Standard 4: Faculty

Standard 4.A – Faculty Selection, Evaluation, Roles, Welfare, and Development

The selection, development, and retention of a competent faculty is of paramount importance to the institution. The faculty’s central responsibility is for educational programs and their quality. The faculty is adequate in number and qualifications to meet its obligations toward achievement of the institution’s mission and goals.

4.A.1

The institution employs professionally qualified faculty with primary commitment to the institution and representative of each field or program in which it offers major work.

4.A.2

Faculty participate in academic planning, curriculum development and review, academic advising, and institutional governance.

4.A.3

Faculty workloads reflect the mission and goals of the institution and the talents and competencies of faculty, allowing sufficient time and support for professional growth and renewal.

4.A.4

Faculty salaries and benefits are adequate to attract and retain a competent faculty and are consistent with the mission and goals of the institution. Policies on salaries and benefits are clearly stated, widely available, and equitably administered.

4.A.5

The institution provides for regular and systematic evaluation of faculty performance in order to ensure teaching effectiveness and the fulfillment of instructional and other faculty responsibilities. The institution’s policies, regulations, and procedures provide for the evaluation of all faculty on a continuing basis consistent with Policy 4.1 Faculty Evaluation.

4.A.6

The institution defines an orderly process for the recruitment and appointment of full-time faculty. Institutional personnel policies and procedures are published and made available to faculty.

4.A.7

The institution fosters and protects academic freedom for faculty. (See Eligibility Requirement 11 and Policy A-8 Principles and Practices Regarding Institutional Mission and Goals, Policies and Administration.

4.A.8

Part-time and adjunct faculty are qualified by academic background, degree(s), and/or professional experience to carry out their teaching assignment and/or other prescribed duties and responsibilities in accord with the mission and goals of the institution.

4.A.9

Employment practices for part-time and adjunct faculty include dissemination of information regarding the institution, the work assignment, rights and responsibilities, and conditions of employment.

4.A.10

The institution demonstrates that it periodically assesses institutional policies concerning the use of part-time and adjunct faculty in light of the mission and goals of the institution.

Standard 4.B – Scholarship, Research, and Artistic Creation

Scholarship, including research and artistic creation, is inherent in the work of faculty and students and is integrated in mutually supportive ways with instructional activities, regardless of the size or nature of the institution.

• Scholarship is systematic study of a chosen subject characterized by a high level of expertise, originality, critical analysis, significance, and demonstrability. Through scholarship, which may entail creation, application, synthesis, or transmission of knowledge, faculty acquire and sustain their expertise, thereby contributing to the validity and vitality of their teaching. Faculty scholarship is necessary to maintain effective instruction in all institutions of higher education. It also provides students the opportunity to observe and develop an understanding of scholarly activity.

• Research is scholarly activity directed toward constructing and/or revising theories, and creating or applying knowledge. Although not limited to graduate/research institutions, research is an essential and integral part of graduate education where it serves two principal functions:

(1) it advances the frontiers of knowledge which, when disseminated, contributes to the welfare of society and ensures the viability of content in an academic discipline; and

(2) it educates students in the methods of inquiry and prepares them for careers as scholars, researchers, or practitioners.

• Artistic creation is scholarly activity in the visual, performing, and literary arts that expresses original ideas, interpretations, imagination, thoughts, or feelings.

4.B.1

Consistent with institutional mission and goals, faculty are engaged in scholarship, research, and artistic creation.

4.B.2

Institutional policies and procedures, including ethical considerations, concerning scholarship, research, and artistic creation, are clearly communicated.

4.B.3

Consistent with institutional mission and goals, faculty have a substantive role in the development and administration of research policies and practices.

4.B.4

Consistent with its mission and goals, the institution provides appropriate financial, physical, administrative, and information resources for scholarship, research, and artistic creation.

4.B.5

The nature of the institution’s research mission and goals and its commitment to faculty scholarship, research, and artistic creation are reflected in the assignment of faculty responsibilities, the expectation and reward of faculty performance, and opportunities for faculty renewal through sabbatical leaves or other similar programs.

4.B.6

Sponsored research and programs funded by grants, contracts, and gifts are consistent with the institution’s mission and goals.

4.B.7

Faculty are accorded academic freedom to pursue scholarship, research, and artistic creation consistent with the institution’s mission and goals.

Policy 4.1 Faculty Evaluation

As stated in Standard Four, the effectiveness and quality of an institution’s total educational program depend upon the presence of a competent faculty. Further, it is the institution’s obligation, in consultation with the faculty, to evaluate the performance of its faculty members and to provide for their development on a continuing basis.

Standard Four also calls for faculty members to be safeguarded in their exercise of academic freedom. The protection of academic freedom does not lessen the need for performance evaluation of temporary or permanent members of the faculty to ensure, on a continuing basis, the effectiveness and quality of those individuals responsible for the academic program. This ongoing evaluation may take several forms, in accordance with the size, complexity, and mission of the institution, including, for example, annual merit salary evaluations of a significant nature, promotions, and/or tenure reviews, periodic post-tenure reviews, or reviews conducted in response to some institutional need. The requirement of this policy is that the accredited institution shall conduct a comprehensive evaluation of each faculty member in a regular and systematic manner at least once within each five-year period of service. The institution’s faculty evaluation process shall contain a provision to address concerns that may emerge between regularly scheduled evaluation activities.

In establishing a program of continuing faculty evaluation and in supporting a program of faculty development, institutions shall meet the following requirements:

a. Institutions develop collegially and implement internal plans and procedures that specify the process and criteria by which faculty members are evaluated on a continuing basis.

b. Collegial participation in faculty performance evaluation is critical in order to bring subject matter and pedagogical knowledge substantively into the assessment process. Nonetheless, it is the obligation of the administration to ensure quality and effectiveness of the educational program through the evaluation of faculty performance. At a minimum, an institution’s evaluation plans must include administrative access to all primary or raw evaluation data.

c. Multiple indices are utilized by the administration and faculty in the continuing evaluation of faculty performance. Each of these data sources is to be related to the role of the faculty member in carrying out the mission of the institution. Some examples include:

1) The evaluation of teaching through student, peer, and administrative assessment.

2) The evaluation of the quality of scholarly performance and/or research productivity as reflected in peer judgments about publication and success in securing external funding.

3) The evaluation of service to the profession, school, and community.

d. Where areas for improvement in a faculty member’s performance are identified, the institution works with the faculty member to develop and implement a plan to address identified areas of concern.

To conclude, the requirement for the continuing evaluation of faculty performance is to be accomplished through the joint efforts of faculty and administration. The retention of a competent faculty helps ensure that the mission of an institution of higher education is being accomplished in a manner consistent with its accredited status.

Adopted 1992/Revised 2001

Supporting Documentation for Standard Four

Required Documentation

1. Statistics available concerning faculty and administration characteristics, such as numbers of males and females, minorities, full-time and part-time faculty, years of service with the institution, degrees or levels of education, and years of other significant service.

2. Completed Table 1, Institutional Faculty Profile and Table 2, Number and Source

   Terminal Degrees of Faculty

3. Salary data for faculty, including compensation for special or extra responsibilities.

4. Policy and procedures on the evaluation of faculty, both full-time and part-time.

5. Representative examples of the institutional and public impact of faculty scholarship.

6. Summary of the most significant artistic creation, scholarly activity, and research by faculty during the past five years.

Required Exhibits

1. Faculty handbook, including personnel policies and procedures.

2. Policy on Academic Freedom.

3. Faculty committees and membership.

4. Evaluation forms and summary reports of student evaluations of faculty and courses.

5. Access to personnel files and current professional vitae.

6. Criteria and procedures for employing, evaluating, and compensating faculty in special programs such as off-campus, study aboard, travel/study, non-credit, or extension credit programs.

7. Copies of any doctrinal statements required for employment, promotion, and tenure.

8. Policies governing the employment, orientation, and evaluation of part-time faculty and teaching fellows, if applicable.

9. Summary reports of faculty involvement with public services/community services.

10. Institutional policies regarding scholarship and artistic creation by faculty and students.

11. Institutional policies regarding research activity, including sponsored research by faculty and students.

12. Summary of the faculty role in developing and monitoring policies and practices scholarship, artistic creation, and research.

Suggested Materials

Statistics on faculty retention and turnover.

Standards are reproduced from www.nwccu.org, © 2003 Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.