After 25 years as musicians in the Lydian String Quartet, music professors Judith Eissenberg and Mary Ruth Ray will take paid leaves next fall for the first time in their careers.That's because, beginning next fall, contract faculty members who have been here for an "extended period of time" will be eligible to take paid leave, Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe said.

Both Eissenberg, who teaches chamber music performance, and Ray, who is the department's chair, are contract faculty members, whose jobs are reviewed each time their contracts expire. Contract faculty are not on a track toward tenure, a system unique to academia which allows continued employment not subject to periodic review.

Leave has traditionally been reserved for tenured faculty, who are currently eligible for a sabbatical leave after every six years of full-time employment, when they can be paid full salary for one semester of leave or half salary for each of two semesters' leave, according to the Faculty Handbook.

"It's not true that no contract faculty member has ever had a paid leave, but in the past it has been rare and very ad-hoc and special case," Jaffe said.

The Faculty Handbook subcommittee of the Faculty Senate will discuss changes in the handbook regarding salary during the leave, the specific criteria for eligible faculty and the procedure to apply for paid leave.

Because of recommendations submitted by a faculty committee on the status and treatment of contract faculty last spring, Jaffe began developing a process for senior contract faculty members to apply for paid leave.

"I think certainly the fact that [contract faculty] have not had leaves has been the major source of resentment," Jaffe said. Some contract faculty members "feel that their contributions and their need for time for professional and scholarly development is comparable to that of the tenured faculty."

The committee, assembled by Provost Marty Krauss and composed of contract and tenured faculty members and several administrators, also suggested new contract faculty job titles be added to the handbook, as well as guidelines for the processes of appointment, reappointment and promotion to address concerns over job security.

"We are trying to design some employment procedures that I think will give [contract faculty] a sense of clarity and transparency about what they can expect because they just haven't had that consistency," Krauss said. "If [the contract] is not going to be renewed, [faculty] would have ample opportunity to go into the job market."

The Faculty Senate meeting this Thursday will include discussion of the proposal to add the titles of "senior lecturer" and "associate professor of the practice" to the handbook. The recommendation will also be reviewed by a Faculty Handbook committee.

Prof. Susan Dibble (THA) has been an artist in residence for 17 years and is currently up for review on her three-year contract. She is also a member of the committee on contract faculty and said she is eager to have her title changed to one that better reflects her position.

"What we do doesn't match the title that we have," she said. "We do everything that tenured faculty do."

Dibble said some tenured professors have voiced concerns over the creation of new job titles and the extension of paid leave. She said that to some professors, tenure status is a privilege, and "for contract faculty to be the same, it lessens the position of tenure."

However, she added, "I've been here a really long time and worked very hard myself."

Krauss said some members of the tenured faculty do not understand the vital role contract faculty play. "Through inadvertent language or behavior, [tenured professors] convey a lack of respect to the contract faculty that I think is very unfortunate [because] we are all employees of the University," she said.

Prof. Ruth Charney (MATH), a tenured member of the contract faculty committee, said contracted faculty fill a different role than tenured faculty.

"Many of the contract faculty are performing jobs that are not part of the regular faculty jobs," including more administrative work, and in general, occupying fewer research-oriented positions.

Many tenured professors do not realize the variety of jobs that contract professors perform, Charney said. "It's not that they're doing the same job at a lower level. To a large extent they're doing different jobs and they're doing them extremely well and they should be given respect for that," she said.

Prof. Leonard Muellner (CLAS) served on the foreign language oversight committee several years ago, which started the process of reviewing the status of contract faculty members.

Muellner said when the committee met with the provost about its concerns, the provost told them "it was not her top priority, but it was a priority." He said he is glad to see the process moving forward now.

Ray and Eissenberg, the contract music professors about to take leave, agree. "There's a sense of dignity with this whole process and it makes a big difference to me," Eissenberg said.

"It feels like a sign of confidence from the administration in us.