SECTION 3: FACULTY CONTRACTS, RANKS, SEARCHES, BENEFITS
3.1 Types of Contracts
Members of the faculty are reappointed annually by the Board of Visitors upon recommendation of the President. Each year letters are sent by the President, near the end of the spring semester, to all continuing faculty, confirming their appointments for the upcoming year. By signing, dating, and returning the annual letter to the Human Resources Office (HRO), a faculty member finalizes his or her employment contract with the University for the ensuing academic year. The Board of Visitors is not legally authorized or empowered to hire someone for more than a single year. However, under appropriate circumstances, as indicated below, the University does express its intent to offer annual reappointments for prescribed (or in the case of tenure for indefinite) periods.
3.1.1 Tenured Tenured persons have attained that status as the result of appropriate action by the Board of Visitors upon the recommendation of the President and the Committee on Promotion and Tenure. Tenured faculty are assured continued reappointment by the Board of Visitors, year after year, without benefit of any specific individual contract with the University. Tenured faculty are notified each year, in writing, of their reappointment by the Board, and are asked formally to acknowledge that reappointment by signing the appointment letter. In so doing, they reaffirm their contract with the University for the following year. Tenured persons cannot be dismissed for cause without the due-process provisions of §3.17.
3.1.2 Tenure-track A tenure-track appointment carries a probationary period leading to tenure. In the time period prior to the awarding of tenure, regular (tenure-track) faculty are appointed or reappointed for one, two, or three academic years. Ordinarily, a newly-appointed faculty member will receive an initial one-year contract. Renewal of that contract (the second contract) is normally for two years, and the subsequent renewal (the third contract) for three years or for whatever period of time remains of the probationary period prior to the tenure decision. If an extension of the probationary period is approved, at the conclusion of the existing contract period a new contract will be issued for the appropriate period until the next scheduled review. Contract renewal is always preceded by a careful and thorough performance evaluation carried out by the department chair and reviewed by the Dean (see §5.1). If, in the judgment of the chair and the Dean, normal reappointment is not warranted (see §3.16), reappointment for less than the normal period may be recommended to the President and the Board of Visitors; a one-year reappoinment may be specified by the Board as terminal.
3.1.3 Renewable Term Appointments (RTA) RTAs are nontenure-track appointments that may be renewed for an indefinite period of time. These appointments are at the rank of lecturer or senior lecturer. With the exceptions spelled out in §3.3.3, faculty at these ranks enjoy the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as tenure-track members. All faculty/coaching appointments in the Department of Health and Physical Education made after 16 August, 1998, are at these ranks. Appointments at these ranks elsewhere in the College are made at the request of the department in which the appointment will be made, and they require the concurrence of the Dean and the President. No person appointed to a tenured or tenure-track position may be moved to a renewable term faculty appointment. Individuals appointed to tenure-track faculty positions who are denied tenure are not eligible for appointment at these ranks. Further, no person in a renewable term faculty appointment may be moved to the tenure-track without a competitive, national search. Minimum qualifications for appointment at these ranks, as specified by the Criteria for Accreditation of the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, is a masters degree and at least 18 graduate semester hours in the teaching discipline. Numbers of faculty appointed at these ranks outside the Health and Physical Education Department will not exceed a total of ten percent of the number of all tenured faculty appointments in the College. In addition, no more than twenty percent of the faculty in any one department may be appointed at these ranks.
3.1.4 Limited Term Appointments Temporary appointments that are made for a limited period of time, whether full-time or part-time, are non-renewable and are classified as limited term appointments.
3.1.4.1 Full-time Full-time term appointments are for full-time, nontenure-track faculty in any of the visiting ranks. Terms may be for as short a period as one academic semester or for as long as three years, as specified in §§3.4 – 3.5.
Ordinarily, time served in any of these nontenure-track, full-time appointments does not count in the probationary period for promotion or tenure if and when an individual who has held such an appointment is subsequently appointed to a regular (tenure-track) faculty position. However, exceptions can be made when mutually agreed upon by the appointee, the department chair, and the Dean, at the time of the tenure-track appointment. In any such case, reduction of the probationary period must be for not more than two years and must be approved by the Board of Visitors as part of the appointment itself (see §§ 6.6.2.1 and 6.6.2.2).
3.1.4.2 Part-time Part-time term appointments are for nontenure-track faculty (adjunct instructor rank) teaching less than a full (twelve credit hours per semester) teaching load. Part-time term appointments are made for a semester only, and are renewable indefinitely. Time served in part-time term appointments may not, under any circumstances, count toward tenure or promotion or serve as grounds for reduction of a probationary period upon appointment to a regular (tenure-track) faculty position.