Warner School Clinical Faculty Track

Along with most of the other professional schools within the University of Rochester, we have come to realize that the mission of a professional school within a research university today is so complex and diverse that it requires a more diverse faculty than in the past. The current university-wide criteria for tenure – and, thus, expectations for tenure-track faculty – are often too narrow to recognize and reward the variety of tasks and responsibilities that professional research schools of education like ours are called to perform in order to be successful and competitive. As a result, the Warner School has developed a set of guidelines to define a new “clinical faculty track.”

According to these guidelines, a clinical faculty is a non-tenure track faculty member employed for at least 50% of his/her time at the Warner School and whose role involves a combination of (a) teaching, (b) clinical scholarship, (c) practice towards improving educational policies and practices, and (d) service. While we expect each clinical faculty member to provide some contribution in each of the four areas and to do his/her own share of service like any other faculty member at the Warner School, we also expect that each clinical faculty member will identify two primarily areas among Teaching, Clinical Scholarship and Practice as their focus.

Despite the considerable differences among the set of responsibilities to be performed by specific clinical faculty members, depending on their primary areas and assigned duties, the following list captures some essential characteristics that we expect ALL clinical faculty to demonstrate at least to some extent:

1. A clinical faculty member regularly interacts with local educational, clinical and community institutions and local professionals, is current on the issues and problems facing these institutions/professionals, and works with them on significant matters (e.g. significant leadership issues, administrative issues, practice issues, etc.)

2. This work is relevant to and informs what the clinical faculty member teaches. A clinical faculty member is, thus, an effective teacher who can improve the professional practice of Warner students.

3. A clinical faculty member discusses and analyzes in an informed way the issues and problems being wrestled with by local, regional and/or national institutions, bringing to bear relevant current research.

4. A clinical faculty member is familiar with promise and limits of research and in light of that knowledge suggests interesting lines of future research (ex: by suggesting hypotheses worth further investigation) that they as well as other researchers (including Warner students) could undertake.

5. A clinical faculty member has the capacity to identify what is and is not “quality” research and “wisdom of practice” relevant to specific contexts and goals and as such helps Warner students, as well as other educators and helping professionals, find, analyze and translate research into practice.

6. A clinical faculty member offers insights and generalizations about their own experiences in a way that is relevant to and useful for other professionals in the field and to university based researchers.

7. A clinical faculty member effectively relates to two audiences – professionals in the field and university based researchers – and communicates to these audiences through the appropriate media (oral, written, multi-media).

8. A clinical faculty member seeks and obtains external funding, if and as needed to fulfill their responsibilities.

9. A clinical faculty member develops concrete products (such as curricula, materials, models, applications, projects, conferences, organizations and/or collaborations) that influence educational policy and practice on a regional, state and/or national level.


For more details on the roles and responsibilities, titles and terms of contract, criteria and processes for hiring, re-appointment and promotion, and other information about the clinical faculty track at Warner, you can look at the full text of the “Proposal for a Clinical Faculty Track” that was approved by the UR Board of Trustees in June 2004.

> Description of Clinical Faculty Track