Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
Position Summary
The Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs serves as the Provost’s senior advisor and institutional leader on matters concerning the academic faculty and the policies, processes, programs, and institutional structures that support faculty excellence throughout the faculty career.
Reporting to the Provost, the Vice Provost provides university-wide leadership for faculty appointments, recruitment and hiring processes, promotion and tenure, faculty policies and practices, faculty professional and leadership development, faculty governance relationships, and faculty professionalism. The Vice Provost works closely with deans, associate deans, department chairs, faculty affairs officers, the Faculty Senate and its committees, Human Resources, the Office of Counsel, and other university partners to support rigorous, fair, transparent, efficient, and consistent faculty processes while recognizing the distinctive missions and faculty structures of URochester’s schools.
The Vice Provost leads and coordinates the Office of Faculty Affairs and serves as a central resource to faculty members and academic leaders across the University. The position also advises the Provost on emerging issues affecting the faculty, faculty climate and experience, and the development and implementation of institutional faculty policy.
Faculty are invited to nominate a colleague or submit a self-nomination.
Key Responsibilities
Provide university-level leadership and oversight for faculty appointment, reappointment, promotion, and tenure processes.
The Vice Provost will:
- Coordinate and oversee the Provost-level review of promotion and tenure cases.
- Advise the Provost regarding individual cases and broader issues of policy, precedent, consistency, and institutional practice.
- Work closely with deans, associate deans, department chairs, and school faculty affairs officers to ensure timely, complete, and rigorous review of cases.
- Maintain clear university-wide expectations, calendars, guidance, templates, and processes for appointment and promotion actions.
- Promote appropriate consistency across schools while respecting differences among disciplines and faculty tracks.
- Periodically review promotion and tenure practices with schools and recommend policy or process improvements.
- Provide guidance concerning tenure-clock extensions, leaves, joint appointments, secondary appointments, faculty tracks, emeritus status, and related faculty appointment matters.
- Ensure that institutional policies and practices remain consistent with the Faculty Handbook and applicable university policies.
- Develop training and guidance for academic leaders, administrators, and faculty participating in promotion and tenure reviews.
- Maintain appropriate institutional records and provide reports to the Provost and relevant faculty governance bodies.
Provide university-wide leadership for policies and best practices governing faculty recruitment and hiring, in partnership with schools and Human Resources.
Responsibilities include:
- Develop and periodically review university-wide expectations and guidance for faculty searches.
- Partner with deans and associate deans to strengthen faculty recruitment strategies.
- Develop and oversee best-practice training and resources for faculty search committees and search chairs.
- Support schools conducting complex, interdisciplinary, cluster, or strategic faculty searches.
- Help ensure appropriate documentation and institutional review of faculty appointments.
- Work with HR and other partners to improve faculty recruiting, appointment, onboarding, and related administrative processes.
- Identify opportunities to improve the effectiveness, quality, and efficiency of faculty recruitment.
- Monitor national trends and peer practices in faculty hiring and recommend appropriate changes in institutional practice.
Serve as the primary Provost’s Office partner to the schools on faculty affairs.
The Vice Provost will:
- Develop strong working relationships with deans, associate deans for faculty affairs, faculty affairs officers, and department chairs.
- Convene the University’s school-based faculty affairs leaders regularly to address emerging issues, share effective practices, and improve consistency of institutional processes.
- Provide confidential consultation to academic leaders concerning complex faculty situations.
- Advise schools regarding interpretation and application of University faculty policies.
- Work with academic leaders to anticipate faculty workforce needs and issues.
- Develop common institutional approaches where central coordination adds value, while maintaining appropriate school authority and flexibility.
- Identify recurring issues across schools and recommend University-level policy or process changes to the Provost.
Provide strategic leadership for University-wide faculty development across career stages and overall experience of the University’s faculty.
The Vice Provost will:
- Analyze trends affecting faculty recruitment, retention, engagement, and career development.
- Coordinate faculty climate, experience, or job-satisfaction assessments as appropriate.
- Work with institutional data partners to develop useful faculty workforce information.
- Identify systemic obstacles to faculty effectiveness and recommend institutional responses.
- Benchmark Rochester against AAU and other peer institutions.
- Advise the Provost on emerging national issues affecting the professoriate.
- Develop an annual assessment of major faculty-affairs issues, accomplishments, and priorities.
- Oversee or coordinate programs supporting:
- New-faculty onboarding and orientation.
- Early-career faculty development.
- Mentoring
- Mid-career faculty development.
- Preparation for promotion.
- Preparation for retirement.
- Faculty leadership development.
- Development for department chairs and other academic leaders.
- Faculty awards and recognition.
- External professional-development opportunities.
- Faculty networking and interdisciplinary engagement.
- Programs addressing emerging needs of the faculty.
The Vice Provost will work with the schools so that central programming complements, rather than duplicates, school-based programs.
Serve as the faculty affairs liaison between the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate and support effective shared governance.
The Vice Provost will:
- Maintain regular communication with Faculty Senate leadership.
- Work with Senate leadership and the Provost to identify issues requiring faculty consultation or governance review.
- Serve as Ex-officio member of Senate Academic Affairs committee.
- Supervise administrative support for the Faculty Senate and its committees.
- Consult faculty governance bodies during the development or revision of faculty policies.
- Help ensure that significant faculty-policy questions receive appropriate consultation and governance consideration.
- Support implementation and communication of approved policy changes.
Provide senior oversight of the University’s faculty professionalism framework and related processes.
The Vice Provost will:
- Supervise the Faculty Professionalism Investigator.
- Provide oversight and leadership support for the Faculty Professionalism Advisory Committee.
- Ensure that concerns involving faculty professionalism are handled consistently with University policy and established procedures.
- Serve as a resource to deans and other academic leaders in addressing complex faculty matters.
- Coordinate as appropriate with the Office of Counsel, Human Resources, and other University compliance offices.
- Monitor patterns and recurring issues and recommend policy, educational, or organizational interventions where appropriate.
- Develop preventive education and resources concerning faculty responsibilities and professional expectations.
- Protect appropriate confidentiality and the integrity of faculty processes.
Serve as the Provost’s senior administrative steward for institutional policies governing faculty.
Responsibilities include:
- Oversee maintenance and periodic review of the Faculty Handbook.
- Identify faculty policies requiring clarification, revision, or modernization.
- Coordinate policy development with faculty governance, deans, the Office of Counsel, Human Resources, and other responsible offices.
- Develop guidance for implementation of faculty policies.
- Monitor developments in higher education and relevant legal and regulatory requirements affecting faculty policy.
- Establish mechanisms for consistent interpretation of faculty policies across schools.
- Maintain clear and accessible institutional guidance for faculty and academic administrators.
Leadership and Supervision
The Vice Provost will lead and supervise the Provost’s Office faculty-affairs staff responsible for faculty affairs, faculty development, faculty governance support, and faculty professionalism.
Key University Partners
The Vice Provost will work particularly closely with:
- Provost
- President and senior leadership
- School deans
- Associate deans responsible for faculty affairs
- Department chairs and academic center directors
- Faculty Senate leadership and Senate committees
- University Committee on Tenure and Privileges
- Human Resources
- Office of Counsel
- Office for Engagement and Enrichment
- Office of University Compliance
- Institutional research/data functions
- School faculty affairs officers
- Teaching and learning resources
- Funding support opportunities for faculty recruitment, recognition, or development
Required Qualifications
- Distinguished record as a tenured faculty member at the rank of professor at the University of Rochester.
- Significant academic administrative or faculty-governance leadership experience.
- Substantial knowledge of faculty appointment, promotion, and tenure processes.
- Demonstrated experience working effectively with faculty, department chairs, deans, and senior academic leaders.
- Strong understanding of shared governance and the distinctive role of faculty in a research university.
- Demonstrated ability to interpret and administer complex academic policies fairly and consistently.
- Excellent judgment and discretion in handling confidential and sensitive faculty matters.
- Exceptional written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work constructively across schools and disciplines that have substantially different academic cultures and faculty models.
Leadership Attributes
The successful candidate will bring:
- Academic credibility. The ability to command the confidence of faculty and academic leaders across disciplines.
- Sound judgment. The capacity to navigate sensitive personnel, governance, and policy questions with discretion and fairness.
- A faculty-centered orientation. A commitment to creating conditions in which outstanding faculty can succeed across all stages of their careers.
- Institutional perspective. The ability to distinguish issues requiring University-wide standards from matters appropriately determined by individual schools.
- Collaborative leadership. A demonstrated ability to work through influence, consultation, and partnership with deans, faculty governance, and administrative colleagues.
- Operational discipline. The ability to translate complicated academic policy into reliable, transparent, and timely institutional processes.
- Commitment to academic excellence and academic freedom. An understanding of the relationship among faculty quality, rigorous academic standards, shared governance, institutional responsibility, and the University’s research and educational missions.