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Appointment and Review of Lecturers and Senior Lecturers

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Approved by the Board of Trustees
March 14, 1996
Revised June 6, 2002

1. Introductory

a. Most faculty appointments in Emory College are tenure-track. Expectations for promotion, and specified evaluation procedures and schedules for such appointments, are set forth in Principles and Procedures for Promotion and Tenure in Emory College. This policy does not dispute or displace the tenure track as the normal, ongoing system of faculty appointments.

b. Nevertheless some faculty are not on the tenure track, but carry somewhat different responsibilities based on teaching and service without requiring original research. The need for multi-year appointments off the tenure track is largely limited to the sciences (notably Biology) and the foreign languages (principally Spanish and French). The College has a clear responsibility to provide appropriate support for instructional faculty who are not on the tenure track, especially those who have already been on the faculty for many years, but such appointments are nonetheless fundamentally anomalous in a unit based on the tenure system.

c. This document refers only to faculty appointed to full-time, multi-year positions that are not on the tenure track. It does not refer to part-time appointments,adjunct appointments, visiting appointments, or appointments intended to be for one year only.

d. Neither the department nor the College is constrained from deploying resources asits mission and circumstances may require: for example, changing a positiofrom Lecturer or Senior Lecturer to a regular tenure-track appointment or viceversa.

2. Ranks and Terms of Appointment

a. Ranks. This policy applies to full-time, multi-year appointments at the ranks of Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, collectively referred to hereafter as Lecturer Faculty (LF).

b. Terms of Appointment.

• i. Initial appointments as Lecturer will normally be for a period of three years, renewable for three years. Maximum duration of appointments as Lecturer will be six years.
  
  
• ii. If performance and other circumstances warrant it, Lecturers with six years of service may be promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer. Senior Lecturers with a minimum of six years of service to the University may bepromoted with renewable five-year appointments. Initial appointments may also be made at the rank of Senior Lecturer for a term of up to three years.

3. Qualifications

a. LF should present the appropriate terminal degree for their field, or equivalentcredentials in special cases as approved by the Department in consultation withthe Dean of the College.

b. The most important criterion is teaching ability including classroom presence, knowledge of the subject and familiarity with current instructional methods.

4. Searches

Procedures for searches for multi-year LF appointments will be the same as for entry level tenure-track recruitments (i.e., they will normally be national in scope). Withthe approval of the Dean, departments may make an administrative appointment for one year, renewable for a maximum of one year.

5. Responsibilities

a. Teaching. Lecturers and Senior Lecturers will teach one or more, usually two, courses per year above the normal teaching load of tenure-track faculty in their respective disciplines. This difference in teaching load may be partially offset by other responsibilities (e.g., directing undergraduate language programs) as determined by the department chair.

b. Service. LF are expected to contribute to the life of the college through faculty committees and other forms of academic service. Lecturers and Senior Lecturers are eligible to vote at the College level as determined by the College By-laws, and on issues of undergraduate education in their departments as determined by the tenure-track faculty of the department. LF are eligible to serve on College faculty committees except the Faculty Council.

c. Scholarship. LF are not required to engage in the preparation and publication of original scholarship, although such efforts are naturally welcome and encouraged. They are expected to contribute to the understanding and practice of teaching undergraduates and to disseminate their contributions by publication, conference presentations etc. Such efforts will be among the factors assessed in review for renewal of appointments.

6. Review and Reappointment

a. Reappointment. Renewal of LF appointments depends not only on meritoriousteaching and service, but also on continued departmental need for the facultymember’s services. Timely notice of non-reappointment (as specified below insection 7) may be given to any LF in accordance with changes in the department’sacademic personnel needs as well as for other reasons specified in this document.

LF, like all instructional staff including tenure-track faculty, must be evaluated annually. The chair and tenured faculty of the department are responsible for annual evaluation of the teaching and service of each Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. Evaluations will be kept on file as a partial basis for decisions about reappointment. The department chair will promptly report the results of each annual evaluation to the faculty member under review. Unsatisfactory reviews will be grounds for non-reappointment.

b. Third-Year Review of Lecturers. When a Lecturer is being considered for reappointment after a three-year term, the Chair of the department and the Dean will first consider whether both programmatic need and available resources support renewal of an LF appointment. If so, the tenured faculty will conduct a thorough evaluation of the faculty member’s teaching, including course andcurricular development, and professional service.

The faculty member will provide a current curriculum vitae, student evaluations and at least three letters of evaluation selected from a list of faculty members approved by the Chair, including at least one proposed by the Lecturer. Evaluators may be members of the department, or if appropriate (e.g., if the Lecturer has been involved in interdisciplinary instruction) from other units at Emory or elsewhere.

The Chair will summarize the department’s review and state the department's recommendation for reappointment or non-reappointment. The chair will send that recommendation to the Dean of Emory College, and provide a copy or an accurate summary of the evaluation to the faculty member under review. The Dean will make the final decision whether to reappoint.

c. Review for Appointment as Senior Lecturer. The same procedures will be followed in reviewing a Lecturer for advancement to Senior Lecturer, and for all subsequent renewals.

d. Terminal Appointments. Lecturers and Senior Lecturers can be reappointed for a terminal period of less than three years when the department and the College have determined that the need for their services will end within less than three years.

7. Non Reappointment and Appeal

a. Non-renewal During Initial Appointments. During the first three years of any initial appointment, the University may give notice of non-reappointment in accordance with the terms provided in paragraph 7 of the Statement of Principles Governing Faculty Relationships.

b. Non-Reappointment. If the department decides not to reappoint an LF, the Dean will inform the faculty member no later than October 31 of the last year of the current appointment.

c. A decision not to continue an LF who was hired through a one-year administrative appointment will be communicated to the faculty member by the department chair as soon as the decision is made.

d. Appeal. Any LF who has not been reappointed, and believes the decision did not follow the procedures required by this policy, may file an appeal which will be reviewed by an ad hoc panel consisting of the three faculty representatives on the Faculty Council from the appellant’s division. That panel will advise the Dean, who will make a decision in the matter. Faculty may appeal the Dean’s decision to the Provost.

8. Support

a. Operating Support. LF will have appropriate office space and computer equipment, and access to the same support for their teaching and service role as tenure-track faculty.

b. Teaching and Curricular Proposals. LF are eligible for support from the College’s Center for Teaching and Curriculum on the same basis as tenure-track faculty.

c. Salary Enhancements for Promotion. Lecturers promoted to Senior Lecturer will receive an enhancement of base salary comparable to that provided for Assistant Professors promoted to Associate Professor.

9. Termination

a. The Dean, after consultation with the department chair, may terminate an appointment before its completion on the following bases:

i. for cause, as defined in Paragraph 12 of the Statement of Principles
Governing Faculty Relationships;
ii. due to significant reorganization, reduction or elimination of a program; or
iii. where specifically authorized by the Board of Trustees.

b. Notice of such termination will be given as promptly as possible under the circumstances.

10. Implementation

a. This policy will take effect for the 2002-03 appointment year. All full-time nontenure- track faculty appointed on or before 1 September 1994 will be reviewed in accordance with the procedures described in section 6. The first step in each review will be the department’s assessment of whether and how the services provided by each faculty member correspond to a predictable continuing need.

b. Lecturers and Senior Lecturers who have been teaching full-time in Emory College for less than two years may, at the discretion of the department and with the approval of the Dean, be given a three-year appointment that includes the time already spent in this rank in the College. Departments may choose to renew a LF in the first year of appointment for only one more year, and may choose not to renew a second-year person beyond the current year.

c. Lecturers in their third year will be eligible, upon review and recommendation of the department, for a second three-year term. Senior Lecturers with at least six years of service to the University will be eligible, upon review and recommendation of the department, for either a three or five year term.

d. Appointments of LF in their fourth or fifth year may be extended to a total of six years.

e. Faculty in their sixth year, upon review and recommendation of the department and with the approval of the Dean, may be promoted to Senior Lecturer effective the following year and given up to a five-year appointment.

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