New on the TT and I need advice

No, that absolutely does not sound normal.

At any university that I've been involved in, either the instructor has full control over their course or they work together with others that teach the course to work on a standardization of content. I've never seen someone just tell you exactly what to teach, even if you're an adjunct or visiting professor.

NTT means different things at different universities as far as rights and responsibilities. I've seen NTT professors that admin interdisciplinary programs so there is sometimes a strange dynamic between an NTT with admin responsibilities and TT professors that teach classes in the program. However, I've never really seen an NTT try to tell a TT what to do before.

Your chair and colleagues, including NTT, should be helpfully telling you about the culture in your department, campus, and university. It would be invaluable to know that tenure decisions can be influenced by whether people see you in your office often, for example (though if you're publishing and bringing in grant money, I doubt that is true in the modern era of academia). However, anyone trying to tell you exactly what to do as far as being on campus is out of line.

I'd definitely try to nip this in the bud as soon as possible. Try not to set it up as TT vs NTT because that can be a sensitive and sore subject. But, it's insulting for any colleague to assume you're incapable of developing your own courses or manage your own schedule.

/r/AskAcademia Thread