The Faculty Senate wrapped up its 2015-16 business at its May 3 meeting by approving new titles for nontenure-eligible (NTE) posts. The appointments -- clinical professor, clinical associate professor and clinical assistant professor -- are expected to be used primarily in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
"This proposal was generated by the vet college a number of years ago," said Martha Selby, chair of the senate's governance council. "Most of the vet colleges -- approximately 80 percent -- across the country have these titles. It just better recognizes the positions and jobs they do."
The proposal outlined the need to:
- Recognize the diverse, demanding and complex contributions of Vet Med faculty
- Increase the number of clinical and diagnostic specialists who teach and serve
- Recruit, recognize and retain veterinary clinical and diagnostic experts
Implementation begins in January 2017. The clinical professorships would have the following renewable terms:
- Clinical assistant professor: 1-3 years
- Clinical associate professor: 3-5 years
- Clinical professor: 3-5 years
In addition, assistant and associate professors could be considered for promotion after five years.
The clinical titles will not be limited to Vet Med faculty. Selby said a process will be developed for current clinicians and senior clinicians to apply for clinical professorships, where appropriate.
Promotion and tenure
Senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert presented the annual promotion and tenure report, with a breakdown of the 62 cases reviewed this year. He said five additional cases were not forwarded for institutional review.
"We've tried to put in place -- and be successful at having -- a culture that really focuses on recruiting very good faculty, mentoring them, providing professional development opportunities and doing everything we can to make the promotion and tenure process and standards clear, and -- as it comes to this point in the cycle -- being able to celebrate the success that we've had," Wickert said.
Of the 62 P&T cases under review, 31 tenured faculty were granted promotion to professor, 28 were promoted to associate professor with tenure and three were not approved.
Demographically, the three unsuccessful cases were male candidates -- one white/Caucasian and two Asian-Americans. Among underrepresented groups, the 59 successful P&T cases included three black/African-Americans (all male); 14 Asian-Americans (eight men, six women); and one Latino. The 41 successful white/Caucasian candidates included 24 men and 17 women.
Wickert said this year's P&T cohort was smaller due to the recession. The FY10 hiring cycle included just 44 faculty hires -- 14 already with tenure and 30 who were tenure-eligible. Nine of the 30 in that cohort left the university without tenure, nine more were granted tenure clock extensions and 12 received tenure.
Wickert also shared some of the factors that help successful P&T cases, including:
- Partner accommodations (237 dual career couples since 2011; 73 percent retention rate)
- Tenure clock extensions (189 granted since 2003; 37 percent tenured, 34 percent pending cases)
- Equity advisers in each college
- Orientation and career advancement/development programming
- Mentoring
