Faculty Affairs Committee

Mandate from Policy B2.0

The Faculty Affairs Committee shall be responsible for policy recommendations concerning faculty tenure, rank, welfare, leave, and professional conduct and shall review all policies and procedures concerning the extended part-time and adjunct faculty of the university.  The committee will also oversee the needs related to the professional development of quality teaching and serve to foster collegiality and mentorship among faculty. The Faculty Affairs Committee shall consist of the following: one faculty member per college, each to be elected by their collegial faculty; one dean elected by the Deans Council; three members at large elected by the Faculty Senate; and the provost or their delegate (ex-officio, voting).

Charges for AY2023

Continuing Charges

1. Title changes for NTT faculty. Update: The last time this charge was discussed at the Senate, it was recommended that the FAC do additional research (perhaps through a university-wide survey) to see how NTT faculty feel about the proposed title changes. The FAC would like to carry this forward.
2. Annual Faculty Evaluations and Plans of Work. 
3. (prev Charge #6) Deadlines for submission of faculty documentation of tenure, promotion, etc. This charge was to be implemented as a test case with a willing College/Unit.
4. Prev Charge #10) NTT faculty Leave-of-Absence/sabbatical

Self-Charge Recommendations

To investigate inequities in workload following return from leave.

New Charges

1. Please investigate best practices and what current college policies are regarding faculty candidate access to documents/letters from committees, unit head, dean, and provost during the mid-tenure review process. Discussions with pre-tenure faculty across different colleges indicates that in some colleges (e.g., COS), faculty candidates are not permitted to keep any copy of the dean's letter, while in other colleges these letters are communicated via email. This is in spite of specific COS policy dictating that candidates have "access" to these documents (see Table 2 here: https://www.rit.edu/myrit/system/files/cos/E05.0-Mid-Tenure-Review-Poli…). However, what is specifically meant by "access" is left vague. In COS practice as of AY 2022-23, "access" appears to mean "30 minutes to view but not record in any way".
2. Promotion packets for NTT should include a letter from coordinators of any multi section courses that they taught, even if the coordinator’s rank is the same as the candidate for promotion.
3. Move tenured faculty and principal lecturers to longer evaluation cycles.
4. When we develop Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) and Occupation Therapy Doctor (OTD) Programs in the College of Health Sciences and Technology at RIT, we propose to have Non-Tenure Track Clinical Faculty with the ranks of Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, and Clinical Professor. These Non-Tenure Track Clinical Faculty are normally DPT or OTD prepared and with clinical expertise.

Faculty Affairs Committee reports can be found on RIT’s Digital Media Archive

Recent reports can also be found on the Faculty Senate Google Drive