Adopted January 2001
Last Revised June 2003
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This policy is intended to provide general information to University employees
and to serve as internal guidelines for University administrators. The
information described in this policy is not a condition of employment,
and the language is not intended nor does it create a contract between
the University and any employee Employees may resign their employment in
accordance with the terms of their contracts and appointments, the University
may terminate an individual employee's employment as provided in the
applicable University policies and in accordance with the procedures established
for that class of employee. The University reserves the right to change,
add to, eliminate, or modify any of the policies described in this policy
at its discretion, with or without notice, and in accordance with any applicable
University consultative processes. Employees should review the specific
policies referred to herein as this policy only provides an overview of
those policies and may only be current as to the time of original adoption
of this policy.
Executive Summary
This administrative policy on academic appointments establishes the standards
and procedures for appointments of individuals who will have teaching
functions [1]. The University of Minnesota asserts the importance of
ensuring that our students are taught by individuals who have appropriate
qualifications and who are recognized as teachers and enjoy the privilege
of academic freedom. The University of Minnesota also affirms that an appropriate
complement of regular faculty will direct the University's ongoing intellectual
programs, accompanied by non-tenure track faculty and academic staff. The
University of Minnesota will strive to ensure that all such faculty and academic
staff be appropriately selected, reviewed, and fairly treated.
Instruction in
courses for credit may only be offered by persons
who hold appointments in one of the following five categories.
1. Regular (Tenured and Tenure-Track) Faculty: Members of the tenured and tenure-track faculty.
2. Term (Non-Tenure Track) Faculty:
2A. Contract Faculty: Members of the
faculty on annual, renewable or multi-year contracts.
2B. Temporary Faculty: Members appointed
to address temporary needs of 1-2 years.
2C. Visiting Faculty: Faculty at other
universities who are temporarily here.
3. Adjunct Faculty:
3A. Adjunct Faculty from Within the University: Persons
who hold faculty status in one main department and who are appointed by
a second department or college.
3B. Adjunct Faculty from Outside the University :Professionals in the community who offer instruction on an occasional,
part-time basis.
4. Academic Staff:
4A. Academic Professional Staff Who Hold Primary
Responsibility for Teaching
4B. Academic Professional or Administrative
Staff with Primary Non-Instructional Duties Who Assume Part-Time Instructional
Duties
5. Graduate Teaching Assistants: Students registered in a graduate or post-baccalaureate professional degree
program may also provide assistance to the faculty in teaching or advising
students registered for specific courses, or may be the instructor of record
for an entire course, in accordance with the standards of the academic
unit and those in the Policy
and Guidelines for Graduate Assistants.
In order to be able to assure our students that instruction of quality is
provided, to provide appropriate certification to accrediting organizations,
and to comply with University regulations, teaching appointments must be
made in one of these categories.
Attached are details regarding each of these appointment categories relating
to titles, appointment type, governing document, limits, approval process
for appointment, selection process, benefits, performance review, notice
requirements, and governance.
Central and Unit Responsibilities
Teaching Specialists and Lecturers
Promotional ladders will be available
for both the teaching specialist and lecturer classifications. Teaching specialists
may be promoted to senior teaching specialists; lecturers to senior lecturers.
Collegiate criteria and procedures must be developed to specify the hiring
(selection and appointment processes) and promotional requirements for these
positions. Length of service duration for teaching specialists and lecturers
will no longer be capped, and those who meet the normal eligibility requirements
for the Faculty Retirement Plan will be able to participate. A phased schedule
for participation by this group in the Faculty Retirement Plan will be implemented
by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Office
of Human Resources (OHR). Generic position
descriptions for teaching specialist, senior teaching specialist, lecturer,
and senior lecturer are available on the OHR web site.
Collegiate Plans
Each college, led by the dean, must adopt a personnel
plan that articulates which of the appointment options would be used by the
college, in addition to its regular faculty, in carrying out its teaching
functions and to ensure the academic quality of its programs. The plan should
indicate the appropriate balance of responsibilities carried out by faculty
and those carried out by academic staff (e.g., types of courses, advisement,
clinical supervision, etc.) for which members of each group will be responsible.
The overall collegiate personnel plan must be developed through a process
that includes substantial representation of tenured and tenure track faculty,
academic professional and administrative staff and term faculty, as applicable,
and must be approved by the normal college governance processes and by the
dean. Appointments made to any position with responsibilities primarily for
instruction (term [non-tenure track] faculty, teaching specialists, senior
teaching specialists, lecturers, and senior lecturers) must also be made
only in accordance with the plan.
The collegiate personnel plan must include the rationale for any significant
variations from the established collegiate patterns in making academic appointments
in specific academic units within the college. In addition, the collegiate
plan must include a specific supplemental plan for any unit in which the
number of FTE contract faculty positions (category
2A) plus the number of FTE academic professional positions with primary
responsibility for teaching (category 4A) exceeds
25% of the FTE tenured and tenure-track faculty. Each supplemental plan should
indicate the appropriate balance of faculty and academic staff responsibility,
to include the levels and types of courses for which members of each group
will be responsible. This supplemental plan must be developed in broad consultation
with the leadership, faculty and academic staff of these units.
The Executive Vice President and Provost will review and approve all collegiate
plans, in consultation with the Vice President for Human Resources, other
appropriate vice presidents and chancellors, and the Tenure Subcommittee
of the Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs [3]. Once a collegiate personnel
plan has been approved by the Executive Vice President and Provost, it need
only be updated if there are substantial modifications in the plan. Each
collegiate personnel plan should be reviewed at least once in every five
years.
Reporting and Monitoring
The Executive Vice President and Provost,
in conjunction with the Vice President for Human Resources, will produce
an annual report documenting the numbers of individuals falling within each
of these categories, broken out by department, college and campus, as well
as aggregated. This information will inform the collegiate dean and other
central officers involved in the annual collegiate academic planning and
budgeting compact process, and will also be available to inform the Tenure
Subcommittee, which will review this information for consistency with the
approved plan and the academic mission of the University. Representative(s)
of the Academic Staff Advisory Committee will also be invited to participate
in the meetings of the Tenure Subcommittee at which this information is reviewed.
Review of Policy
This policy will be reviewed thoroughly at least once
every five years. This review should examine both the success of the policy
in meeting the University's goals of providing appropriate instruction
of the highest possible quality for all students and the suitability of its
provisions for the future of the University. This periodic review does not
preclude earlier changes, should the need arise.
Other Key Documents
Appendicies
- Companion Document to Administrative Policy
on Academic Appointments (Chart)
- Collegiate Requirements (chart)
- Contract
Faculty Template Request
- Job Code and Title Information
- Central Requirements (chart)
- Guidelines for College/Campus on Preparing Personnel
Plans Required by Administrative Policy on Academic Appointments (with
Teaching Functions)
The Administrative Policy on Academic
Appointments was drawn from the recommendations of the Academic Appointments
Policies and procedures Working Group (December 1999) and the Senate's
Joint Committee on Academic Appointments (June 1999), with subsequent consultations
with the Faculty Consultative Committee, other Senate Committees, the Academic
Staff Advisory Committee, deans, and other administrators.
An "academic unit" is defined as being a department
or similar unit. A school, college or division that is not further subdivided
is also an academic unit. This definition of "unit" is consistent
with the language in the Regents
Policy on Faculty Tenure and applies throughout this document.
For units in the Academic Health Center and at the coordinate
campuses, college plans will first be reviewed and approved by the senior
vice president for health sciences (for units in the Academic Health Center)
and by the chancellors (for units at the coordinate campuses) prior to
submission to the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. This
process for unit in the Academic Health Center and coordinate campuses
applies throughout this document, even though it may not be restated.
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