Faculty Handbook revisions proposed by the Senate Academic Affairs Committee

The following revisions to the Faculty Handbook were proposed by the Senate Academic Affairs Committee, chaired by Udo Fehn, on November 25, 1998, with pagination as in the draft of 9/23/98.

IV.36: Professor: in the first sentence after ...'a period of six years' add: 'after tenure is awarded'

IV.36: Joint and Programmatic Appointments: After first sentence add: 'Exceptions can be made only at the time of initial appointment.'

Rationale: The addition makes exceptions possible (e.g. highly desirable recruit) but provides guidance for the use of exceptions in accordance with the current rules.

IV.43: Add a new paragraph 1 and renumber the following paragraphs:

'1. Initiation of the process leading to promotion rests with the chair of the department (or, in smaller schools, with the dean). If a faculty member believes that the department chair (or dean) has not put forward a recommendation for reappointment or promotion at an appropriate time or for the appropriate type of promotion, the faculty member may appeal to the dean (or provost).'

IV.54: Rewording of the paragraph following the list of titles starting with 'Assistant Professor (Teaching)...'

'Full time faculty are normally appointed to positions with titles named on IV.33, item 2, with promotion and tenure procedures described in the pages following that description. For exceptional cases, the above special titles are available for appointments outside of the tenure track. Adoption of any of these special titles by any school, and the suggested rules for these appointments, shall be reviewed by the University Committee on Tenure and Privileges, who shall advise the President on such titles and regulations. In the School of Medicine...'

Rationale: A main concern about these new titles was the potential for the development of a two-tier faculty, in particular with the introduction of 'teaching' faculty. The additional statements clearly express that these titles are to be used only under special circumstances and after the development of rules governing the application of these titles. Policies already existing for Research Associates etc. are not affected by this statement.

IV.82: First paragraph, replace last sentence with the following sentence:

'Rules for the ownership of course-related software, electronic aids/supporting material, and reproductions of lectures are currently being developed and will be added to the handbook after proper review.'

IV.84, Item 4: Change new sentence to 'based on clear preponderance of the evidence'

Rationale: ('simple') preponderance of evidence is too low a threshold for such an important decision.

Copyright by University of Rochester
Faculty Senate site created June 29, 1998, by William Simon wsimon@biophysics.rochester.edu
Maintained by Douglas C. Ravenel drav@harpo.math.rochester.edu.
This page last revised December 14, 1998