The UT Board of Trustees approved a measure to add new, non-tenure-track faculty appointments June 23.

Before the change, the only multi-year appointment for non-tenure-track faculty was the position of distinguished lecturer, which is up to five years.

"What this allows us to do is engage critical members of our faculty," Provost Susan Martin said at the Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee meeting June 23. "... (It) allows us to offer some guarantee of employment (and) make sure we have the best people in place."

The new appointments available include the addition of a senior lecturer position, which is up to three years.

The following positions have been amended to have an appointment of up to five years: research assistant professor, research associate professor, research professor, clinical assistant professor, clinical associate professor and clinical professor.

The only way these appointments could be involuntarily terminated would be through cause or if funding lapses or a funding agency orders it is stopped.

UT President Joe DiPietro emphasized the importance of lecturers.

"Often times you have lecturers or associate professors that are really the lifeblood of the training programs and the educational process," he said.

Before this change, DiPietro said some faculty members would get a letter of appointment, and in that same letter, it would say they may not be at the university next year because of the one-year nature of the appointment.

"It now puts us in a position to say to these people, 'You're not only doing a great job, but we're willing to give you a little bit of security as to where you might be next year.'" he said.

He also said it allows UT to hang on to faculty members that other universities might steal away, otherwise.

He called the lecturers vital to the programs, teaching and research mission.

Provost outlines VOL Vision

At the meeting, Martin also outlined the strategic priorities of the VOL Vision campaign.

Katie High, interim vice president for academic affairs and student success, said the quest for UT to become a top 25 public research university is being melded with the Knoxville campus' strategic plan.

"Last fall, there was a presentation to this committee about UT-Knoxville's quest to become a top 25 research institution," High said. "Prior to that, UT-Knoxville was already revising its strategic plan."

Martin said the plan began in January 2010.

"In semester-long meetings with key campus constituencies, we conducted a very full dialogue with faculty, staff and students about the key elements of our mission statement and key strategic goals and priorities," Martin said.

She said the mission is three-pronged: teaching, research and creative achievement and outreach and public service.

The first strategic priority is to recruit, develop and graduate a diverse body of undergraduate students, which Martin said dovetails with the top 25 metrics of undergraduate profile and graduation and retention rates.

"It also embraces more broadly our aspirations for our students to develop as productive students and as leaders in society," she said.

The other four strategic priorities include educating and graduating an increasing number of diverse graduate and professional students; strengthening UT's capacity and productivity in research, scholarship and creative activity; attracting and retaining stellar, diverse faculty and staff; and continually improving the resource base to achieve campus priorities.