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 AY2022

1. Resume the question of the title changes for lecturers, changing the titles from Lecturer / Senior Lecturer and Principal Lecturer to Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor and Full Teaching Professor. (Carry-over charge from AY 2021)
2. Lead a collaborative effort with all stakeholders to review how POWs are currently used and to consider proposed changes, including a way to assure consistency across colleges. 
3. Investigate best practices for annual evaluations–particularly related to standardized guidelines for chair’s evaluations.
4. Investigate best practices for student evaluations and make recommendations related to their use for both annual evaluations and promotion/tenure.
5. Clarify the time a lecturer-track faculty member has to be in each rank before being eligible to submit a promotion packet.
6. Review policies related to awards, promotions, and other faculty related activities that have deadlines for material submissions, and identify deadlines that occur when  9 month faculty are not on contract. Make recommendations to ensure the requirement of faculty to meet these deadlines does not force faculty to complete related work when not on contract, unless they choose to do so.
7. Consider amending E05, 3.C.2.a to require that external tenure committee representatives either be Full Professors, rather than just tenured professors, or that a Full professor be chosen as an alternate otherwise.
8. A lot of outstanding service to RIT receives no official recognition. Consider the creation of annual awards for outstanding service (as we have for teaching).
9. Investigate the avenues for allowing NTT faculty a periodic leave of absence or sabbatical.

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