Policy 6-310: Reviews of Career-Line Adjunct, and Visiting Faculty Members, and Other Instructional Personnel (Standards and Procedures). - Regulations Library

Purpose and Scope

This Policy and associated Regulations serve the University's fundamental commitments to academic freedom and academic excellence in all areas, particularly in its teaching mission, and are intended to maintain the high quality of the University's career-line, adjunct, and visiting faculty and of non-faculty instructional personnel by establishing requirements for systematic review processes to ensure that quality and encourage academic unit practices supportive of academic freedom as a foundation for academic excellence. Because career-line, adjunct, and visiting faculty members and non-faculty instructional personnel engage in a wide range of activities within a variety of organizational structures, considerable flexibility is allowed for academic units to determine details appropriate to such processes for their own operations, provided that such processes comply with University-wide requirements and are consistent with the University's fundamental principles. Accordingly, this Policy addresses requirements of review processes, including criteria, standards, evidence, and procedures for reviews and procedures for certain types of reappointments. Nothing in this Policy restricts, modifies or otherwise affects the automatic expiration of a career-line faculty member's employment on the final day of the originally designated term of appointment as described in and governed by Policy 6-300-III-D-6-a, nor does any reappointment of a career-line faculty member made in conjunction with a review under this Policy guarantee continued employment with the University or prevent the automatic expiration of employment as provided in 6-300-III-D-6-a .

This Policy applies for all academic units of the University which appoint any career-line, adjunct, or visiting faculty member (of any category) or employ any non-faculty instructional personnel (as defined here), including academic colleges, academic departments, free-standing academic divisions, interdisciplinary academic programs, and libraries. This Policy governs reviews only for the above-designated categories of faculty and other instructional personnel. For reviews of tenure-line faculty see Policy 6-303, and for reviews of persons holding special "named positions" (such as endowed chairs) see Policy 9-003.

Definitions
1. For purposes of this Policy and any associated Regulations, these terms are defined as follows.
2. The faculty categories of "career-line" (which includes subcategories of "Clinical", "Lecturer" and "Research"), "adjunct", and "visiting" are defined for purposes of this Policy as described in Policy 6-300--The University Faculty--Categories and Ranks.
4. “Non-faculty instructional personnel” for the purposes of this Policy means any individual who does not hold a faculty appointment at the University (in any of the faculty categories described in Policy 6-300), but is employed by any course-offering academic unit of the University to teach any credit-bearing course. (Course-offering units and credit-bearing courses are as described in Policy 6-001 and Policy 6-100). Such personnel may include those classified as academic staff (associate instructors, or research associates), as well as graduate student instructors of record, or postdoctoral fellows. (Such categories of non-faculty academic personnel positions are as described in Policy 6-309: Academic Staff, Educational Trainees, Postdoctoral Fellows and Medical Housestaff).
6. “Qualified interdisciplinary teaching program” means an academic unit of the University which is an "interdisciplinary academic program" as described in Policy 6-001 and which further meets specified criteria as being a program with teaching as a primary mission, contributing substantially to the University's overall teaching mission, and interdisciplinary in subject matter. Such programs, which are not otherwise included among the University's faculty-appointing units authorized to appoint members of the University faculty (see Policy 6-001-III, and Policy 6-300-II), may pursuant to this Policy and an associated Rule be designated as qualified appointing units with limited authority to make faculty appointments in certain instructional career-line, adjunct, or visiting faculty categories.
8. A “faculty appointing unit” for purposes of this Policy is any academic unit which is authorized to and does make any appointment of any career-line, adjunct, or visiting faculty member (regardless of whether the unit also appoints tenure-line faculty members). The various other types of "faculty-appointing" academic units are described in Policy 6-001-III.
Policy
1. Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting Faculty
  1. Initial Appointments of Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting Faculty.
    1. Authority for appointments of career-line, adjunct, and visiting faculty by academic units.
      1. As provided in Policy 6-001, any academic unit which has authority to appoint members of the tenure-line faculty (as defined in Policy 6-300,) has full authority for appointments of faculty in all categories, and therefore also has the authority to act as an appointing unit to appoint members of the faculty in any category of career-line (Clinical, Lecturer, Research), or Adjunct, or Visiting, and to employ any other non-faculty instructional personnel. These units include academic colleges, academic departments, free-standing academic divisions, and the University Libraries. (In addition to Policy 6-001, see Policies 2-004, 6-311, 6-300, 6-301, 6-302, 6-306, 6-312).
      2. Qualified Interdisciplinary Teaching Programs designated for purposes of this Policy as meeting the criteria specified in a University Rule (Rule 6-310) associated with this Policy shall have the limited authority to act as appointing units to appoint members of the career-line, adjunct, and visiting faculty in an instructional faculty category. These include only those academic units specifically designated in such University Rule as being Qualified Interdisciplinary Teaching Programs. These Programs shall also continue to have the authority to employ other non-faculty instructional personnel.
    2. Qualifications and credentials for initial appointments of members of the career-line, adjunct, and visiting categories of faculty.
      1. All faculty appointing units initially appointing members of the career-line, adjunct, and visiting categories of faculty must verify that the candidates possess appropriate credentials by way of degrees and field of study for the position consistent with University Regulations, and must maintain on file appropriate documentation for each individual appointed. The terms of such appointments and the processes for making such appointments shall be consistent with University Regulations regarding appointments of faculty members in such categories, including Policy 6-300–III- D and E (limited and maximum lengths of terms of faculty appointments) and Policy 6-302 (procedures for faculty appointments and reappointments).
  2. Evaluation and Reappointment of members of the Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting categories of Faculty.
    1. All faculty appointing units which appoint any members of the career-line, adjunct, or visiting categories of faculty must develop and present for approval a Statement of academic unit rules that provide for criteria, standards, evidence and, procedures for the initial appointment and subsequent review processes for evaluation and reappointment of each category of career-line, adjunct, or visiting faculty appointed in the unit. These Statements must address reviews and reappointments of both compensated and uncompensated (volunteer) faculty members, and must provide for more thorough review of the former.
      
      For multi-department academic colleges (described in Policy 6-001-III-A-1-b, encompassing multiple departments or free-standing divisions), such Statements shall be established at the college level and be applicable college-wide for all appointing units within the college (unless it is determined that separate independent rules are necessary for one or more of the units because of widely varying circumstances within the college). A college-wide main Statement with general provisions applicable for all units may include designated appendices providing further details specific to particular units within the college.
    2. The Statements shall provide for and describe procedures for conducting reviews of faculty members prior to their being considered as candidates for reappointment. The procedures for making initial appointments and reappointments (including reappointments with promotion) of career-line, adjunct, or visiting faculty members in any category, after such a review has been conducted, are governed by and (as described in the Statements) shall be consistent with University Policy 6-302 (including the required recommendation from the Faculty Appointments Advisory Committee of the appointing unit) (with adaptations as appropriate for the organizational structure of the appointing unit).
    3. For purposes of reappointments, each appointing unit must designate a committee or individual(s) responsible for administering review processes and making a recommendation to the unit's Faculty Appointments Advisory Committee before that committee's members vote on the reappointment or non-reappointment. That designation shall be described in the unit's Statement of procedures for reviews and reappointments.
    4. The review processes shall include (i) at least minimum-level reviews conducted annually for all faculty members (including annual evaluations associated with annual reappointments, and annual reviews of faculty members with multi-year appointments not due for a more extensive reappointment review), and (ii) more thorough reviews of long-serving faculty, which must occur at least every five years (consistent with Policy 6-300 limiting each appointment to a maximum term of five years). (iii) Review processes and requirements for the longer-term reviews ordinarily will differ from those for the annual reviews, and each shall be suited to the nature of the positions and responsibilities of the faculty members. (iv) For faculty members whose duties include teaching, the annual reviews shall at a minimum include annual consideration of course evaluations (conducted per Policy 6-100-III-N) by at least one responsible reviewer, and the course evaluations along with multiple other indicators of teaching quality must be used in the more thorough longer-term reviews. The required evidence and procedures adopted by the appointing unit for such teaching-related longer term reviews may and typically will be closely modeled on those followed by the unit in conducting teaching-related reviews of tenure-line faculty pursuant to Policy 6-303 (as described in approved "RPT" and "TFR" Statements).
    5. In pursuit of the University's commitment to excellence, appointing unit rules must provide for action, such as developing and implementing a plan for improvement or non-reappointment, if evaluation of a candidate indicates areas of concern. Concomitantly, when evaluations show high quality performance, appointing units are encouraged to use appropriate means of recognizing such performance and retaining high quality faculty, including offering of promotions in rank, and longer term reappointments (see III-A-4 below).
    6. If an academic unit serves as the appointing unit for a faculty appointment for an individual whose work primarily takes place in a different unit, the appointing unit shall consult with the primary workplace unit in developing and implementing criteria, standards,evidence, and procedures for evaluations.
    7. When a faculty member holding an Adjunct appointment in one academic unit also holds a tenure-line faculty appointment in another unit of the University and is subject to thorough periodic reviews in that home unit, the unit of the Adjunct appointment may simply rely on the regular review procedure in the faculty member's home unit (as governed by Policy 6-303 and the home unit's "RPT" and "TFR" Statements), supplemented by an annual consideration of course-evaluations for any teaching occurring in the unit of the Adjunct appointment, or may do its own review.
  3. Notice and Documentation of Reviews of members of the Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting Faculty.
    1. Reviews of faculty members (both the minimum-level and the more thorough reviews required per III-A-2-d) must be documented, and documentation of each review must be retained in the appointing unit and available on request by the cognizant senior vice president. The documentation shall include a written advance notice given to the faculty member describing the timing and steps for the review, and giving an opportunity for the faculty member to submit any materials pertinent for the review.
  4. Promotions of Long-Serving members of the Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting Faculty, and Multi-year Reappointments.
    1. The University's commitment to excellence is served by recognizing and retaining faculty of high quality. Accordingly, appointing units with faculty in the career-line categories of Clinical, Lecturer, Research, or the Adjunct category must establish criteria, standards, evidence, and procedures for reviews leading to promotions in rank. (Available ranks are described in Policy 6-300, and promotions, after review, are accomplished through reappointment with promotion per Policy 6-302). These should apply primarily for long-serving faculty members (and especially for those in full-time positions). Because multi-year appointments are recognized as important in implementing the University's fundamental principles of academic freedom and significantly contributing to overall academic excellence, appointing units are also strongly encouraged to consider offering multi-year reappointments for faculty with high qualifications (particularly for accomplished teaching faculty making significant contributions to the University's teaching mission), as may be appropriate to the circumstances of the unit. (As described in Policy 6-300 terms of up to 5 years are permitted, although annual or shorter multi-year terms are used when appropriate). Statements of unit rules shall include descriptions of the required criteria, standards, and evidence for reviews regarding promotions in rank, and any rules adopted by the unit regarding length of terms of appointments for particular faculty categories.
  5. Governance Roles for Career-line Faculty.
    1. As reflected in Policy 6-300 describing rights and responsibilities for the career-line faculty, and in Policies 6-001 and 6-002 describing roles of faculty generally and career-line faculty particularly in the Academic Senate and University councils and committees, the University strongly encourages and highly values involvement of career-line faculty in shared-governance activities, in roles appropriate relative to the roles of tenure-line faculty in academic policy-making. Academic units appointing faculty (particularly long-serving members) in the career-line categories of Lecturer, Clinical, or Research are also strongly encouraged to establish rules addressing participation of such faculty members in departmental and/or college academic governance and service, including in peer faculty review processes (and shall recognize and accommodate appropriate participation in University service, including elected positions on the Academic Senate and its Senate Committees as described in Policy 6-002), and encouraged to make resources for professional development available to such faculty. Description of such matters should be included with the Statement of unit rules required under this Policy.
2. Employment, Evaluation and Reemployment of Non-Faculty Instructional Personnel
  1. Academic units which regularly employ any non-faculty instructional personnel (as defined for this Policy) shall develop and submit for approval a description of procedures, criteria, evidence and standards for employing and reemploying, and most importantly for periodically evaluating the teaching work of such personnel. A brief statement describing such matters may be incorporated with the Statement of academic unit rules required under Part III-A of this Policy (for those units which appoint career-line, adjunct, or visiting faculty). The criteria for employment/ reemployment must ensure that such personnel have appropriate qualifications by way of education and field of study appropriate to the assigned duties. Evaluation plans must provide for closer scrutiny of new instructors and those teaching in new areas. Classroom observation of new instructors is encouraged. Academic units must designate a committee or individual(s) responsible for evaluating all such instructional personnel and making a recommendation on each person to the department chair person or designee responsible for staffing courses prior to reemployment. Units must maintain on file appropriate documentation of the qualifications of all active non-faculty instructional personnel.
3. Approval Requirement for Rules
  1. The Statements of academic unit rules for appointment, evaluation, and reappointment (including reappointment with promotion) of career-line, adjunct, and visiting faculty (Part III-A), and/or employment/reemployment and evaluation of other non-faculty instructional personnel (Part III-B) must be approved by the dean of the college (or equivalent), and jointly by the cognizant senior vice president and Senate Faculty Review Standards Committee. In its role in approving such Statements, the Senate Faculty Review Standards Committee acts as delegee of the authority of Academic Senate, pursuant to Policy 6-002-III-D-1-k, and in accord with that Policy the Committee, in consultation with the cognizant vice president, may establish a regular schedule for reexamination and revision of such Statements, initiate reviews of Statements on its own initiative or in response to requests from faculty members or administrators, prepare guidance materials for use in developing and approving Statements, and otherwise assist units with development of Statements, including by identifying and sharing best practices developed by other units.
4. Reappointments of Long-Serving Full-Time Members of the Career-line Faculty, and Role of the University Career-Line Reappointments Committee
  1. This Part III-D is applicable for any long-serving full-time faculty member (who has completed at least three years, in position/s that in total amount to at least .50 FTE) in any career-line faculty category in a single appointing unit.
  2. Each such long-serving faculty member has:
    1. the right to submit a request for consideration for reappointment at the conclusion of each current term of appointment and the right to submit a request for consideration for reappointment with promotion in rank, with determination of those requests to be based on the criteria, standards, evidence and procedures prescribed in the approved Statement of unit rules:
    2. the rights to have reasonable advance notice of each pending individual review (including reviews for reappointment, and periodic reviews during multi-year appointments), to see final versions of reports or other materials included in the review file, to submit materials for the review file, and to timely submit for the file a written response to any report, recommendation or other material included in the review file. The cognizant senior vice president, in consultation with the Senate Faculty Review Standards Committee may provide guidance as to timing for such notices and submission of materials and responses.
    3. in a proceeding for reappointment (including a reappointment with promotion), upon receipt of a recommendation from within the appointing unit and/or the office of the dean which is negative as to reappointment, the proposed rank, or the proposed term duration, the right to either discontinue the request, modify the request, or continue to pursue the original request up to the point of final decision by the University President and Board of Trustees, with all recommendations and decisions to be based on the approved Statement of unit rules on criteria and standards.
  3. Establishment and role of the University Career-Line Reappointment Committee.
    1. Committee membership.
      1. two from the Colleges of Fine Arts, Architecture + Planning, Humanities, and Law, as a group;
        
        two from the Colleges of Social and Behavioral Science, Education, Social Work, Business, and Health, as a group;
        
        two from the Colleges of Engineering, Mines and Earth Sciences, and Science, as a group;
        
        two from the University Libraries and the Qualified Interdisciplinary Teaching Programs (See Rule 6-310-IDTP), as a group; and
        
        three from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, and Pharmacy, as a group.
    2. Role of the Committee, for career-line reappointments.
      1. The UCLRC provides advice to the cognizant senior vice president in certain cases for purposes of the vice president's responsibilities in considering reappointments, including reappointments with promotion, of long-serving full-time career-line faculty members, processed pursuant to the approved Statement of unit rules. The UCLRC reviews disputes over the fundamental aspects of an appointment: being appointed to a faculty position in a particular category of faculty (Clinical/ Lecturer/ Research), the rank (e.g., Associate Professor), and the term duration of the appointment (e.g., one-year to five-years). It does not address any other issues, including any other aspect of the employment relationship between the faculty member and the appointing unit.
      2. The role of the cognizant senior vice president within the overall process for reappointments is as governed by and fully described in Policy 6-302 Appointments of Faculty. In summary, that is to receive recommendations from the appointing unit's Faculty Appointments Advisory Committee, the unit chairperson, and the cognizant dean (and in some cases a college faculty appointments advisory committee), and then to make a recommendation regarding the reappointment, and forward that recommendation to be considered by the University President, followed by the Academic Senate, with final action to be taken by the Board of Trustees. The UCLRC advises the cognizant vice president in developing such recommendation.
    3. Action by the cognizant senior vice president.
      The cognizant senior vice president shall review and produce a recommendation for the University President regarding each proposed reappointment/ promotion of a long-serving full-time career-line faculty member. In any case in which (i) the recommendation received by the vice president is negative as to reappointment, the proposed rank, or the term of duration proposed, and (ii) the candidate within [seven] business days of the dean's recommendation submits to the senior vice president a request to approve the reappointment/promotion despite that negative recommendation, the senior vice president shall forward the file of the case to the UCLRC for its review and recommendation, and shall suspend acting on the recommendation until receiving the UCLRC report. The senior vice president in their sole discretion may also send any other case to the UCLRC for its review and recommendation.
    4. Recommendations of the University Career-Line Reappointment Committee.
      The Committee shall review the entire reappointment/promotion file for all cases referred to it, and after due deliberation shall submit its recommendations with reasons and its vote to the senior vice president. The UCLRC shall, in its written report, assess the degree to which the file is sufficiently clear to support any conclusive recommendation and, based on that file, assess (i) whether the dean reasonably applied the criteria, standards, and evidence and procedures governing the case (as prescribed in the Statement of academic unit rules approved pursuant to this Policy part III-A-2, a copy of which shall be included in the file), and (ii) whether the recommendation of the dean is arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, discriminatory, a result of malice, or a violation of academic freedom. In making all reviews, the UCLRC shall consider only the material in the file. If the UCLRC believes that a decision following the recommendation of the dean would present a substantial risk of a violation of academic freedom, it should refer the case immediately for consideration by the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Faculty Rights (See Policy 6-010).
    5. Consideration by the senior vice president.
      The senior vice president shall review each file, including the recommendations (if any) of the UCLRC. If the senior vice president determines that the file is incomplete or unclear, the senior vice president may return the file to the appointing unit with a request to clarify specific matters, materials, and/or issues.
    6. Senior vice president's recommendation.
      The vice president shall transmit a recommendation and the report of the UCLRC (if any) to the University President for final processing of the reappointment in accord with Policy 6-302, and shall transmit copies to the candidate, the appointment unit chairperson, and the dean.
  4. Advance Notice of Termination.
    Each long-serving full-time career-line faculty member has the right to be given such advance notice of non-renewal of appointment as is described in and governed by [existing Policy 6-311 Section 5 paragraph 2, Policy 6-300-III-D-6].
  5. Additional rights.
    The appointing unit and office of the dean may choose to establish additional rights for reappointments of long-serving full-time career-line faculty members, including making a conditional advance commitment that the unit and dean's office will recommend to the cognizant vice president the reappointment of long-serving full-time career-line faculty members at the conclusion of each successive term of appointment, conditioned upon (a) adequate performance by the faculty member during the previous term of appointment, (b) continuing need of the unit for the contributions of that faculty member, and (c) continuing availability of resources to support the faculty member's position. Such commitments may be (d) made categorically to members of any specified career-line faculty category by so providing in the approved Statement of unit rules per part III-A-2 above, or (e) made to a specified faculty member when approved by the unit's faculty appointments advisory committee, department chairperson, and dean, by individual letter to the faculty member copied to the cognizant senior vice president.
  6. Policy Review.
    The implementation of this Part III-D regarding reappointments procedures for career-line faculty members will be reviewed in three years from its original implementation date [May 15, 2015] and a report will be presented to the Academic Senate.
Rules, Procedures, Guidelines, Forms and other related resources.
- Rules
  1. Rule 6-310 (IDTP)
- Procedures [reserved]
- Guidelines [reserved]
- Forms [reserved]
- Other related resource materials.
  Current Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting Review Standards
References:
1. Policy 6-300, University Faculty--Categories and Ranks
2. Policy 6-003, College Faculties and Councils
3. Policy 6-302, Appointments of Faculty
4. Policy 6-309, Academic Staff, Educational Trainees, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Medical Housestaff
5. Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, Accreditation Standard 4.A., Policy 4.1 on Faculty Evaluation
Contacts:
1. The designated contact officials for this Policy are:
  1. Policy Owners (primary contact person for questions and advice): Associate Vice President for Faculty and the Associate Vice President for Health Sciences.
  2. Policy Officers: Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Sr. Vice President for Health Sciences.
2. These officials are designated by the University President or delegee, with assistance of the Institutional Policy Committee, to have the following roles and authority, as provided in University Rule 1-001:
3. See University Rule 1-001 for information about the roles and authority of policy owners and policy officers.
History:
1. Renumbering: Renumbered as Policy 6-310 effective 9/15/2008, formerly known as PPM 9-5.7
2. Revision History:
  1. Current version: Revision 4
  2. Earlier versions:
    1. Revision 3. Effective Date. May 15, 2015
    2. Revision 2: effective date May 15, 2014 to May 14, 2015
    3. Legislative History of Revision 2
    4. Revision 1: effective date March 9, 2010 to May 15, 2014
      1. Legislative History of Revision 1
    5. Revision 0: effective May 14, 2007 to March 8, 2010
      1. Legislative History of Revision 0

Policy: 6-310 Rev: 4
Date: July 1, 2024

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Policy 6-310: Reviews of Career-line, Adjunct, and Visiting Faculty Members, and Other Instructional Personnel (Standards and Procedures).

Revision 4. Effective date: July 1, 2024

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