Academic Affairs Manual (ACD)
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| Effective: 7/1/1982 |
Revised: 5/1/2006 |
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ACD 505–02: Faculty Membership, Ranks, Titles, Appointment Categories, and Honored Positions |
Purpose
To describe and define faculty membership, ranks, titles, appointment categories, and honored positions
Sources
Arizona Board of Regents Policy Manual - 6–201, 6–208
Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University
Policy
Faculty Membership
Faculty include all employees of the Arizona Board of Regents in teaching, research, or service whose Notice of Appointment is as lecturer, senior lecturer, instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, clinical faculty, professor of practice, research faculty, or persons who are otherwise designated as faculty on the Notice of Appointment. Faculty associates are academic appointees but are not members of the faculty. Graduate students who serve as assistants, associates, or otherwise are academic appointees, as well as graduate students, but are not members of the faculty.
College or School Faculty
A college or school faculty shall consist of the dean or director of the college or school as chair and all members of the departments and divisions assigned to that college or school. The right to vote in college or school faculties shall be determined by college or department/school by-laws and policies. The president, provosts, and vice presidents shall be ex officio members of all college and school faculties. A college or school faculty may consider all questions of educational policy affecting the college or school, including requirements for entrance and graduation, majors, and prescribed subjects of study.
Traditional Academic Ranks and Titles—Tenure-Accruing Positions
The ranks of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor are the traditional academic ranks of appointment at ASU. Faculty on fully funded state lines who hold the ranks of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor are eligible for promotion and tenure review (see the policies in ACD 506, “Faculty Personnel Actions”). The Academic Assembly determines faculty ranks eligible for membership. Some of the rights and privileges of Academic Assembly members (most often those listed in ACD 600, “Benefits”) are extended to other ranks when specified.
Nontenure-Accruing Positions
Generally, nontenure-accruing faculty are members of the Academic Assembly unless provisions in this policy specific to a title or appointment exclude such membership. They do not accrue time towards eligibility for tenure or sabbatical leaves. However, they have certain benefits such as library and parking privileges as outlined in ACD 600, “Benefits. ” In general, employees working less than 50 percent time do not qualify for such employment benefits as subsidized insurance and university fee waivers.
Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct faculty are nontenured, nontenure-eligible faculty who are academically qualified or qualified through relevant nonacademic experience to serve as ASU faculty members. These are usually unpaid, part-time positions to which people are appointed for limited (not more than one-year) renewable terms. The appointments are made to individual departments or to such units as interdisciplinary degree or certification programs. Appointments are made in order to facilitate the adjunct faculty member’s professional association with the university for the benefit of the individual and the university.
Adjunct appointments are made for a semester or an academic or fiscal year and expire on the date the appointment ends. Adjunct appointments may be renewed. Adjunct faculty are not members of the Academic Assembly. Adjunct faculty are not eligible for sabbatical leave.
Procedures for selection and appointment are managed through the deans, who will send send a copy of all appointment and acceptance letters and the Adjunct ID Request form to the vice provost for academic personnel. The vice provost for academic personnel will send an acknowledgment letter to the adjunct faculty member, with a copy to the chair and dean. The appointment will not be official until this acknowledgment letter has been sent.
Adjunct faculty will then be assigned an ID number and given an activation code. The provost’s office will notify the college and department of the ID number and activation code. The department/college is responsible for forwarding this information to the adjunct faculty, who will then have access to computer, library, parking, and other privileges.
The vice provost will maintain a centralized list of adjunct faculty. Adjunct faculty serve such roles as supervising students in clinical practice, assisting students with research efforts, and occasionally teaching classes. They are eligible to be appointed by a chair to a graduate committee and, if they meet Division of Graduate Studies requirements, to be appointed as cochair of a dissertation committee serving alongside a regular faculty member authorized by the Division of Graduate Studies. Ranks will not be assigned; instead the generic titles of adjunct professor and adjunct faculty will be used.
Clinical Faculty
Clinical faculty are nontenured, nontenure-eligible faculty members who are qualified by training, experience, or education to direct or participate in specialized university functions, including student internships, training, or other practice components of degree programs. They are appointed as clinical instructors, clinical assistant professors, clinical associate professors, or clinical professors. These positions may be part-time or full-time.
Responsibilities of clinical faculty are not limited to medically related fields of study and may encompass any area of professional practice. For example, some units or campuses, depending on their academic offerings, will hire clinical faculty on the basis of their technical expertise and the responsibilities they will assume. The title “technical faculty” may more accurately reflect the position. The title “technical faculty” is encompassed in the definition of clinical faculty.
Generally, assistant clinical professors are appointed on one-year terms. Associate clinical professors and clinical professors may be appointed on one-year or multiple-year terms of up to three years provided they possess the experience, expertise, or qualifications established over a sustained period of time that qualify them to develop or supervise practice components of degree programs or to perform other duties that the dean determines will significantly enhance clinical/professional learning and advance the goals of the assigned academic unit or program in a substantial way. Clinical faculty are not eligible for sabbatical leave.
Instructors
Although ASU has some tenured instructors appointed under earlier policies, the rank of instructor is a nontenure-accruing rank. The title should be used as a temporary designation for newly hired individuals who, upon completion of their dissertations or other final degree requirements, will be ranked as assistant professors. Their rank may be changed during an academic year. Should it change during the fall semester, then the academic year will be considered the first year of their six-year probationary period. However, should it change during the spring semester, their tenure clock will not begin officially until the next fall semester. This title may also be used for other year-to-year appointments.
Lecturers and Senior Lecturers
Lecturers and senior lecturers are nontenured, nontenure-track faculty members whose responsibilities, as defined by the dean, may include teaching graduate, undergraduate, or clinical courses, or supervising supplemental kinds of student learning as defined by the supervising dean. Lecturers are not eligible for tenure, but they can receive appointments varying in length from one to three years. These appointments can be renewed indefinitely at the discretion of the university. Lecturers are not eligible for sabbatical leave.
Professor of Practice
Professors of practice are nontenured, nontenure-eligible faculty members whose expertise, achievements, and reputation developed over a sustained period of time qualify them to be distinguished professionals in an area of practice or discipline, although they may not have academic experience. The responsibilities of this position are teaching courses, seminars, and independent studies to undergraduate and graduate students or other duties that the dean determines are consistent with this definition. Professors of practice may be appointed on one-year or multiple-year terms of up to three years. A professor of practice appointed on a multiple-year term is an individual who, by virtue of his or her past experience and current level of expertise, is qualified to significantly enhance the instruction of students and advance the goals of the assigned academic unit or program in a substantial way. Professors of practice are not eligible for sabbatical leave.
Research Faculty
Research faculty are nontenured, nontenure-eligible faculty members who are qualified to engage in, be responsible for, or oversee a significant area of research or scholarship. They may also serve as principal or co-principal investigators on grants or contracts administered by the university. Research faculty may serve on appropriate department and graduate supervisory committees, but may not serve as sole chairs of graduate supervisory committees. Research faculty who are hired on or supported by research grants or contracts are not guaranteed space, facilities, or services beyond those approved for currently active grants or contracts.
Generally, assistant research professors are appointed on one-year terms. Associate research and research professors may be appointed on one-year or multiple-year terms of up to three years, provided they possess the experience, expertise, or qualifications, established over a sustained period of time, that qualify them to advance the university’s research mission and to perform other duties the dean determines will enhance the goals of the assigned academic unit or program in a substantial way. Research faculty are not eligible for sabbatical leave.
Visiting Faculty
Visiting faculty are temporary appointees who are normally expected to return to their own institutions at the expiration of the appointment. They are appointed as visiting instructors, visiting assistant professors, visiting associate professors, or visiting professors.
If an individual with a visiting appointment in one of the regular tenure-eligible ranks (assistant professor or above) is offered a regular appointment for the following year, he or she may ask later reviewing committees to consider the experience in a tenure and promotion application.
Visiting Scholars
Visiting scholars are usually faculty members or academic professionals from another institution who spend a few weeks or months at ASU for purposes of collaboration or research. Arrangements for visiting scholars are made through appropriate deans’ offices.
Faculty Research Associates
Faculty research associates are persons who hold an advanced degree and are employed on a research grant or contract.
Faculty Associates
Faculty associates are persons qualified by training and experience to teach university-level courses; they may be doctoral students who have completed all degree requirements except the dissertation.
Other Designations
Affiliated Faculty
An affiliated faculty member is an employee of ASU who holds a primary position in one unit and is invited to serve in a faculty role in a program, department, center, or institute other than the one paying his or her salary. See ACD 506–09, “Joint and Affiliated Faculty Appointments.”
Joint Appointments
A joint appointment is the appointment of a faculty member to two or more academic units, including departments, programs, centers, or institutes. The salary line may be shared among the units or may be paid by one unit. See ACD 506–09, “Joint and Affiliated Faculty Appointments.”
Faculty Appointment Categories
Appointments to the faculty are tenured, probationary, fixed-term, or temporary, as defined below.
| Note: | The Notice of Appointment of a faculty member with tenure shall carry the designation “with tenure. ” The Notice of Appointment of a faculty member without tenure shall carry the designation “nontenured. ” |
Tenured Appointment
A “tenured appointment” means that the president shall offer to a faculty member, having attained such status, an appointment for each succeeding fiscal or academic year until retirement, resignation, termination for budgetary reasons or educational policy change, or dismissal for just cause.
Probationary Appointment
A “probationary appointment” means that the faculty member is on probation that may lead to consideration for tenure. Faculty members on appointments designated as probationary will have annual performance reviews in their academic units. In addition, faculty on probationary appointments will be evaluated to determine continuation and progress toward tenure during their third year if they are assistant professors or during their second year if they are untenured associate professors. At a time no later than set out in the offer letter, the university will decide whether to grant tenure.
Multiple-Year Appointment
A multiple-year appointment means an appointment to a faculty position for a term of more than one year but not more than three years.
Temporary Appointment
A “temporary appointment” means an appointment for a specified period of time, which shall be indicated in the offer letter. It will not lead to tenure consideration. At the end of the period specified, the appointment will terminate. All persons appointed to faculty positions with the designations visiting, adjunct, research, clinical, or professor of practice must be in this class.
Persons on temporary appointments of at least 50 percent time shall be reviewed annually in a similar manner to probationary faculty.
Persons on appointments of less than 50 percent time shall be considered to be temporary and normally do not receive a Notice of Appointment. They may continue working at the discretion of the university as long as their performance is satisfactory, their services are needed, and funding is available.
Honored Positions
Professors Emeriti
A tenured faculty member or an academic professional with a continuing appointment will be awarded the title of “emeritus” on retirement. A copy of the letter of retirement sent to the executive vice president and provost of the university triggers this process. The appropriate department chair or college dean must forward notices of retirement to the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University by mid-March. A department may also recommend that the title be bestowed on a nontenured faculty member at retirement. The Board of Regents approves requests for emeritus status. These faculty and academic professionals are entitled to certain benefits as listed in ACD 600, “Benefits.”
Regents’ Professors
The title “regents’ professor” shall be conferred on selected members of the Arizona State University tenured faculty who are sustaining the highest level of distinction by their exceptional contributions to the mission of the university in research, scholarship, or other creative activity, and who have made significant contributions in teaching and public service in a professional capacity.
The title is reserved for tenured faculty in academic units who carry the rank of professor, who have made a pioneering contribution to a field of scholarship or creative activity, who have achieved a sustained level of distinction, and who enjoy national and international recognition for these accomplishments.
Regents’ professors will receive salary increments to be added to their base salaries at the time of appointment, subject to approval by the Board of Regents. The candidate’s home department will also receive additional monies to support the individual’s scholarly activity, dependent on availability of funds.
Appointment to this position involves service to other state universities in Arizona. The service may include lecturing, consulting on curriculum and research matters, advising administrative officers, or other similar activities.
In recognition of the special honor in the title of regents’ professor, the university shall name to the position a group of individuals equal in number to no more than 3 percent of its full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty. The complement of regents’ professors should reflect the excellence of the strongest scholars within the university without regard to their distribution within specific disciplines.
The nominating committee appointed by the president of the university consists of nine to 12 tenured faculty members noted for their scholarly achievements and for their judgment and integrity. No more than half of the committee is composed of regents’ professors. The nominating committee represents a variety of academic disciplines and takes into account women and minorities.
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