Bloomington Campus Policies For Non-Tenure-Track Instructional Appointments
BL-ACA-A3
About This Policy
- Effective dates:
- 04-02-2002
- Last updated:
- 02-02-2021
- Responsible University Office:
- Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs
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Scope
All instructional appointments in the Lecturer, Clinical and Professor of Practice non-tenure track categories.
Policy Statement
1. Justification of Non-tenure-track Instructional Appointments
The academic mission of the campus must remain in the hands of tenured and tenure-probationary faculty, who are responsible for guiding and balancing both research and teaching missions, and whose appointments provide for the protection of academic freedom necessary for the full and free exercise of critical judgment. Hence, non-tenure-track appointments shall be used only when essential to the overall mission of the unit. Non-tenure-track appointments must be justified in a principled way in terms of a unit’s research, teaching, and service missions. Such justifications must indicate the educational impact of assigning specific courses or types of courses to non-tenure-track faculty, and the impact on the unit of allocating resources to appointments dedicated to teaching, rather than to the unit’s research mission. Such appointments should not be approved without review of written justification at the campus level. The appointment of non-tenure-track faculty should not be seen as a long-term solution to financial imperatives faced by the campus or its units.
Care should be taken to make appointments in the appropriate classification in order that the University and campus may have an accurate enumeration of the composition of the faculty. The Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs shall have the final decision on whether a particular appointment is appropriate.
2. Use of Lecturer Appointments
Lecturers are academic appointees whose primary responsibility is teaching. Lecturer appointments may be appropriate in fields where particular teaching challenges have led to career paths in specialized pedagogy, basic skills instruction, language teaching, and so forth. This position may involve student advising, curricular administration, and unit committee work at levels typical for unit faculty.
3. Use of Clinical Appointments
Clinical appointments are appropriate for those who work primarily in the clinical setting. Clinical faculty may be involved in research that derives from their primary assignment in clinical teaching and service in the clinical setting; however, continued appointment and advancement in rank must be based on performance in teaching and service. Clinical appointees teach and practice full-time in the clinical setting. It follows that clinical appointments will be limited to academic units (and departments within academic units) in the client service disciplines. Clinical faculty may contribute to the research efforts of a unit through their clinical work, but they are not expected to do individual research. Faculty who, in addition to teaching and service, have portions of their time allocated to doing research for which they are a principal or co-principal investigator, who have research laboratories, or who are otherwise expected to do individual research should be in tenured/ tenure-probationary positions.
4. Use of Professor of Practice Appointments
The primary responsibility of Professors of Practice is teaching. Appointees may be assigned research and service responsibilities, but these activities must be in support of teaching, student development, and placement. Appointments of Professors of Practice are restricted to those who have achieved distinction in their chosen field of practice, and who bring to the University unique practical experiences and talents that will benefit our students. Appointees shall hold the terminal professional degree in the field or give evidence of equivalent capabilities by virtue of experience.
5. Contracts for Lecturer and Clinical Appointments
Initial Lecturer and Clinical appointments should be at the level appropriate to the experience and accomplishments of the individual and approved by the faculty of the unit. Standards and procedures for contracts during the probationary period and after shall conform to relevant campus and University policies.
Lecturer and Clinical appointees by the sixth probationary year shall be considered for promotion and long-term contracts. Standards for promotion and reappointment to long-term contracts should be formulated by units; criteria within a unit should be uniform, but flexible enough to accommodate some differences in responsibilities specified in the initial contracts. Candidates in the sixth year of the probationary period who are not promoted and who do not receive reappointment to long-term contracts will not be eligible for reappointment. Reappointment of Lecturers to long-term contract and promotion must be based on excellence in teaching and satisfactory service, and should only be granted to colleagues who have demonstrated a commitment to continued professional growth and currency with pedagogical developments in their fields. The rank of Senior Lecturer is appropriate for individuals who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, based on performance in the classroom, as well as service or research in support of teaching, if assigned. The rank of Teaching Professor is appropriate for individuals who have demonstrated a sustained record of excellence in classroom teaching as a Senior Lecturer (or the equivalent), and who are pedagogical leaders (as evidenced by activities such as curriculum development; innovation and mentoring at the school, college, campus or university level; and/or by recognition and impact at the regional or national level).
Reappointment of Clinical faculty to long-term contract and promotion must be based on standards of performance in teaching and service in a clinical setting. Like promotion to tenured status, promotion within the Lecturer and Clinical classifications should principally be a judgment about prospects for future contributions. Research cannot be included as a basic category of evaluation. However, for Lecturers, research in support of teaching should be considered part of the teaching dossier; for Clinical appointees, research in support of teaching and service in a clinical setting should be considered part of the teaching and service dossiers. Other research may be considered as evidence of intellectual engagement in the professional field that is generally indicative of long-term intellectual contributions valuable in classroom settings and to the campus in general.
In the event of non-reappointment, faculty in their first year of service must be given notice not later than February 1. During the second year of service, notice must be given not later than November 15. During the third and subsequent years, at least twelve months notice must be provided.
6. Appointment and Contracts for Professor of Practice
Candidates for initial appointments as Professor of Practice shall be reviewed by faculty in the appointing academic unit; a majority vote in favor among eligible faculty is required for appointment. Candidates for initial appointments as Professor of Practice will have their credentials reviewed by the Provost/Chancellor or designee, who must approve the offer. Initial appointment shall be for three years. A major performance review shall take place before the end of the seven-year probationary period, and if performance is judged excellent, appointees shall be given long-term contracts. Candidates in the sixth year of the probationary period who do not receive reappointment to long-term contracts will not be eligible for reappointment. The Professor of Practice appointment may not be converted to a tenure-track position.
7. Long-term Contracts and Protection of Academic Freedom for Non-tenure-track
Instructional Appointees
Non-tenure-track instructional faculty are not eligible for tenure. However, in order to protect their academic freedom, non-tenure-track instructional faculty shall be given long-term contracts after a probationary period of not more than seven years. The exact mechanism for this shall be determined by the Dean and the faculty governance body within each school using such appointments and be approved by the Provost, but the mechanism should be a long-term contract for a fixed term of not less than five years, or some equivalent, such as a rolling contract of three or five years. The criteria for granting long-term contracts after a probationary period shall be analogous to the criteria for granting tenure, except that non-tenure-track instructional faculty shall earn the right to a long-term contract on the basis of their excellence only in those responsibilities that may be assigned to them. Each school will establish procedures and specific criteria for review of individuals concerning the renewal of long-term contracts or their equivalent.
8. Teaching Assignments for Non-tenure-track Instructional Appointments
The maximum teaching assignment for Lecturers and Professors of Practice on the Bloomington campus shall be six courses per academic year; the maximum for Clinical faculty shall be the same, calculated according to established methods for determining credit-hour equivalent Clinical faculty effort. In exceptional circumstances, units may petition the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, on a year-by-year basis, for a waiver to allow a seventh course. This campus model is based on a system-wide maximum of four courses per term. On the Bloomington campus, non-tenure-track teaching appointees are expected to be or to become by the time of promotion both outstanding teachers and leaders in pedagogical practice. Appointees are expected to remain current in their pedagogical specialties, to attend and participate in national and international conferences, and to integrate advances in methodologies, materials, and technologies in their classroom teaching. To provide non-tenure-track teaching appointees the opportunity to meet these campus criteria of professional development, and assure that the campus invests in the quality of its non-tenure-track faculty, an adjustment in teaching assignment maxima is applied to the Bloomington campus. Individual units should regulate teaching assignments in view of unit teaching norms, to ensure a reasonable and equitable distribution of work that allows non-tenure-track colleagues the opportunity to achieve teaching excellence and professional development. In certain circumstances, major commitments to research in support of teaching or other faculty development may warrant a reduction from the campus maximum. In addition, in cases where major service duties significantly exceed unit average assignments for student advising, curricular administration, and unit committee work, these should be accommodated by additional reduction in teaching assignments.
9. Proportion of Non-Tenure-Track Appointments
On an ongoing basis, the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty & Academic Affairs shall make available to the Bloomington Faculty Council the numbers of tenured/tenure track faculty, instructional non-tenure-track faculty, and student academic appointees in each department and school, and the numbers and percentages of credit hours, class sections, and class subsections taught by each of those categories of academic appointee, broken down by class level and class size.
10. Voting Rights of Non-tenure-track Instructional Faculty
Voting rights should be determined by the school, which may assign the decision to the department level. Units are encouraged to provide the broadest voting privileges appropriate and to integrate non-tenure-track instructional faculty in unit deliberations as much as possible. In accordance with university policies, the total voting weight reserved for tenured and tenure-probationary faculty in any unit cannot be less than 60%.
11. Special Titles for Non-tenure-track Instructional Faculty
Special circumstances may make it desirable to assign to a non-tenure-track instructional appointee a title different from the appointment classification. Such titles may be given with the approval of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, who shall compile and maintain a list of approved titles. No title shall alter the appointment classification, and titles should not misrepresent the appointment classification.
History
Approved: BFC, 4/2/2002, 12/1/2009, 3/5/2013, 4/19/2016, 1/16/2018, 6/14/2019, 2/2/2021
BFC adopted amendments to this policy on April 3, 2018, pending action and approval of the Faculty Council and the Board of Trustees. The UFC and Trustees amended the corresponding university policies on ACA-14 and ACA-18 on June 14, 2019, allowing these amendments to go into effect.
Previous versions of this policy: