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OM 5.7.0 Appointment, Reappointment, and Promotion of Clinical Faculty

About This Policy

Effective Date: April 2001
Last Updated: March 2022
Responsible University Office: President's Office
Responsible University Administrator: President

Policy Contact:

Office of the Provost
provost@clarkson.edu

A. STANDARDS BY ACADEMIC RANK

  1. A Clinical Instructor shall have 
    1. Entry level degree in the teaching content area 
    2. A record of practice expertise in teaching content area 
    3. Demonstrated initiative towards completion of the next higher degree in the teaching content area, if applicable 
    4. Documented teaching effectiveness
  2. A Clinical Assistant Professor shall have 
    1. Appropriate terminal degree in the teaching content area or progress toward the appropriate terminal degree, if applicable.
    2. Demonstrated expertise in teaching content area.
    3. Documented teaching effectiveness 
    4. Involvement in university and/or professional service 
    5. A record of student advisement
  3. A Clinical Associate Professor shall have 
    1. Appropriate terminal degree in the teaching content area 
    2. Demonstrated expertise in teaching content area
    3. Either holding of a clinical specialty certification or a record of research and/or scholarly contributions 
    4. Documented teaching effectiveness
    5. Involvement in university and/or professional service 
    6. A record of student advisement
  4. A Clinical Professor shall have 
    1. Appropriate terminal degree in the teaching content area 
    2. Demonstrated expertise in teaching content area.
    3. Recognized as an expert in area of practice, pedagogy, or scholarship.
    4. Documented teaching effectiveness.
    5. Significant involvement in university and professional service.
    6. A record of student advisement.

B. TERM OF APPOINTMENT

  1. Full-Time Clinical Appointments 
    1. Appointments at the rank of Clinical Instructor or Clinical Assistant Professor are made for periods of one year or less and may be renewed.
    2. Faculty initially appointed at the rank of Clinical Associate Professor and faculty promoted to the rank of Clinical Associate Professor from Clinical Assistant Professor are appointed for a two year term which may be renewed. 
    3. Faculty initially appointed to the rank of Clinical Professor may be appointed for a term of four years or less and may be renewed. Faculty promoted from Clinical Associate Professor to Clinical Professor and faculty reappointed to the rank of Clinical Professor are appointed for four-year terms which may be renewed. 
  2. Part-Time Clinical Appointment a. All part-time clinical appointments are for periods of up to two years and may be renewed.

C. PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND REAPPOINTMENT OF CLINICAL FACULTY

  1. The standards by academic rank for the university do not supersede programmatic accreditation expectations by discipline. The procedures for the continuing evaluation (that is, the annual evaluation) of Clinical Faculty shall be substantially similar to those specified for tenure track faculty in Section 5.4 of the Operations Manual. 
  2. Faculty evaluation is an on-going process. At least once a year each faculty member shall have an evaluation conference with the department chair or the person designated by the dean to perform this function. At this conference, the faculty member's professional progress for the year in terms of teaching, scholarship (if applicable), and service, and cumulative progress to date shall be reviewed. The evaluative standards employed will be those described in 5.3. Immediately following this review, the person who conducted it shall prepare a record of this discussion in memorandum form. This "annual evaluation memorandum" shall be initialed by the faculty member before being placed in the appropriate personnel file of the faculty member. The faculty member's initials merely indicate that the faculty member has seen the memorandum. If the faculty member refuses to initial the evaluation memorandum, the person conducting the annual evaluation conference must note that fact at the bottom of the memorandum before placing it in the faculty member's personnel file. Each faculty member may submit for inclusion in the personnel file a written response to the annual evaluation memorandum. This response shall be appended to the evaluation memorandum, and shall be treated as part of the latter. One important datum for evaluation purposes is information about how students view the teaching of a faculty member. Every semester each student should be given the opportunity to make an anonymous evaluation of every class in which the student is enrolled. This evaluation should be collected in a systematic, quantitative and, as far as possible, uniform way, and a report of the results included in the faculty member's personnel file. Another important evaluative measure is the assessment of teaching by a faculty member's colleagues. Classroom visits should be carried out on a regular basis for all faculty. Such visits are mandatory for untenured and clinical faculty and should occur annually, and include all courses taught regularly by the faculty member. Arrangements for classroom visits will be coordinated by the chair, dean, or a delegated individual. Preferably tenured faculty members will be appointed as visitors in consultation with the faculty member. Visitors shall submit a written report to the chair, dean, or person responsible for conducting the annual evaluations. Before a written report of a classroom visit is included in a faculty member’s personnel file, the faculty member should initial the report as evidence of having read it. If the faculty member refuses to initial the report of a classroom visit, the person conducting the annual evaluation should note that fact at the bottom of the report before placing it in the personnel file. Parenthetically, it should be noted that while the results of the annual conferences, classroom visits, and student evaluations of instruction are crucial, they may not be decisive in such matters as tenure review and promotion. For example, the faculty member being considered for tenure or reappointment is not guaranteed tenure or reappointment even with entirely favorable annual reviews during the pretenure period. Although the annual reviews play any important part in the decision, they do not have a preemptive role.

D. PROCEDURES FOR PROMOTING CLINICAL FACULTY

  1. The procedures for promoting full-time Clinical Faculty shall be substantially similar to those specified for tenure-track faculty in Section 5.6.C of the Operations Manual, except that the standards shall be those listed above in Section 5.7.A. The promotions process will explicitly be the charge of the Promotions Committee.
  2. In the case of the promotion of part-time clinical faculty, the promotion review shall be made in conjunction with the reappointment review as specified above in Section 5.7.C.2. Faculty who move from part-time status to full-time status will not automatically carry forward their part-time rank; the appropriate full-time rank will be part of the appointment decision.

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History

Approved by Faculty Senate, April 2001

Approved by Administrative Council, April 2001

Revised by University Governance March 2022

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