The University Council should grant the temporary faculty their own representative council.

NIU’s temporary faculty have come together to get a voice in university happenings. The more than 400 faculty members that fall in this category are not represented on the Faculty Senate.

So the temporary faculty don’t get a say in what affects the university and their own classrooms. A council would help correct this by including one member from each college department in the roster.

Before people begin hollering that having a representative body for a group of “temporary” faculty is ridiculous, they should realize that this label is somewhat deceptive.

There are some faculty hired on a temporary basis who have stayed at NIU for as long as, and sometimes longer than, “permanent” faculty members.

Something else to remember is that temporary faculty work on yearly contracts. This means they have to prove themselves on a yearly basis, and if they plan on continuing their job, they must either improve or at least continue at their same level of work.

This is unlike other faculty employed on longer-term contracts which allows more leeway to become stagnant in their teaching methods and abilities.

The temporary faculty deserve representation and their combined effort could give them the voice they have earned. It is only right they receive a voice for what they have offered the university.