Carnegie Mellon University

Appointments — Teaching Track

POLICY TITLE: Carnegie Mellon University Policy on Teaching Track Appointments
DATE OF ISSUANCE: This policy was originally adopted as the Lecturer Track Policy by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees on August 8, 1994, and was most recently updated on October 23, 2009.
ACCOUNTABLE DEPARTMENT/UNIT: Office of the Provost. Questions about policy content should be directed to the Office of the Provost at 412-268-3260.
ABSTRACT: Full-time teaching positions of Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor and Teaching Professor, which confer faculty status without tenure, are defined. Their primary duties concern teaching.
RELATED POLICIES:

Concept and Scope

In order to maintain the quality, flexibility and continuity of the academic activities of Carnegie Mellon University in all their aspects (instructional, scholarly, professional and artistic), the work of the regular faculty may be complemented by the services of other qualified persons engaged in educational activities in positions that confer faculty status.

This document concerns the full-time teaching positions of Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor (referred to collectively as the Teaching Track). These positions confer faculty status but are subject neither to the Appointment and Tenure Policy of Carnegie Mellon University, nor to the Policy on Research Faculty, nor to the Policy on Special Faculty Appointments.

The designations Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor are specific to Teaching Track positions, and may not be used for any other positions in the university, unless preceded by distinguishing qualifiers such as visiting, special, part-time or adjunct.

Appointments to the Teaching Track are appropriate only for the performance of educational responsibilities that are, as certified by a decision of the regular faculty of the academic department concerned, so specifically focused as to be inappropriate for regular faculty, but require the employment of persons of sufficiently high caliber and specific talent as to justify the conferring of faculty status in order to attract and retain them, without requiring of them all the activities normally expected of regular faculty members.

Since the primary duties of Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor concern teaching, the main criterion for appointment and promotion is excellence in teaching. However, it is recognized that the diverse characteristics of the different colleges may make it appropriate for them to set additional criteria.

Faculty members should not be considered for appointments as Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor merely because attainment of tenure is unlikely.

Appointment

Every appointment of an Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor shall be made in an academic department. All these appointments (including reappointments) in a college or school, and the specification of their term and of salary arrangements are made by the dean in accordance with the pertinent college or school policy (see below). Normal terms for each position are given below, although shorter terms are possible under special circumstances. (In the following specifications, the word "year" is used as in the Appointment and Tenure Policy of Carnegie Mellon University.)

Appointments to the position of Assistant Teaching Professor are for terms of three years. Initial appointment as, or promotion to, Associate Teaching Professor is also for a three-year term, but subsequent reappointments as Associate Teaching Professor are for five-year terms. Associate Teaching Professors are expected to demonstrate exceptional mastery in teaching with a substantial impact on the university's educational mission.

Appointments as Teaching Professor are for five-year terms. Appointments at this rank are made only for extraordinary accomplishment in teaching and fundamental contributions to the university's educational mission. Initial appointments at, and promotions to, the rank of Teaching Professor are subject to approval by the provost, who may request the opinion of the University Tenure Committee in any individual case.

Initial appointments as Assistant Teaching Professor and Associate Teaching Professor are subject to the approval of the provost when the persons to be appointed hold or have held regular faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon University at or above the rank of assistant professor.

When an appointment or reappointment is made, it is the responsibility of the dean to ensure that the appointee is given clear and full information in writing concerning the terms of the appointment and his or her specific functions and duties, as well as concerning the nature of the Teaching Track. The dean shall also make sure that information on the appointment is available to the administration and, to the extent of its responsibilities, to the University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments.

An appointment in the Teaching Track does not establish an expectation of consideration for reappointment or promotion. Timely notice shall be given of every decision not to reappoint an Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor or to let an appointment (other than a terminal appointment) lapse. Notice is timely if given one year before the expiration of the term of appointment. In order to comply with this provision, it may be necessary to extend a term by an additional appointment of up to one year, designated as a terminal appointment, the decision not to reappoint or to let the appointment lapse notwithstanding.

During the terms of their appointments, Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor are subject to, and protected by, the same university policies concerning academic freedom and dismissal for cause (but not concerning reappointments) as are regular but untenured faculty members. They shall enjoy all normal regular faculty fringe benefits. For the purpose of the application of pertinent provisions of the Appointment and Tenure Policy, the ranks of Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor shall be regarded as equivalent to those of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor, respectively.

College or School Review

Each college and school shall establish policies specifying criteria and procedures regarding appointments, reappointments and promotions to Teaching Track positions. These policies should include provision for periodic review of the appropriateness of the use of Teaching Track positions, including the certification of such appropriateness by a decision of the department's regular faculty. These policies are subject to approval by the provost after review by the University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments.

Each initial appointment, reappointment or promotion in the Teaching Track, except initial appointments to the rank of Assistant Teach Professor requires a review by the department and by a college review committee. The procedures in force for the reappointment and promotion of probationary regular faculty members shall be adhered to as closely as practicable.

University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments

There shall be a University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments, constituted as follows: the provost, who shall preside, the deans of the colleges and the chair of the Faculty Organization shall be members of the committee ex officiis; the other members shall be appointed for staggered terms of two years and must be regular faculty members or Associate Teaching Professors or Teaching Professors; the provost and the chair of the Faculty Organization shall each appoint three members and the chairperson of the faculty of each college shall appoint one member.

The University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments shall review the college policies specifying criteria and procedures regarding appointments, reappointments and promotions to Teaching Track positions, and submit its recommendations to the provost.

The University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments shall conduct a triennial review of all Teaching Track appointments for the sole purpose of ensuring that the functions of these positions satisfy, or continue to satisfy, the requirements justifying their discharge by means of Teaching Track appointments. So far as practicable, this review shall be organized in such a manner that all such positions in the same college shall come under review in the same year. No decisions will affect the rights of an individual in the Teaching Track to complete his or her current term of appointment. The review shall not bear on the qualifications of the persons holding the appointments beyond the extent required to make the determination specified above. The deans shall submit to the committee all pertinent information together with their recommendations. The committee shall forward these recommendations together with its own to the provost for a final decision. Should problems be identified concerning the use of the Teaching Track in a particular college, the provost shall determine remedies after appropriate consultation.

In addition, the University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments shall monitor the general functioning of Carnegie Mellon's policy on Teaching Track appointments. To this end, the administration shall provide the committee annually with a summary report on the existing Teaching Track appointments, as well as with any other relevant and non-privileged information. The committee shall advise the Faculty Senate and the president on any matters concerning the university's policy that may be submitted to it, as well as on those that in its opinion require examination or amendment of this policy.

The chair of the Faculty Organization shall report each year to the Faculty Senate on the operation of the University Committee on Teaching Track Appointments.

Transitional Provisions

In each college and school, appointments in the Teaching Track shall not be made before the date of the approval of the provost of that college's or school's policy specifying criteria and procedures regarding such appointments, as required by the provisions of this policy.

Persons who on the effective date of this policy hold appointments with the title of Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, or Teaching Professor may, notwithstanding the restriction of these designations to Teaching Track positions, retain the respective title during the current term of appointment and any subsequent uninterrupted reappointment terms at the same rank, even when these appointments remain not subject to the present policy.