Principles, Criteria and a Process for Prioritizing Tenure-track
Positions at The
Endorsed by Executive
Council January 30, 2007; reviewed by Divisions 1 February 2007; passed Faculty
Assembly 15 February 2007; edited with new name 21 Jan 2008.
I. Principles for defining tenure-track
faculty positions.
Principles form general guidelines by which tenure-track positions can be
defined for coming year hires. All tenure-track hires, whether replacement,
conversion, or new must conform to the guidelines outlined in the Faculty
Handbook, Chapter Five.
-Tenure-track
positions are defined as falling into one of three categories, which are
generally not clear-cut—replacement, conversion, and new.
No category will automatically
receive priority. Each year priority
will be reassessed by EC and annually revised priorities will be maintained by
the Dean's Office.
-The
College will replace tenure-track
positions lost to retirement, when
justified by ongoing programmatic needs, enrollments, and consistency with the
criteria below.
-The
College will convert full-time,
non-tenure-track positions to tenure-track positions when justified by
ongoing programmatic needs, enrollments, and consistency with the criteria
below. A national search will be conducted
when positions are converted from non-tenure-track to tenure-track, as
specified in the Faculty Handbook. When
significant need exists for new tenure-track positions (see below), conversions will be made only when
there is a clear, long-term need that can not otherwise be met by a few years
of full-time, non-tenure track.
i.
When more than one non-tenure-track position has existed for several years,
priority for conversion will be given to those positions most in
need and of
longest duration.
ii. The College should prioritize conversion of non-tenure
track positions to tenure
track when they have persisted for three or four years and when
need for
such faculty positions exists for the foreseeable future.
-The
College will create new tenure-track
positions to meet the following needs, when funds become available by either
external sources (e.g. foundation grants, private donations, etc.) or by
enrollment increases, which, after creation of the new tenure-track
position(s), lower our student-faculty ratio to approximately 13:1:
i. to address Core Mission needs in which a core academic program is seriously jeopardized by insufficient tenure-track faculty. These areas include ones
in
which, for example, faculty had been cut or resigned and needs have
persisted for many years creating curricular
"bottlenecks."
ii.
to address ongoing or needs resulting from Growth in particular areas that have
shown and are expected to continue to show growth trends.
iii.
to address needs in particular areas defined by Vision and
Strategy task forces
in recent years (e.g. VSTF II).
-While
it may be necessary to prioritize a position ranked by EC and the Dean at a
lower level over one at a higher level, the College would do so only
i. when mandated by external funding agreements (e.g.
benefactor or grant agency
requirements),
or
ii. when required by financial exigency as outlined in Chapter
Six of the Faculty
Handbook.
-When
programmatic needs, enrollments, or other criteria below do not justify maintaining
existing faculty "lines", then the Dean will discuss the status of
faculty lines with department and division chairs with at least two year’s
notice in advance of possible loss of the “line”, so chairs can plan to adjust
teaching assignments if, for example, tenure-track faculty retire without
prospect of replacement or non-tenure track faculty can no longer be retained.
-When
retirements, resignations, etc. occur with short notice, positions are normally
replaced by non-tenure track positions until appropriate planning can occur.
II. Criteria for assessing priority of
tenure-track hires.
Prioritization
of tenure-track positions will be based on programmatic needs consistent with
the core mission of the College and vision and strategy documents.
Proposals
will be assessed in relation to several criteria:
Recent strategic plans of the College
(e.g. VSTFII).
Are
the proposed positions leading the College in the direction we aim to
aspire in
the long term?
Departmental evaluations.
Are the proposed positions consistent with departmental,
divisional, and
College plans? What are the department’s needs in relation to offerings in the Liberal Arts Core and other services to the College? Are proposed positions ones that have been proposed for long periods in the context of departmental self- and external-evaluations? Are the departments using current resources effectively?
Urgency.
Can the proposed position be delayed (retained as non-tenure track)
without seriously harming the curricular integrity of the department.
Enrollment trends and projections.
Are proposed positions supported by
enrollment trends, curriculum
bottlenecks and related issues?
What are current and projected faculty-student ratios? What are departmental faculty loads including
class sizes, advisee load and committee load? What are the number of graduating
majors and minors?
III. Process for creating tenure-track
positions.
Following the Principles in Part I and using the Criteria in Part II, the Dean will determine where new tenure-track hires should occur as follows:
1. The Dean will keep an ongoing list of
priorities for upcoming replacement and conversion tenure-track positions and
for new tenure-track positions. This
list will be shared with all faculty members at the beginning of each Fall
Term. Each year the list of priorities
will be reviewed and revised as consistent with ongoing assessment as described
below.
2. Early in the Fall Term of the penultimate
year before retirement, the department of a retiring faculty member will
present a plan to the Dean (upon solicitation by the Dean's Office) describing
the long term plans and vision of the Department's teaching distributions and
responsibilities. In that plan the
Department describes the configuration of the Department following retirement
and offers a staffing plan. Insofar as the plan involves interdisciplinary
teaching or other departments, all relevant departments should be included in
discussions and finalization of the plan. It should not be assumed that
every retirement will automatically be replaced by a faculty member with the
same specialization, interests, or curricular "niche".
3.
During the Fall Term of each year, each Department and/or Division, in which a
tenure-track position is perceived as necessary, will present to Executive
Council a proposal justifying the need with reference to the principles and
criteria above. All positions within a
Division will be prioritized by the Division.
4. Executive Council will prioritize all tenure-track
positions and, early in the Spring Term, recommend to the Dean the priority for
subsequent year tenure-track faculty searches.
5. In the Spring Term before the end of the
Academic year, the
Dean will present to Executive Council a list of proposed searches to be
conducted, finances permitting, in the following Fall Term for positions
commencing the Fall Term thereafter.
6.
Executive Council will, by vote, either affirm the Dean’s recommendations or
offer an alternative recommendation.
7. The
Dean and the President, in consultation with the Board, will reach a final
decision as to priorities for coming year hires during the summer.
8. The
Dean will announce to the Faculty the hiring priorities no later than the end
of the second week of Fall Term one year in advance of the commencement of the
new tenure-track positions.