
• Which professional faculty positions are appropriate for career progression? Which are not?
  • Not possible to recommend any particular position – would prefer to have flexibility.
• What data are available to guide these conversations?
  • Can we do a survey of how people have progressed, what prompted them to look for another position, what would you need to move somewhere else within OSU, what would the goals be.
  • Is there data on who has progressed and through which methods?
  • Can we get Human Resources or Faculty Senate to disseminate a survey and get supervisors to carve out time for people to fill it out?

Any items for the good of the order? Other guest speakers we might like to invite?

• Guest speaker: Head of Class & Comp; would like more information on pay and profiles (can explore particular “ask” at future meeting).
• Guest speaker someone from University Information & Technology who can speak to the tech that’s available for professional faculty to acquire/improve skills.

Next meeting dates: 

• May 17 (Ballard Hall, Room 104), 11:00-12:00 PM
• June 15 (Ballard Hall, Room 104), 10:00-12:00 PM
• September: TBD