As Northwestern’s Faculty Senate concluded a 15-minute small-group discussion period Wednesday evening, each table came to approximately the same conclusion: NU needs more transparency from its administration in the budgetary review process.
In a Jan. 16 email sent to the NU community, University President Michael Schill announced that NU would review its budget model for the first time in decades. The University hopes to ensure financial stability by examining how NU allocates its resources, Schill wrote in the email.
Another goal, Schill wrote in the email, is “greater financial transparency.” At the meeting, professors encouraged the administration to allow a Faculty Senate representative to advise the University and Board of Trustees on faculty priorities in the budget.
“We don’t have a say in those decisions, typically, but we can communicate to the administration what we care about and how we would like them to think about these decisions,” Faculty Senate president and McCormick Prof. Jill Wilson said during the meeting.
In the small-group dialogues, facilitated by Budget and Planning Committee Chair and Kellogg Prof. Michael Fishman, professors also suggested more transparency on variation in budgets between NU’s schools and on the proportion of expenses between faculty, deans and the administration.
The issues of faculty appointments and tenure were also prominent subjects in Wednesday’s discussion.
Non-Tenure Eligible Committee Chair and Communication Prof. Catherine Fabian said the committee is investigating the current faculty appointment process and trying to reduce single-year appointments.
“Initial terms across most schools are single-year appointments,” Fabian said.
The problem with single-year appointments, Fabian said, is that the Feinberg School of Medicine is NU’s only school to dictate the amount of notice it must give single-year appointees on whether their contract will be renewed.
The result, she said, is that in every other school, it’s not necessary to notify faculty on whether they will teach in Fall Quarter until Aug. 31 — the end of the fiscal year — which could leave them scrambling.
Though Fabian said she is not aware of any incidents where this has occurred, she told The Daily that she aims to formalize a standard across NU’s schools that notifies faculty earlier.
Fabian’s committee is also investigating the status of non-tenure-eligible faculty at NU. The number of non-tenure-eligible faculty members increased from roughly 1,760 in 2016 to roughly 2,400 in 2024, she said.
“The importance of monitoring that ratio and that mix speaks to some critical components of academic freedom and the quality of faculty at universities,” Fabian said during the meeting.
In 2018, the American Association of University Professors called the increase in non-tenure-eligible faculty across the country “deeply worrisome” due to its possible chilling effect on academic freedom.
One professor who is on the tenure track but does not yet have tenure is Medill Prof. Steven Thrasher, who participated in the pro-Palestine encampment in April. The University canceled Thrasher’s Fall Quarter classes in September 2024 while it investigated him for his social media use and views on objectivity.
The Faculty Senate discussed Thrasher’s investigation at its Jan. 8 meeting. There, faculty members raised concerns about ambiguities in faculty disciplinary processes.
Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee Chair and philosophy Prof. Mark Alznauer said the Faculty Senate should have oversight in cases where the University is considering removing professors from the classroom.
“We’ve been talking a little bit about whether we could come up with either an appeals process or at least some kind of oversight where … faculty who have the kind of confidential information that we as a body usually don’t have about these cases would be able to give a kind of judgment as to whether the removal from the classroom was prima facie appropriate,” Alznauer said.
The administration’s argument, Alznauer added, is that there is no legal right for professors to teach.
To increase oversight or create an appeals process, the Faculty Handbook would have to be revised. Wilson said this could be difficult since the Senate cannot unilaterally change the handbook without University approval.
When they concluded their reports Wednesday evening, each standing committee chair emphasized that their work advocating for faculty interests would continue.
“It seems especially important that we articulate and convey to the administration what is important to us when difficult decisions are being made,” Wilson said.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will take place on March 12.
Email: isaiahsteinberg2027@u.northwestern.edu
X: @IsaiahStei27
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