1. Employment Procedures

Offers of employment to prospective faculty members are made upon recommendation of the department head or school director to the dean and approved as specified or delegated by the chief academic officer and the president of the Institute. The responsibility for making initial contacts with faculty applicants usually rests with the department or school. In order to assure that all potential applicants receive consideration, it is the responsibility of the dean to assure that position vacancies are properly announced to the appropriate professional community and other sources of likely candidates.

Individual candidates may be invited to the campus for interviews with members of the faculty, the department head/director and the dean of the college. The chief academic officer and/or president may require an interview with a candidate before approval, particularly those being considered for associate professor, professor, department head or school director.

Agreements among the department head/director, college dean, and chief academic officer will be reached as to rank and salary offered, subject to the final approval of the president. No employment arrangements are final until a contract has been issued by the Department of Human Resources and signed by the appointee.

2. The Academic Year

The academic year at the Institute begins September 1st and concludes June 30th of the following year. The periods immediately preceding the opening of fall quarter and following the close of spring quarter should be utilized for curriculum projects, getting laboratories in condition for the opening of school, and for other work which necessarily must be accomplished while classes are not in session. Each department head/director is responsible for assigning specified duties, where these may be required.

3. Vacations

Faculty members on ten-month contracts observe the vacation schedule established for the academic year. The Institute encourages faculty to use the summer as an opportunity for professional growth either through research, employment in their field, study, curriculum/ course development or travel.

Officers of the administration, including the vice presidents, the deans, department heads/directors, faculty members and educational development faculty on 12-month contracts, are entitled to four weeks each fiscal year with pay. Paid vacation increases to five weeks each fiscal year after 20 years of service. Vacation plans should be cleared with the immediate supervisor. Vacations are not usually cumulative. However, with proper approvals an individual may carry forward one-half (½) of a year's earned vacation to be used first in the following vacation year. Additional vacation without pay may be requested.

4. Faculty Responsibilities

All those appointed with tenure-track faculty rank assume a primary responsibility for full-time employment which will consist of teaching; improvement of teaching effectiveness; academic advisement; scholarship; department or school, college and Institute committee work; and other professional and community activities as may be agreed upon (see conditions of tenure appointment and tenure criteria [E5.0] and criteria for promotion [E6.0] in this manual).

a. Teaching

The view that teaching is the foremost activity of the RIT faculty is deeply rooted in the traditions of the institution, and the primacy of teaching continues to be a hallmark of RIT. Consequently, the basic consideration, both in initial appointments and matters pertaining to salary adjustments, promotion and tenure, is the extent to which high standards of teaching can be achieved and maintained.

Effective teaching, among other things, consists of clearly and enthusiastically communicating special knowledge and expertise based on an understanding of curricular objectives and the learner’s needs and abilities. Further, it entails advising and mentoring, selecting and using appropriate instructional methods and materials which lead to learning, and providing fair and useful evaluations of the quality of the learner’s work. Effective teaching requires a sensitivity to and rapport with the learner.

The Institute endorses the view that good teaching is undergirded, and indeed made possible, by selective attainments in scholarship (E4.0, section 4b) and service (E4.0, section 4c) which are appropriate to individuals in the circumstances of their academic units. Academic and professional qualifications, past and present, in the form of licenses, honors, degree attainment and sustained effort directed toward professional and career updates are critical.

b. Scholarship

While teaching is the foremost activity of the RIT faculty, faculty are expected to engage in significant scholarship as measured by external disciplinary and professional standards as acknowledged by department and program practices of faculty review.

(1) “Scholarship” at RIT will encompass four elements:*

Scholarship of discovery: When faculty use their professional expertise to discover knowledge, invent, or create original material. Using this definition, basic research as well as, for example, the creation of innovative computer software, plays or artwork would be considered the scholarship of discovery.

Scholarship of teaching/pedagogy: When faculty engage in the scholarship of teaching practice through peer-reviewed activities to improve pedagogy. Using this definition, a faculty member who studies and investigates student learning to develop strategies that improve learning has engaged in the scholarship of teaching.

Scholarship of integration: When faculty use their professional expertise to connect, integrate, and synthesize knowledge. Using this definition, faculty members who take research findings or technological innovations and apply them to other situations would be engaging in the scholarship of integration.

Scholarship of application: When faculty use their professional expertise to engage in applied research, consultation, technical assistance, policy analysis, program evaluation or similar activities to solve problems. This definition recognizes that new intellectual understandings arise out of the act of application.

(2) The top priorities for Scholarship at RIT are to enhance the education of our students and our institutional reputation. Faculty engaged in either sponsored or unsponsored scholarship in any of the four areas defined above are expected to disseminate the knowledge acquired in these endeavors through normal scholarly means.

(3) All four aspects of scholarship are important for RIT, and must be recognized, valued, supported, and rewarded in the tenure, promotion, and merit salary increment processes in each unit.

(4) All tenured and tenure-track RIT faculty must be actively participating in the scholarship of their disciplines. There will be considerable variation, however, in the amounts of scholarship in which different faculty engage within the same departments and colleges, as well as throughout the Institute. Along with institutional service and student advising, proportions of professional time devoted to teaching and scholarship will be determined by individual faculty Plans of Work.

(5) RIT will continue to fund faculty professional development for the benefit of RIT, including discretionary seed funds to assist in the initiation of faculty research programs. Ongoing faculty and graduate student research programs, however, must be supported through external funding.

(6) While RIT will accept externally funded proprietary and classified projects, knowledge acquired through such projects must be available within a reasonable time frame for wider dissemination through publications, classroom teaching, or application to other projects.

*These definitions of “Scholarship” have been partially paraphrased and modified from definitions used by the American Association for Higher Education

c. Service

While teaching and scholarship are important faculty responsibilities, services performed by faculty members are an indispensable part of the Institute’s daily life. Faculty members at all ranks are expected to provide some forms of service to the Institute, the college, the department and their professional community. They are often encouraged to provide service at different levels and areas of the Institute.

Service includes working with students and colleagues outside the classroom, such as might be found in college and Institute committee work, student advising and student activities as well as linking the professional skills of members of the faculty to the world beyond the campus.

RIT values all forms of faculty service. Typical faculty service activities include but are not limited to the following: committee work at the departmental, college, or Institute level; improving RIT’s program quality, reputation and operational efficiency; advising a student group; development of new courses and curriculum; service to the faculty member’s professional societies, such as reviewing articles, organizing professional conferences, or serving a professional organization.

5. Supplemental Faculty Activities (See Conflict of Interest Policy - C4.0)

Initiative by faculty to undertake research, creative endeavors, consulting, participation in professional organizations and/or alternative career development activities adhering to collegially acceptable standards and beyond that specified by formal agreement with the Institute is desirable and the Institute encourages it. If such activities require a measurable use of Institute facilities, approval shall be obtained from the dean along with an agreement as to any fair use payment that may be made to the Institute. The application of professional skills in the public interest beyond the campus is also worthy of faculty consideration.

Supplemental activities will not be considered as reason for modifying teaching schedules. Additional details as to practices in the department, school or college should be obtained from the department head/director and the dean of the college. Department heads/directors or deans may advise a faculty member of the necessity to modify or cease supplemental activities if they determine that such detracts from the faculty member's capacity to fulfill the faculty responsibilities listed above. The Institute assumes no responsibility of any kind in connection with the supplemental activities of its employees.

6. Absence from the Institute

It is often necessary to contact members of the faculty upon short notice. If faculty members are to be out of town or unavailable at the Institute for any appreciable length of time during their contract period, (one or two working days, for example) the department or school staff assistants should be informed as to where they can be contacted. It is also the responsibility of the faculty member to reschedule or make arrangements with other faculty members to fulfill teaching and/or other scheduled responsibilities.

7. Cancellation of Classes (for reasons other than weather)

In cases of emergency, the individual faculty member has the primary responsibility for contacting the chair and/or academic administrator to determine whether or not it becomes necessary to cancel a class. If the decision is to cancel the class, then the faculty member has the responsibility for notifying the students, unless circumstances are such that the academic administrator will need to assist in some manner.

8. Religious Holidays

Days of religious observance or urgent personal concern may be granted with pay to faculty upon request. It will be necessary to make an advance request of one's dean or department head/director. It will also be the responsibility of the faculty making the request to reschedule or make arrangements with other faculty members to fulfill teaching and/or other scheduled responsibilities.

9. Summary of Policies Relating to Severance

At times it may be necessary for the Institute or the individual faculty member to initiate severance of their professional relationship. In order to protect the interests of both parties, the various types of severance (non-reappointment, resignation, termination and dismissal) are defined in sections of this manual referred to below, or defined here where not covered elsewhere.

a. Non-reappointment

See E20.0, section 5 for tenure-track faculty and for tenured faculty, see E20.0, section 4.

Non tenure-track faculty are appointed for a specific length of time, not to exceed one year in any notice of appointment. No commitment is intended by the Institute beyond the ending date of such an appointment.

b. Resignation

Faculty members who sign contracts for an academic or calendar year are expected to remain with the Institute for the duration of the contract. However, under certain circumstances, if a member of the faculty sees a necessity to leave prior to contract expiration, a request for release should be made through the department head/director, dean, chief academic officer and the president.

Faculty members should not resign in order to accept other employment as of the end of the academic year later than May 15 or thirty days after receiving notification of the terms of continued employment for the following year, whichever date occurs later. It is recognized, however, that emergencies will occur. In such emergencies the faculty member may ask the appropriate officials of the Institute to waive this requirement, but should conform to their decision.

c. Termination (see E20.0, sections 4 and 5, and E22.0, section 1)

Termination is a severance action by which the Institute terminates the service of faculty without prejudice as to their performance.

d. Dismissal for cause (see E23.0)

Approved prior to July 1975
Last revised October 2004