Office of the Provost

Faculty and Unclassified Staff Handbook Chapter 3 -- Faculty: Employment, Tenure, Promotion, and Merit

Appointments

The majority of campus faculty appointments are made for the academic year consisting of approximately nine months running from the beginning of academic activities in the fall through commencement in the spring. Some appointments are made for a twelve-month period coinciding with the fiscal year which begins on July 1.

Under Kansas law, all appointments expire at the end of the fiscal year. However, unless a faculty member has received an appointment which is explicitly understood not to be renewed, his appointment will be automatically renewed in accordance with the tenure policies of the Board of Regents (See "Academic Freedom" and "Tenure Policy"). Each faculty member receives a written statement which indicates his academic rank, salary, and length of appointment for the ensuing academic year; at present this notice is sent to him shortly after the budget has been approved by the Regents (usually early in May).

Appointments to Serve at the Pleasure of the CEO

Provosts, vice presidents, or vice chancellors, and deans shall serve at the pleasure of the chief executive officer. Other university administrative staff positions may be designated as positions that serve at the pleasure of the chief executive officer, provided, however, that such designation is stated in the administrator’s written annual notice of appointment. Appointments of provosts, vice presidents, and vice chancellors shall be reported to the Board prior to announcement.

Kansas Board of Regents: Policies and Procedures Manual (03-20-97).

Full-time Faculty

A full-time faculty member is defined as an individual who is tenured or on tenure track and whose work load is normally sixty percent teaching, twenty percent research/scholarly activities, and twenty percent service. The normal full-time teaching load given this formula is four, three-unit classes. The faculty member is normally appointed on a nine-month contract.

Full-time Temporary Faculty

A full-time temporary faculty member is employed for one academic year only. There is no expectation for reappointment beyond that contract. A full-time temporary faculty member may accumulate a total of five (5) academic-year contracts.

Duties of the full-time temporary faculty member are to be identified in an attachment to the contract and become a part of that contract. Duties may include instruction, research/creative activities and service responsibilities similar to other full-time faculty.

The full-time temporary faculty member may choose to apply for an available tenure?track position at FHSU. The application will be treated in a fashion similar to all other applicants. At the time of employment within the tenure track, the full-time temporary faculty member may apply for up to three (3) years of credit on the tenure track. This credit might include full-time employment at FHSU and other institutions of higher education. The decision to accept any or all of these years is retained by this university.

Approved by President Edward H. Hammond (04-10-91).

Part-time Temporary Faculty

A part-time faculty member is one who is employed for less than one (1) FTE. Teaching loads may vary given the percent of time employed.

Special Adjunct Professors

Procedures

1. Special adjunct professors shall be appointed on a one-year basis.

2. They are honorary appointments of individuals who are currently providing academic services to academic departments and their students; appointments are normally not associated with payment. (Continuing education faculty are not associated with the adjunct professors.)

3. May be initiated by a department and pertain to that department, i.e., Special Adjunct Professor of Chemistry, etc.

4. Recommendations for these appointments will be initiated by the department, approved by the college dean, and are due in the Office of the Provost by September 1 of the academic year.

5. Individuals will be appointed by a letter from the provost.

Approved by Council of Deans (10-02-02).

Teaching Schedules

All faculty shall be provided with the opportunity to review their assigned teaching schedule before it is submitted to the administration for publication. Subsequent changes should be made only in consultation with the affected faculty member(s).

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