Why a separate page for lecturers?
FAUW represents lecturers with continuing and definite-term appointments of one year or longer. These lecturers are regular faculty whose appointments are typically focused on teaching and service, though the relative weightings of those components varies.
Until recently, there have been few regular lecturer appointments at Waterloo and they were not often accounted for in University policies. Lecturers now make up approximately 19% of all Faculty Association members, and there are currently some gaps in policy where lecturers are not adequately considered.
These gaps—and the actual differences between lecturer and tenure-track appointments—mean that lecturers have a different experience at Waterloo and sometimes need different information and advice.
Who is a lecturer?
The term “lecturer” is often indiscriminately applied to everyone from sessional instructors hired by the course to permanent teaching faculty. At Waterloo, “lecturer” is one of the four faculty ranks (the others are assistant professor, associate professor, and professor). While sessional instructors are also hired at the rank of lecturer, they have adjunct orspecial (vs regular) appointments and are administratively very different from the lecturer-rank regular faculty members. As of 2023, 53% of Lecturers have continuing status; the rest are on definite-term contracts.
Key resources
Most of the information for all faculty, including our Faculty Guide to Working at Waterloo and information for new faculty, is equally applicable to lecturers and tenure-track faculty. The main exception is the career progression sections of the Guide, which will be updated once the Policy 76 review is done.
Here are some key resources particularly relevant to lecturers:
- The Faculty Guide to Working at Waterloo has a page on definite term appointments.
- The FAUW Lecturers Committee provides input to the FAUW Board on lecturer-specific issues. The committee also regularly writes about lecturer-related issues on the FAUW blog.
- The Academic Freedom & Tenure (AF&T) Committee provides confidential support to individual members with workplace issues of all kinds.
- The provost’s office has a Checklist for Continuing Lecturer Appointments (docx file) that departments must follow.
- The Centre for Teaching Excellence offers support for teaching and pedagogy. Lecturers are eligible to apply for Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Grants, which “fund projects investigating innovative approaches to enhancing teaching and fostering deep student learning.”
Yes, lecturers are eligible for that
- Faculty Professional Expense Reimbursement (FPER). This covers business expenses "directly related to the performance of teaching, research and professional duties," including professional association membership fees, conference fees and travel, computers (though UW will own them), and academic regalia.
- A whole bunch of leaves, and a non-teaching term once every six terms. See sections 2a and 3d of Policy 76 (Faculty Appointments) and the note at the bottom of the Checklist for Continuing Lecturer Appointments (DOCX) for information about the non-teaching term. Note that how your teaching is covered while you are on leave is not your responsibility.