Faculty Ranks
Teaching professors, professors of the practice, advising professors, clinical professors (TPAC), and research faculty are regular faculty members in the College of Arts and Letters. They make vital contributions to the college in a wide range of areas. Their work includes instruction, administrative responsibilities, technical or creative obligations, research, and various combinations of these tasks. In addition, they make many important contributions in service to the University. TPAC and research faculty members contribute to the construction and advancement of our intellectual community.
TPAC and Research faculty members hold the ranks of assistant, associate, and full. Qualifications for each rank and terms of appointment can be found in the Academic Articles (IV.1.a.2,3,4,5,7 and IV.3.b,c,d,e,g).
The Associate Dean for the Arts oversees TPAC faculty while the Associate Dean for Research oversees research faculty.
Professional Responsibilities for TPAC and Research Faculty
The assignment of responsibilities for TPAC and research faculty members varies widely and is determined on an individual basis. Responsibilities should be addressed at the time of hiring and annually at the time that the department chairperson or unit director evaluates the previous year’s performance for a salary recommendation. It is important that there be a mutual understanding about responsibilities. Employees whose responsibilities are exclusively administrative should be appointed as staff.
The standard responsibilities for TPAC faculty are usually the equivalent of a 3:3 course schedule plus a well-defined service or administrative assignment that fills a vital department need during the entirety of the academic year. That service or administrative assignment must be substantial enough to account for 25% of the faculty member’s total responsibilities. In other cases, a faculty member may teach very large sections of introductory courses and perform less service or administration. Any reduction in teaching responsibilities should be commensurate with the same level of course reduction for T-TT faculty who serve in similar capacities.