MINUTES OF THE FACULTY HANDBOOK REVISION COMMITTEE

TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2006 

ENTERPRISE HALL, room 318;  3:00 – 3:30 p.m.

 

Present:  Kevin Avruch, Professor of Conflict Resolution and Anthropology, ICAR; Lorraine Brown, Professor of English (LAHS) and President of the AAUP Chapter of George Mason University; Rick Coffinberger, Associate Professor of Business and Legal Studies, School of Management, Chair; Martin Ford, Senior Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development; Marilyn Mobley, Associate Provost for Education Programs.

 

Absent:    Dave Harr, Senior Associate Dean, School of Management; David Rossell, Associate Provost for Personnel and Budget, ex-officio, Suzanne Slayden, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry (COS).

 

Distribution of Handbooks on GMU Website:  “Research Personnel Policies and Procedures,” “Part-Time Faculty Guide,” and the “Administrative/Professional Faculty Handbook” were printed directly from website and distributed to committee members. 

 

Draft Revision Texts of Sections 2.1.1 Tenured Appointment, 2.1.2 Probationary Appointment, 2.1.3 Other Types of Full-Time Fixed Term Appointment, and 2.1.4 Part-Time Appointment – Martin Ford:

 

2.1.1   Tenured Appointment

            No change necessary

 

2.1.2   Probationary Appointment

            No change necessary

 

2.1.3   Other Types of Full-Time Fixed-Term Appointment

 

            Full-time instructional and research faculty on fixed-term, non-tenure track

appointments are known as Term Faculty.  Service in such positions cannot be

applied to consideration for tenure, although a faculty member holding this kind of appointment can subsequently be considered for a probationary or tenured appointment.

 

Term faculty whose assignments focus primarily on teaching are appointed as instructional faculty.  Term faculty whose assignments focus primarily on research are appointed as research faculty.  Some specific administrative or service functions may also be attached to the teaching or research focus. 

 

Term faculty may be offered single-year or multi-year contracts, with the maximum contract length being three years for initial appointments and reappointments at the same rank.  Such contracts automatically expire at the end of the contract period, and although they may be renewed, there is no guarantee or right to reappointment from one contract to the next, whether single-year or multi-year.

 

Term faculty appointments include appropriate academic rank as judged by the appointing local academic unit and subject to the approval of the appropriate Dean and Provost.  Multi-year term faculty must hold a terminal degree.  Term faculty with a terminal degree are eligible for promotion in rank after six years of service.  Multi-year contracts offered after promotion in rank may be for three or five years. 

 

Teaching-oriented term faculty may hold one of the following titles:  Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor.  Research-oriented term faculty may hold one of the following titles:  Research Instructor, Research Assistant Professor, Research Associate Professor, or Research Professor.

 

Term faculty on single-year appointments whose permanent employment is with another organization should be modified by the title “Visiting.”  

 

2.1.4        Part-Time Appointment

 

Faculty who are appointed to part-time positions with the sole responsibility of covering the teaching, advising, and instructional supervision responsibilities associated with a specific course (or courses) are called Adjunct Faculty.  Adjunct appointments are for the duration of the assigned course(s).   

 

Faculty who are appointed to part-time positions with assignments that go beyond those associated with adjunct faculty positions are known as Part-Time Term Faculty.  Such assignments may include research, service, administration, program development, or instructional responsibilities that go beyond the boundaries of specific courses.  Part-time term faculty positions are governed by the same appointment, rank, and title requirements as full-time term faculty positions except that the Dean is the final approval level and the maximum length of a part-time term faculty position is one year, with exceptions requiring the approval of the Provost. 

 

Faculty with significant teaching, research, service, or administrative assignments who are not on the University payroll may be designated as Affiliate Faculty with an appropriate academic rank.  Recommendations for affiliate faculty appointments are recommended by a local academic unit and must be approved by the Provost.

 

·        Removal of  “Field,” “Clinical,” and “Contract” Faculty

·        Two new issues:  Adjunct Faculty Titles:  Adjunct Instructor, Adjunct Assistant Professor etc. as consistent with matrix for those units who use this

o       Is there a problem to add language parallel to teaching-oriented adjunct faculty member who has a rank?  Concern expressed that outsiders would not understand this.

o       Affiliate Faculty use titles such as “Affiliate Assistant Professor”, etc.

o       Titles available to teaching-oriented term faculty are available to adjunct and affiliate faculty as well.

 

·        Title Grid from “ Research Faculty Policies and Procedures,” p. 2:

Titles personnel on such appointments may hold are:

 

GMU Local Titles: 

State Title Equivalent: 

Assistant Research Scientist/Engineer/Associate(S/E/A) 
 

Research Lecturer (01041); Research Assistant Instructor (01042); Research Instructor (01043)

Research Scientist/Engineer/Associate 

Research Assistant Professor (01044)

Senior Research Scientist/Engineer/Associate 

Research Associate Professor (01045)

Principal Research Scientist/Engineer/Associate

Research Professor (01046)

 

Normal qualifications for the categories are as follows:

Assistant Research S/E/A:  At least a Bachelors degree and 3 years experience, or a master's degree and either experience, further education, or training appropriate to the specific research program need.  Individuals in this category may not serve as principal investigators on grants and contracts.

Research S/E/A:  At least a bachelor's degree and 3 years experience, or a P.h.D or other terminal degree and 7 years relevant experience.  Individuals in this category may serve as principal investigators on grants and contracts with the approval of the appropriate Dean or Institute Director.

Senior Research S/E/A:  Master's degree in a field of research appropriate to the specific research program needs and 7 years of relevant experience or P.h.D or other terminal degree and 3 years experience.  Individuals in this category may serve as principal investigators on grants and contracts.

Principal Research S/E/A:  At least a P.h.D or other terminal degree and 7 years experience in a field of research  appropriate to the specific research program needs and management and program  development experience.  Substantial professional contributions are also necessary for this  rank.  Individuals in this category may serve as principal investigator on grants and contracts.

*These titles are in accordance with the Governor's Consolidated Salary Authorization for Faculty Positions in Institutions of Higher Education, and are used for statewide classification and payroll coding purposes only.

o       “Research Associate” used in the distant past. 

o       Titles such as “Research Engineer” and “Research Scientist” important to IT&E and COS?

o       Use of modifiers “Senior Research Scientist” and “Principal Research Scientist”:  do these titles support grants received?  If local working titles do not need to be in the Faculty Handbook.

o       Continuing discussion re inclusion of Research Faculty in the Faculty Handbook; suggestion made to attach Term Faculty document to Handbook, which overrides old policies and procedures found in Research Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures (RFP&P).  Search and Hiring Procedures now moot; not usually found in Faculty Handbook anyway; Terms of Employment, references to ledger 5, extremely outdated.  Consensus to ask Matt Kluger, Vice President for Research to review RFP&P.

o       Noted that instructional and research faculty all grouped together during new faculty orientation.

“Affiliate Faculty” as used to designate more than one affiliation:  For example, full-time faculty member in SOM may be affiliate faculty in another school.  Question addressed in 2.1.5 Definition of Primary Affiliation: 

Although tenure resides in the University as a whole (see Section 2.7.3), probationary and tenured faculty, with the exception of university professors, are appointed directly and specifically to one or more local academic units. The status established by such an appointment is called in this document "primary affiliation."

 

Primary affiliation is determined in accordance with procedures described in Sections 2.7 and 2.8. An appointment to primary affiliation requires the concurrence of the faculty of the local unit to which the appointment is to be made and may not be transferred from one local academic unit to another except with the concurrence of the faculty of the unit to which a transfer is proposed. Primary affiliation in one unit does not, however, preclude assignment to part-time or full-time service in other units in which a faculty member does not hold an appointment to primary affiliation.

 

Do term faculty have governance rights?

o       As stated in Procedures for Appointment and Reappointment of Term Faculty:  “By agreement with the Board of Visitors and the Faculty Senate, a maximum of 35% of all Term Faculty may be on multi-year contracts and a maximum of 25% of all full-time Instructional Faculty may be Term Faculty.”

o       Variations among units of the extent to which they have voting rights; can be in the Faculty Senate

o       In LAHS full-time term instructional faculty tend to be paid differently than tenure-line faculty; unknown if have same governance rights as tenure-line faculty.

o       Should we have a statement re governance to say that participation of full-time fixed term appointments varies among units?   To call attention to distinctions?

o       Reasons for leaving (governance) decisions to academic units – term faculty in some units may be almost all research – external funding vs. greater likelihood that instructional faculty receive internal funding. 

o       To add to revised sections 2.1.3 and 2.1.4 the following statement:  “Grievance rights and responsibilities of faculty on full-time fixed term appointments are at discretion of local academic units.”

o       Also to add paragraph 3 from “Procedures for Appointment and Reappointment of Term Faculty”:  By agreement with the Board of Visitors and the Faculty Senate, a maximum of 35% of all Term Faculty may be on multi-year contracts and a maximum of 25% of all full-time Instructional Faculty may be Term Faculty.

 

Human Resources has moved to create new codes for adjunct and part-time faculty because of new state regulations.  Human Resources and University Counsel to review revisions to Faculty Handbook.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Meg Caniano

Clerk, Faculty Senate