"Excluding Non-Tenure Track Faculty from Professors' Association is Discrimination"… Human Rights Commission Recommendation Accepted

The university accepted the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that non-tenure-track full-time faculty members should be allowed to join and participate in decision-making within the faculty council.

On the 6th, the NHRC announced that A University in Daejeon accepted the recommendation made on the 22nd of last month to "revise related regulations to ensure that non-tenure-track full-time faculty members are not excluded from joining and participating in the operation of the faculty council." The president of A University’s faculty council replied to the NHRC that at the regular faculty council meeting scheduled for December, they plan to discuss and decide on allowing membership in the faculty council without distinction between tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty members. Furthermore, the president of A University and the chairman of the school foundation stated that they would consult with the faculty council to enable non-tenure-track full-time faculty members to join the faculty council.

Previously, non-tenure-track full-time faculty members at A University filed a complaint with the NHRC, stating that although they perform essentially the same duties as tenure-track full-time faculty members, they were not allowed to join the faculty council, which is a consultative body for full-time professors.

The NHRC stated in its previous recommendation that "the faculty council is a representative body of professors that deliberates on matters concerning professors’ rights and interests as well as major duties of full-time faculty members, including academic administration." It further noted that "the faculty council is an official university body authorized to participate in actual school operations, such as appointing or recommending members of official university organizations." Additionally, the NHRC pointed out that "excluding non-tenure-track full-time faculty members from joining the faculty council is difficult to justify rationally."