To communicate more clearly with the university community, Oregon State University Human Resources is moving away from the phrase “faculty and staff” and will instead use “employees” when referring broadly to everyone who works at the university.
Furthermore, when referring to specific groups of employees, HR will use their specific employment terms — academic faculty, professional faculty, graduate employees and so forth.
The department has been gradually heading in this direction for the past couple of years, and aims to continue on a slow roll-out by updating language on its own websites and materials before implementing a larger-scale terminology update across the university over time. UHR asks that other units also be more intentional in how they refer to employees, and directs them to the newly launched Talent site which includes descriptions of the different OSU employee groups.
“The goal is just to use more precise language,” said Carolyn Warfield, director of academic HR strategies. “If we say ‘faculty and staff,’ I think that means something different to each person you say it to. ‘Faculty and staff’ could leave out important OSU colleagues like public safety professionals, graduate employees and hourly student employees.”
Due to various unions and bargaining agreements in place for distinct types of employees at OSU, there are differences in employment rights and entitlements for academic faculty, professional faculty, classified staff and graduate student assistants.
Warfield said some of the confusion comes from policies that were in place when OSU was part of the Oregon University System, which was disbanded in 2015. Some of those policies use the umbrella term “faculty” even when they only apply to academic faculty.
The shift in language does not preclude anyone from using whatever title they’ve been using for themselves, nor does it change anyone’s underlying relationship to the university, Warfield said. And groups like the Faculty Senate will continue as normal.
HR wants to ensure that when they are talking about people’s employment, they are clear about who is included in that conversation, she said. Already, offer letters to new hires specify which category of employee they will be.
The language is also important for inclusivity.
“We all have a role and we all matter,” Warfield said. “But everyone is still welcome to use their individual titles wherever they prefer.”
For questions about employment language or the shift in terminology, contact Carolyn Warfield.
