Joint and Courtesy Appointments

Handbook Table of Contents | Constitution | Faculty Policies | Degree Policies

• Joint Appointments
• Courtesy Appointments

Joint Appointments

Introduction

Carnegie Mellon and the Mellon College of Science are committed to encouraging, facilitating, and rewarding interdisciplinary educational and scholarly activities. Appointments of faculty members in more that one department should be designed to further this objective.

The University Policy provides the following definition:

A faculty appointment is called a joint appointment if it is made in more academic units (departments, or Colleges or Schools) than one. For administrative purposes, one of the participating units is designated as the home unit. A joint appointment has a single rank and tenure status. At any given time, a joint appointment has a salary-and-commitment distribution that may lie (for two participating units) anywhere between 50%-50% and 100%-0% inclusive. (UP Term and Timing: Types of appointment)

The provisions of the present section of this Policy govern joint appointments in more than one department of the Mellon College of Science. Joint appointments between the College and other Colleges and Schools of the University are governed in some detail by the provisions of the University Policy (UP Procedures: Joint appointments); subject to those provisions, and to the extent that there is no conflict with them, the College and its departments consider the basic principles stated in the next subsection of the present section of this Policy as binding for such joint appointments, and negotiate all other provisions, either on general or on case-by-case terms, taking the provisions of the present section of this Policy as guidelines for discussion.

The provisions of the present section of this Policy are formulated, for convenience, for appointments involving two departments; but they are to be regarded as applying, with the obvious required changes, to appointments involving more than two departments.

Principles

The following basic principles govern joint appointments involving one or more departments in the Mellon College of Science:

• (a) The joint appointee is qualified to be appointed at his or her rank and tenure status in each of the participating departments.
• (b) The joint appointee is a member of each of the participating departments, and is entitled to vote, as rank and tenure status may determine, at its meetings; but is entitled to only one vote in matters where the Faculty Organization of the Mellon College of Science or the Faculty Organization of Carnegie Mellon University votes as one body, or for Faculty Senate elections. It is expressly noted that, as regards membership in departments of the Mellon College of Science, this provision is applicable to joint appointments between the College and other units of the University.
• (c) The joint nature of the appointment continues during the term of appointment as determined by the University Policy (hence, indefinitely in the case of an appointment with indefinite tenure); it may be terminated during such term of appointment only with the appointee's consent.
• (d) The joint appointee is entitled to a designation that incorporates the names of the disciplines of all the participating departments; but a more specific designation (e.g., Professor of Chemical Physics) may be agreed upon.

The preceding basic principles govern all joint appointments, including those with 100%-0% salary and commitment distribution. In the subsection on "Courtesy Appointments" of the present section of this Policy there is an outline of other methods, of various degrees of formality, but short of a joint appointment, for extending one department's

Definitions

For every joint appointment, the participating department having the greater percentage of the salary-and-commitment distribution is the home department; but if the distribution is equal or nearly so, the choice of home department, may be dictated by other considerations, and is made by agreement between the department heads and the faculty member. (Faculty members with substantial commitment to administrative positions may require other administrative and budgetary arrangements.)

For the purpose of determining the procedures regarding a joint appointment, it is defined to be a major joint appointment if the percentage of the salary-and-commitment distribution in the home department does not exceed 75%, and as a minor joint appointment otherwise (the latter kind includes an appointment with a 100%-0% distribution). A deviation from this threshold percentage may, under exceptional circumstances documented in writing, be approved by the Dean for a specific appointment, acting on the concurrent recommendations of the participating department heads, and subject to the consent of the faculty member.

The salary-and-commitment distribution of a joint appointment serves as a guideline for the service that the participating epartments may expect from the appointee, and, in particular, for teaching * and committee assignments. Short-term fluctuation in commitment need not alter the specified distribution; but the distribution may also be modified from time to time with the agreement of the department heads, the Dean, and the appointee, subject to the provisions of the present section of this Policy regarding the conversion of a minor joint appointment into a major one and vice versa.

Major joint appointments

The most challenging aspect of joint faculty appointments concerns reappointment, promotion, and tenure decisions. Therefore, joint appointments made without indefinite tenure must be made with full consideration of both the added benefits and challenges of a joint appointment at the junior level or in the non-tenure tracks.

To arrive at an initial appointment decision regarding a major joint appointment, there must be concurrent departmental recommendations and an agreement between the participating departments on salary-and-commitment distribution. Concurrent departmental recommendations are also required for the conversion of an appointment in one department into a major joint appointment, as well as for the conversion of a minor joint appointment into a major one; in these two cases, the decision, if made during a term of appointment without change in rank or tenure status, is dealt with in the College by the procedure (summary or comprehensive) appropriate to the nature of the appointment, and becomes formal upon approval by the Dean; it does not affect the current term of appointment.

The following procedures will be followed for major joint appointments within the college made in the research and lecture tracks and for appointments made in the tenure track at a rank below Full Professor with Indefinite Tenure. The procedures for major joint appointments involving departments in other colleges will be negotiated by the Dean or the Dean's designee. The Dean or Dean's designee will endeavor to negotiate a procedure that follows the steps outlined below as faithfully as possible.

1. In the first year of the joint appointment, the appropriate department heads and associate deans will meet to discuss the promotion and tenure timeline to be followed for the candidate. The resulting timeline will be communicated by written memo to the candidate and a copy will be sent to each department and college. The timelines for the decisions will be consistent with University policies.
2. In the spring prior to an evaluation for reappointment, promotion, or tenure, the two department heads will discuss the case from their perspectives. They will determine the department that is to be responsible for assembling the case documentation and they will produce the list of external references. They will also identify one senior faculty member from each department who will attend both department meetings to discuss the case. These decisions regarding case documentation and procedures are contingent on the approval of the Dean or, in cases involving two colleges, the two Deans.
3. At the beginning of the following fall semester, each department will meet to discuss the case and each will include the representative from the other unit (identified above) in its discussion of the joint appointment. The department deliberations, vote and the writing of the report will follow the same procedures used for appointments in a single department.
4. The two department heads, or their designees, shall constitute a joint committee. In the event the two department decisions are the same, the joint committee will write a report summarizing the decisions of both departments. This report will be included as part of the case documentation. If the department decisions differ, the chair of the MCS Faculty Organization and appropriate Associate Dean(s) will be added to the above committee. This committee will attempt to clarify the reasons for the differing department recommendations, make their own recommendations, and write a report describing their findings and their recommendation. They may request that the Dean(s) participate in their discussions, but the Dean(s) will not vote on their final recommendation.
5. The report of the joint committee will be included in the case documentation which is passed on to the appropriate MCS Ad-Hoc Committee on Faculty Appointments for its deliberations. The Ad-Hoc Committee and MCS Review Committee will follow the same procedures used for appointments in a single department.

At any time prior to the meeting of the Ad-Hoc committee, the candidate may make a written request to the Dean that the appointment be changed to a normal appointment in a single department designated in the request. If the Dean and the Department Head of the designated department agree, the case will be sent back to the designated department for its deliberation and recommendation. The case will then proceed as for a normal (non-joint) appointment. The case documentation that goes to the Ad-Hoc and subsequent committees will not include the two original department summaries or the report of the joint-committee since the candidate has withdrawn from consideration of the joint-appointment and initiated the consideration of a revised appointment.

Minor joint appointments

In all appointment and tenure decisions regarding a minor joint appointment, the participation of the non-home department is by way of departmental consent, defined as an affirmative decision reached by the same procedure as would be required for a departmental recommendation regarding the decision in question. In particular, departmental consent of the prospective non-home department is required when making an initial appointment as a minor joint appointment.

When a decision on reappointment, promotion, or the granting of tenure is to be made regarding a faculty member holding a minor joint appointment, the decision is made, following the complete procedure prescribed by this Policy and the University Policy, as if the appointment were in the home department exclusively. If the decision is affirmative, the resulting appointment is held in the home department exclusively, unless the non-home department gives its departmental consent, with the agreement of the faculty member and the home department head, to making the resulting appointment again a minor joint appointment.

A decision to convert an appointment in one department into a minor joint appointment with that department as home department, or to convert a minor joint appointment into an appointment in the home department exclusively, or to make changes in the salary-and-commitment distribution of a minor joint appointment that do not convert it to a major one, if intended to go into effect during the term of an existing appointment, is made by written agreement between the participating department heads, the Dean, and the faculty member, and does not affect the then current term of appointment. The first of these decisions also requires, however, the departmental consent of the prospective non-home department.

Review

Periodic reviews of each joint faculty appointment should be conducted, with participation of the appointee, the participating department heads, the interdepartmental program committee chairman, if any, and the Dean. One purpose of this review is to examine the relationship between the appointee's professional development and evolving departmental responsibilities, on one side, and the specified salary-and-commitment distribution on the other.

Courtesy Appointments

There frequently arise circumstances in which a faculty member of one department or of a center at Carnegie Mellon becomes active in research or education in another department in which that faculty member does not hold an appointment. This involvement typically occurs in the context of research collaboration or team-taught courses. In such cases, it may be appropriate for the second department to offer the faculty member a courtesy appointment of a degree of formality short of a joint appointment and without any salary obligations to the faculty member on the part of the second department. (It should be noted that it is not necessary to be a member of a department to serve as a thesis advisor to students in its doctoral programs.)

Beyond obvious occasional courtesies, such as service on appropriate departmental committees or inclusion in departmental mailing lists, which may be extended by the department head, more formally specified courtesies are at the discretion of the departmental faculty. A courtesy appointment shall be approved by the Dean on recommendation by the head of the department, supported by a vote of the department's faculty. The recommendation of the department head should specify the courtesies to be extended, the term of the appointment (not to exceed five years), and a date by which the terms of the appointment should be reviewed by the department. Such courtesies may include any or all of the following:

• Use of departmental letterhead.
• Inclusion in departmental faculty lists (as in catalogues and program brochures) as "faculty affiliated with the department".
• Access to departmental instrumentation.
• Reasonable use of secretarial assistance and office supplies.
• Office space (if available).
• Participation in departmental faculty meetings, if qualified by rank and tenure status, but without being entitled to vote.

The faculty member may use a title or designation indicative of a joint appointment, but the affiliation with the second department in internal departmental records must indicate that the arrangement is one of a courtesy appointment.