ED7546: Human Resources in Higher Education

Human resources management in higher education is unlike HR in any other sector. The workforce is uniquely stratified — tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, non-tenure-track faculty, adjuncts, professional staff, classified staff, graduate assistants — each with different employment terms, governance roles, and institutional relationships. ED7546 develops the expertise to navigate this complexity, covering the full spectrum of HR functions through the distinctive lens of postsecondary institutional culture, governance, and law.

Compensation in higher education

Employee selection and the search process

ED7546 covers the distinctive employee selection processes in higher education — processes that differ significantly from hiring in corporate or government settings. For faculty hiring, the course covers the search committee model (how search committees are formed, their role in the hiring process, the relationship between committee recommendations and administrative decisions), position description development (crafting job advertisements that attract diverse applicant pools while accurately reflecting institutional needs), candidate evaluation (screening applications, reference checks, campus visits, teaching demonstrations, research presentations, committee deliberation, and the final recommendation process), and the legal framework governing hiring (equal opportunity requirements, affirmative action obligations, the importance of consistent and documented decision-making processes to defend against discrimination claims). For staff hiring, the course covers the differences between classified and professional staff hiring, internal versus external searches, and the role of HR departments in coordinating and ensuring compliance. Throughout, ED7546 addresses the diversity challenges in academic hiring — the persistent underrepresentation of faculty from historically marginalized groups and the institutional practices that can either perpetuate or address these disparities.

Tenure and the academic career

ED7546 examines tenure as the defining HR institution of higher education — one with no parallel in other sectors. The course covers the history and rationale of tenure (protecting academic freedom by insulating faculty from dismissal for unpopular ideas, research findings, or teaching methods), the tenure process (probationary period, tenure review criteria — typically teaching, research/scholarship, and service — the role of external reviewers, departmental, college, and university-level review committees, and the provost/president decision), the legal framework of tenure (contractual versus constitutional protections, pre-tenure procedural rights, post-tenure review), and the ongoing debates about tenure (arguments that tenure protects academic freedom and institutional quality versus arguments that tenure creates inflexibility, protects underperformers, and disadvantages contingent faculty). The course also covers promotion processes (the distinction between promotion and tenure, post-tenure promotion to full professor, and the criteria and processes that govern advancement), as well as faculty development and review (mid-tenure review, post-tenure review, and the challenge of maintaining faculty vitality throughout a career that may span 30 or more years at a single institution).

Collective bargaining and labor relations

ED7546 covers collective bargaining in higher education — a feature that distinguishes many postsecondary institutions from corporate employers and that creates a distinctive set of HR management challenges. The course covers the legal framework (NLRA coverage of private institutions, state labor laws governing public institutions, the distinction between mandatory and permissive subjects of bargaining), the bargaining process (contract negotiations, impasse resolution, mediation, and arbitration), contract administration (interpreting and applying collective bargaining agreements in daily management decisions), grievance procedures (processing employee grievances, preparing for and participating in arbitration hearings), and the distinctive challenges of collective bargaining in academic settings (where the boundary between management rights and academic governance is often blurred). The course includes a simulated arbitration exercise that develops practical skills in presenting and adjudicating workplace disputes within a collectively bargained framework.

Retention, termination, and litigation

ED7546 covers the employee retention and separation processes that present unique challenges in higher education. The course covers retention strategies (mentoring programs for new faculty, work-life balance initiatives, institutional support for research and creative activity, spousal/partner hiring programs, and the specific retention challenges facing faculty of color and other underrepresented groups), termination processes (the procedural protections associated with different employment categories — the extensive due process required for tenured faculty versus the more limited protections for at-will staff, the distinction between termination for cause and termination due to program elimination or financial exigency), and the litigation landscape (analyzing potential litigation situations involving discrimination claims, retaliation claims, wrongful termination, breach of contract, and due process violations through case studies of actual higher education employment disputes).

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