Faculty Rank and Status: Privileges and Limitations

A person appointed to a position as an Instructor, Visiting Professor, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Associate Professor of Instruction, Professor of Instruction, Assistant Clinical Professor, Associate Clinical Professor, Clinical Professor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor shall be recognized as holding academic rank. The position of Professor shall include special titles, such as Distinguished Professor and Trustees Professor, and appointments to endowed chairs.

1. All holders of academic rank shall hold this rank in an academic department ¹ of the University. Academic departments include only those listed in the current Ohio University Undergraduate Catalog , with such additions or deletions as may be recommended by the Provost and approved by the President.
2. Appointment of any faculty member to a particular department should be made by the President upon recommendation initiated by the department concerned and approved by the dean of the college involved and the Provost of the University. In cases where an appointment has been recommended by the academic department and the dean of the college but not approved by higher administrative officers, the reason for the denial of appointment shall be conveyed in writing to the person concerned, to the dean of the college, and to the department chair.

Within a given department , each person holding faculty rank shall hold but a single classification (as below). 

All persons holding faculty rank whose primary employment is by an educational institution other than Ohio University shall be classified in the non-tenure track. 

All personnel holding faculty rank shall be classified according to the following groups:

a. Tenure Track (full or part-time)

1. Assistant Professor
2. Associate Professor 
3. Professor

The Tenure Track consists of persons with appropriate credentials, on full-time or part-time appointments, specifically designated as tenure track faculty who, except when on unpaid leave granted at their request, are employed in at least two semesters of a fiscal year and who are so employed from the date of receiving an appointment in the Tenure Track category until that appointment terminates. A person may not change to Instructional or fixed term contract faculty categories once the initial appointment in Tenure Track is made. Faculty shall be classified with respect to the campus where their teaching duties are principally performed.

Tenure Track faculty may be hired on differential workload distributions as appropriate to meet the needs of the department/school, but all should contribute to the teaching, research and service missions of the university. The distribution for a position should be determined by the department or school, as appropriate for the academic unit, and negotiated with the head of the planning unit at the time of position request. When possible and appropriate, the workload for each Tenure Track position shall be clearly indicated at the time of posting. Departments and schools that have faculty with differential workloads and working conditions shall state in their Promotion and Tenure document the explicit expectations for teaching, research, and service according to the variable workload distributions of faculty in the department or school and according to the variable resources available to the faculty in the department or school.

Faculty members in Tenure Track are expected to perform those faculty activities agreed to at the time of hire and/or reappointment and shall enjoy the following rights and benefits:

1. The letter of appointment will contain the initial workload percentages for teaching, research and service as negotiated for the position ( II.A.1.b. ) and include the promotion and tenure guidelines as appropriate for the position ( II.A.2.c. )
2. Salaries will be negotiated at the time of hire, taking into account factors such as qualifications, years of experience, rank and salaries of existing Tenure Track faculty with similar workload assignments in the given department or on the given regional campus.
3. Normally, the contracts for Tenure Track will be a nine month, renewable contract for a term of one-year during the probationary period, with the latest date for tenure review indicated in the letter of appointment ( II.A.1 ).
4. Tenure Track faculty are categorized into three ranks: Assistant Professor; Associate Professor or Professor. Initial rank will be determined at the time of hire based on qualifications, departmental norms, and other factors as appropriate.
5. Tenure Track (retired) consists of Tenure Track faculty covered under the Early Retirement Policy (see Section III.M ). Persons with Tenure Track (retired) classifications have the rights and privileges of persons with Tenure Track classifications with the following exceptions: they will be ineligible for promotion in academic rank, University Faculty Fellowship Leave, and membership in the Faculty Senate; they will be ineligible to vote in Faculty Senate elections and on matters concerning promotion, tenure, new appointments, renewal of probationary appointments, merit pay, and any other issues requiring formal departmental action. 
6. Persons holding part-time appointments must have qualifications equal to those currently used by departments or regional campuses as criteria for full-time appointments.  Depending on their qualifications and experience, persons holding part-time appointments in Tenure Track may be appointed as Part-Time Professors, Part-Time Associate Professors, Part-Time Assistant Professors, Part-Time Instructors, and Part-Time Lecturers. All appointments to the Tenure Track will be reviewed according to the usual procedure by the dean and the Provost.
7. All faculty in the Tenure Track shall be employed, in terms of their work assignments, according to the following guidelines:
   1. Faculty members may be employed on the basis of full-time or part-time appointments.
   2. Faculty members of a given department may negotiate a shift from a full-time to a part-time appointment, or from part-time to a full-time appointment.
   3. A faculty member on a part-time appointment desiring temporarily to shift to a full-time appointment may seek a colleague holding such an appointment who wishes temporarily to shift to a part-time employment, and, with the department's approval, such an exchange of appointments may be arranged.
   4. The intention of a faculty member to seek a change in the character of their appointment (full-time to part-time, or part-time to full time) shall be discussed with their chair one year in advance.
   5. No person holding a regular full-time appointment shall be shifted to a part-time appointment without their written consent.
   6. A person who is awarded tenure as a full-time faculty member does not lose tenure by accepting a part-time appointment. He/she/they revert to full-time status when the agreed-upon term of part-time service is completed.
      1. All faculty in the Tenure Track and holding part-time appointments shall be subject to the following conditions of appointment and to the rights and benefits associated with such appointments:
      2. Salaries shall be negotiated at the departmental level, the end product of negotiation to be a proportionate part, depending on work assignment, of the salary a similarly qualified full-time person would receive in the given department or on the given campus
      3. Tenure and promotion are both to be granted according to general University regulations and departmental criteria currently operative as regards persons holding full-time appointment.
      4. Part-time faculty in the Tenure Track shall enjoy all other rights and benefits accorded faculty members holding full-time appointments.

b. Instructional Faculty (non-tenure track, full or part-time)

1. Assistant Professor of Instruction
2. Associate Professor of Instruction 
3. Professor of Instruction 

Instructional Faculty consists of experienced persons holding part-time or full-time appointments who are primarily considered instructional personnel and may also have service responsibilities related to the teaching mission of the department, college, or university but no expectation for research or creative activity (i.e. TRS distributions ranging from 100:0:0 to 80:0:20). They possess qualifications that enable them to teach their assigned classes at a satisfactory level. Faculty members in the Instructional Faculty are expected to perform those faculty activities agreed to in negotiations with their departments or regional campuses at the time of hire and/or reappointment and shall enjoy the following rights and benefits:

1. The workload (percentage distribution of teaching, between 80-100% and service responsibilities between 0-20%) for each Instructional faculty member is negotiated, as appropriate for the academic unit, with the department chair, dean of the regional campus or planning unit head at the time of hire. The letter of offer will contain the specific workload percentages for teaching and service as negotiated for the individual. Workload percentages may be subsequently renegotiated on an annual basis but all workload percentages must be contained in the faculty member’s letter of reappointment.
2. Salaries will be negotiated at the time of hire at the departmental or regional campus level, taking into account factors such as qualifications, years of experience, rank and salaries of existing Instructional faculty with similar workload assignments in the given department or on the given regional campus. One base for negotiations will be an annual schedule of minimum per-course rates of compensation and guidelines provided by the Provost. Salary increments for Instructional Faculty shall be negotiated in accordance withUniversity policies and shall take into account rank, performance and length of service.
3. Normally, the contracts for Instructional faculty will be a nine month, renewable contract for a term of one-year for the initial five years of service in all instances where a department's or regional campus's experience, or other factors, indicates that a faculty member will be employed for the whole of the ensuing nine-month academic year. Afterward, Instructional faculty should be offered five-year contracts as warranted by the performance of the faculty member, desire of the faculty member, and continued need of the department or regional campus. However, the length of the initial and subsequent contracts can be negotiated based on qualifications, experience and need of the faculty member and department or regional campus.
4. Instructional faculty are categorized into three ranks. The rank of Instructor should be given to all part-time faculty (<0.5 FTE). For Instructional Faculty serving at 0.5 FTE or greater, the initial rank is Assistant Professor of Instruction, the intermediate rank is Associate Professor of Instruction, and the highest rank is Professor of Instruction.  Instructional faculty will normally be hired at the rank of Assistant Professor of Instruction depending on qualifications and departmental norms. The rank should be given to those who will teach 0.5 FTE or greater and have the appropriate degree or equivalent professional experience, as evaluated by the academic unit, and demonstrated potential for effective teaching.
5. Instructional faculty must be evaluated annually by the chair or director according to departmental or regional campus guidelines and in accordance with Section II.E.1 of the Faculty Handbook. A comprehensive review should be performed in the last year of a multi-year contract or upon application for promotion. A written evaluation of the faculty member will be forwarded to them by February 15 on an annual basis by their director or chair. The director, chair or division coordinator shall employ a departmental committee or committees in the evaluation process, which shall conform to the department’s written procedures and demonstrate peer review as a part of the merit process.
6. Instructional Faculty may be promoted (without tenure). These are minimum criteria for consideration for promotion. Departments and schools may establish more stringent criteria for promotion.
   1. An individual is expected to spend a minimum of five years in the rank of Assistant Professor of Instruction before being considered for promotion to Associate Professor of Instruction and have qualifications of the previous title, as appropriate for their teaching/service distribution.
   2. An individual is expected to spend a minimum of five years in the rank of an Associate Professor of Instruction before being considered for promotion to Professor of Instruction and have qualifications of the previous title, as appropriate to their teaching/service distribution.
   3. If departments, schools, and colleges adopt more stringent criteria for promotion than those outlined above (a-c), such criteria should emerge from a faculty committee. That committee should have Tenure track and Instructional faculty with all campuses within the department represented and should be in consultation with a chair or dean. Any revised or new criteria that are proposed from that committee must be approved by a majority of Tenure track and a majority of Instructional faculty voting separately who shall vote up or down. (Criteria approved and announced prior to July 2015 shall not be subject to a new vote.) In the event of an impasse between the department, school, or the college faculty and the dean regarding promotion criteria changes, the standing Committee on Promotion and Tenure of the Faculty Senate shall act as arbiter. Following promotion criteria revision, units are encouraged to provide a grace period in which faculty already employed at Ohio University may elect to be considered under the earlier criteria as outlined in Appendix A.F .
   4. The criteria used to make decisions on promotion and tenure must originate in the department or school in consultation with the dean. Faculty should revise these criteria periodically (at least every five years) in consultation with the dean of the college. These criteria and any changes made to them must be approved by a majority Tenure-track faculty of the department or school. In the event of an impasse between the department or school and the dean, the standing committee on Promotion and Tenure of the Faculty Senate shall act as an arbiter.
      
      If a college has written promotion and tenure criteria, these criteria and any changes made to them should originate in meetings of faculty, as a whole or by committee in consultation with the dean. The criteria and any changes made to them must be approved by the Tenure-track faculty in the college. In the event of an impasse between the college faculty and the dean, the standing committee on Promotion and Tenure of the Faculty Senate shall act as an arbiter.
      1. In the event that promotion is denied, a faculty member has a right to appeal. The appeal process is outlined in Section V.B of the Faculty Handbook.
      2. Instructional Faculty may negotiate a shift from a full-time to a part-time appointment, or from a part-time to a full-time appointment without loss of rank.
      3. Part-time Instructional faculty who are on nine-month contracts shall be eligible for retirement according to the State Teachers Retirement System  (or in some circumstances the Alternative Retirement Plan—see Section III.L), Group Life Insurance, Major Medical Insurance, Dental Insurance, Travel Accident Insurance, membership in the Ohio University Employee Credit Union, Tax-Deferred Annuities, Twelve-Month Pay Option, and parking privileges. Instructional Faculty who have an FTE of 0.67 or greater on an academic year basis shall be considered full-time for the purpose of being eligible to participate in alternative retirement plans.
   5. Instructional faculty (with an FTE of 0.80 or above) have the right to stand for election and to vote to elect up to nine senators from Instructional faculty to serve on Faculty Senate.
   6. Instructional faculty are encouraged to participate in activities to promote professional development directly related to their responsibilities. Departments should support professional development activities directly related to a faculty member’s responsibilities. Instructional faculty are eligible for the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and program grants, development awards and funds (with the exception of Faculty Fellowship leaves, Presidential Research Scholar Awards, and Presidential Teacher Awards).

c. Clinical Faculty (non-tenure track; full or part-time; HCOM and CHSP only) 

1. Assistant Clinical Professor
2. Associate Clinical Professor 
3. Clinical Professor

The Clinical Faculty Track consists of faculty in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (HCOM) or the College of Health Sciences and Professions (CHSP) who may hold clinical licenses/credentials and whose work is primarily teaching/mentoring students in clinical knowledge, skills, and professional domains appropriate to their individual disciplines. 

1. Percentage distribution of scholarship, teaching, service and/or clinical responsibilities are negotiated with the department chair at the time of hire in the letter of offer and annually as appropriate to meet the needs of department or college.

   Salaries will be negotiated at the time of hire at the departmental or campus level, taking into account factors such as qualifications, years of experience, rank and salaries of existing Clinical Faculty with similar workload assignments in the given department or on the given campus.

2. Clinical faculty may hold the rank of Assistant Clinical Professor, Associate Clinical Professor, or Clinical Professor. Faculty in the clinical faculty track will normally be hired at a rank of Assistant Clinical Professor, but rank may be negotiated at the time of hire depending on qualifications and experience.
3. Normally, the initial contract for Clinical Faculty will be a nine month renewable contract for a term of one year for the initial five years of service in all instances where a department’s experience, or other factors, indicates that a faculty member will be employed for the whole of the ensuing nine-month academic year. Afterward, clinical faculty should be offered five-year contracts as warranted by the performance of the faculty member, desire of the faculty member, and continued need of the department. However, the length of the initial and subsequent contracts can be negotiated based on the qualifications, experience, and need of the faculty member and the department or college.
4. Clinical Faculty must be evaluated annually by the department chair based on department guidelines and in accordance with Section II.E.1 of the Faculty Handbook. A comprehensive review should be performed in the last year of a multi-year contract or upon application for promotion. A written evaluation of the faculty member will be forwarded to them by February 15 on an annual basis by their director or chair. The director, chair or division coordinator shall employ a departmental committee or committees in the evaluation process, which shall conform to the department’s written procedures and demonstrate peer review as a part of the merit process.
5. Clinical Faculty may be promoted (without tenure) to Associate Clinical Professor, and Clinical Professor as appropriate. 
   1. An individual is usually expected to spend a minimum of five years in the rank of Assistant Clinical Professor before being considered for promotion to Associate Clinical Professor. 
   2. An individual is usually expected to spend a minimum of five years in the rank of Associate Clinical Professor before being considered for promotion to Clinical Professor.
6. Clinical Faculty members may be employed on the basis of full-time or part-time appointments. Clinical Faculty members may negotiate a shift from a full-time to a part time appointment, or from a part-time to a full-time appointment without loss of rank. 
7. Clinical faculty (with an FTE of 0.60 or above) have the right to stand for election and to vote to elect at least one at-large senator to Faculty Senate to represent the Clinical faculty in HCOM and CHSP.

d. Fixed-term Contract Faculty (non-tenure track, full or part-time, temporary)

1. Visiting Professor (full time, temporary)
2. Instructor (part time, temporary)

Fixed-term contract faculty consists of persons holding full or part-time, fixed-term appointments (see Section II.D.1.e ), special appointments (see Section II.B ), or any other appointments not assigned to Tenure Track, Instructional or Clinical Faculty. Appointees to such positions shall hold faculty rank but not faculty status.

1. Visiting professors consists of persons holding full-time, fixed-term appointments and are limited to a total of three years, consecutive or otherwise, except for term appointments in ROTC, and for positions wholly funded by grants and contracts (excluding overhead return funds), which are limited to the period of external financial support.
   
   Salaries are to be negotiated at the departmental level, with salary increments to be granted in accordance with University policies.
   
   Accordingly, those accepting fixed-term contract appointments shall be considered to have due notice that the University has no obligation to retain them beyond the expiration date of their appointments.
   
   Visiting professors or other full-time term appointees have the same rights and benefits as Instructional and Clinical faculty, with the exceptions of standing for and voting in Faculty Senate elections.
2. Instructors consists of persons holding part-time (semester by semester) appointments who are primarily considered instructional personnel, and who have such qualifications as enable them to teach satisfactorily the courses assigned them. Instructor positions should be 1) temporary, part-time positions to fill an unanticipated need, 2) part-time positions to fill a gap in teaching capacity, or 3) a longer term, part-time position to provide an expertise otherwise not available to a department or regional campus. Instructors are expected to perform those faculty activities agreed to in negotiation with their departments or regional campuses and shall enjoy the following rights and benefits.
   
   Salaries are to be negotiated at the departmental or regional campus level, with salary increments to be granted in accordance with University policies. (One base for negotiations will be an annual schedule of minimum per-course rates of compensation and guidelines provided by the Provost.)
   
   Semester contracts shall be issued as early as possible and normally no later than when preregistration enrollments become available. Emergency appointments at the last minute are to be minimized.
   
   All contracts issued to instructors are term contracts, renewable solely at the University's pleasure, but not subject to the three-year limitation on full-time Term contracts. Accordingly, those accepting such contracts shall be considered to have received due notice that the University has no obligation to furnish them with employment beyond the expiration date of their contracts.
   
   NOTE: If the teaching load fulfilled by one or more instructors in a department becomes more long term (more than 4 consecutive semesters, excluding summers), consistently rises above 0.5 FTE, and could be filled by a full-time or nearly full-time (0.75 FTE or above) position, a department should request a Tenure track ( II.C.3.a ) or Instructional Faculty ( II.C.3.b ) position and fill it according to the hiring policy of the department and university standards for hiring full time employees. FTE is calculated using the workload policy of the individual department in question.

Courtesy Titles

Courtesy titles may be given to faculty, however, titles used in the classification of faculty ( II.C.3 ), in other special appointments ( II.C.2 ) or earned specialty titles such as Distinguished Professor ( VI.C ) and Trustee Professor, and those used for endowed chairs ( II.C.1 ) may not be used as a courtesy title. These classifications have a defined meaning and should be used only in that context. Courtesy titles must be approved by the Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Planningand the chair of  Professional Relations Committeeof Faculty Senate.

1. Graduate Faculty Rank is a role that a faculty member may hold in graduate education. It is a designation separate from faculty status as defined in the Faculty Handbook.
2. Colleges, departments, schools, or programs determine appropriate criteria necessary to classify individuals who have faculty rank at Ohio University as having Graduate Faculty Rank at each of the following levels: 
   1. Masters Graduate Faculty : Persons designated as Masters Graduate Faculty have faculty rank at Ohio University and are granted this classification based on college, department, school, or program criteria consistent with academic unit guidelines. Masters Graduate Faculty may serve faculty roles in master-level programs according to program specifications.
   2. Doctorate Graduate Faculty: Persons designated as Doctorate Graduate Faculty have faculty rank at Ohio University and are granted this classification based on college, department, school, or program criteria consistent with academic unit guidelines. Doctorate Graduate Faculty may serve faculty roles in both masters-level and doctoral-level programs according to program specifications.
3. Criteria for the determination of graduate faculty designations will be reviewed at a stated period by colleges, departments, schools, or programs. Persons designated as having Masters or Doctorate Graduate Faculty Rank will be reviewed according to classification guidelines established by colleges, departments, schools, or programs.
4. Colleges, departments, schools, or programs may also appoint persons to serve as Affiliate Graduate Faculty. Affiliate Graduate faculty are persons without faculty rank at Ohio University or Ohio University faculty without a graduate faculty designation. As examples, a college, department, school, or program may designate Affiliate Graduate Faculty rank to (a) faculty who hold faculty rank or status at another University or (b) subject matter experts with appropriate qualifications who are outside the program. Colleges, departments, schools, or program should determine appropriate criteria necessary to appoint persons as Affiliate Graduate faculty. Colleges, departments, schools, or program should determine the roles and responsibilities appropriate for Affiliate Graduate faculty in their graduate programs.
5. Any person holding Graduate Faculty Rank who wishes to appeal his/her/their rank, or any perceived adverse decision regarding it, will follow the grievance procedure processes in the Faculty Handbook Section.

1. All persons holding faculty appointments, both full-time and part-time, in the Tenure Track, Instructional, or Clinical classifications (with the exemption of assistants and fellows) shall enjoy faculty rank and status ² .
2. A person who has faculty status is recognized as being primarily an officer of instruction rather than an officer of administration.
3. Whereas faculty classified as Tenure Track, Instructional or Clinical Faculty are eligible for promotion, only a person who is classified in the Tenure-track is eligible for tenure and University Faculty Fellowship leave. To be considered eligible for tenure, a person must hold faculty status throughout the entire probationary period. Probationary faculty who assume a full-time administrative contract must be reappointed to faculty status after the completion of the administrative duties, at which time the tenure period is to be negotiated as indicated in Section II.D.2.e .
4. Faculty status is reserved for a person who has demonstrated scholarly or professional competence in a recognized academic discipline, and who is engaged in teaching or research pertaining thereto, or both. Further, such status is reserved for a person whose service is primarily to the academic department to which he/she/they are appointed.
5. A coordinator of an interdisciplinary academic program who functions at the administrative level of a department chair, and who is considered by the department in which they rank as basically an officer of instruction will have faculty status.
6. A person who is not a member of the Ohio University faculty who is appointed to an administrative position may be given academic rank by the President upon the concurrence of the appropriate academic department and Dean, and the Provost. Such a person shall not have faculty status while he/she/they hold a position that is primarily administrative in nature.
7. An Ohio University faculty member who accepts an administrative position at Ohio University will keep their rank, and if they have tenure they will keep his/her/their tenure. Persons whose responsibilities are defined as more than fifty percent administrative within the University and who teach part time may be classified as Instructional Faculty, Instructors or Clinical Faculty unless they have attained Tenure-track status through faculty service prior to their assumptions of administrative duties. An administrative officer of the University who is thus in the tenure track retains faculty rank but not faculty status.
8. Faculty members with visiting or other term appointments (see Section II.D.1.d and e ), because of the limited duration of their appointments, are not eligible for tenure, professional leave, membership in the Faculty Senate, or to vote in Faculty Senate elections.
9. Each department, school, college, or regional campus shall define in writing the extent and manner of part-time faculty participation in internal decision-making processes, as well as the assignment of non-instructional duties.

All advancement in academic rank shall be granted by the President upon the recommendation of the department, the dean involved, and the Provost, and this recommendation shall be made upon the basis of performance associated with duties in the department in which rank is held.

1. Tenure is awarded to those individuals whose records indicate that they are likely to continue to make significant positive contributions to the academic life of the University throughout their professional careers. Eligibility for tenure shall be determined by the department concerned and is reserved for those who are engaged in academic activities, including research, and/or scholarly activity, and/or creative activity (of which any may include activities leading to commercialization), teaching, and service.
2. Tenure shall be granted by the President upon recommendation of the department, the dean involved, and the Provost of the University.
3. Under exceptional circumstances, tenure may be granted by the President to a person who is newly appointed to an administrative position at Ohio University and who has not been previously a member of the Ohio University faculty. Such a grant of tenure must have been approved by the department concerned, the dean concerned, and the Provost of the University.
4. The criteria used to make decisions on promotion and tenure must originate in the department or school in consultation with the dean. Faculty should review these criteria periodically (at least every five years) in consultation with the dean of the college. These criteria and any changes made to them must be approved by a majority of the Tenure-track faculty of the department/school. In the event of an impasse between the department/school and the dean, the standing Committee on Promotion and Tenure of the Faculty Senate shall act as arbiter. 

In departments and schools with faculty from both the Athens campus and regional campuses, a reasonable approximation of the ratio of Athens to regional faculty in the department or school should be reflected by the composition of the promotion and tenure committee. Depending on the size and composition of those departments or schools, the Ohio University Faculty Senate recommends including no fewer than one regional faculty member on the promotion and tenure committee. In addition, during a year that a regional faculty member is considered for promotion and/or tenure, but no one in the candidate’s department or school is located on the candidate’s campus and is eligible to serve on the candidate’s P&T committee, a qualified faculty member from the candidate’s home campus from another department or school should be added to the candidate’s P&T committee as a voting member. If no at-rank-or-above faculty member on the candidate’s home campus is available in any department or school, then an ineligible, tenured faculty member from the home campus should be added to the candidate’s P&T committee as a non-voting member to provide information about the campus culture to the candidate’s P&T committee. When an instructional faculty member is under consideration for promotion, a reasonable approximation of the ratio of qualified tenured faculty to qualified instructional faculty in the department or school should be reflected by the composition of the promotion and tenure committee. 

1. Ohio University is not opposed to the employment of more than one member of the same immediate family. "Family'' here is to be understood to include spouse, former spouse, domestic partner of same sex and opposite sex, former domestic partner, parent-child, and sibling relationships, even if the persons involved do not live in the same household. Each appointment is made on its own merits, whether both members are in the same department or not. Promotions and raises should not be prejudiced, favorably or unfavorably, by the faculty status of the other member of the family or by their activities, rank, or position. Tenure is to be awarded to each person under exactly the conditions that apply to other faculty members.

2. A faculty member shall neither initiate nor participate in departmental decisions concerning another member of his/her/their family as defined above, a faculty member with whom he/she/they have a consensual sexual relationship, or a faculty member with whom he/she/they have business relationships with regard to initial appointment, retention, salary, tenure, and promotion.

   A business relationship is defined as a situation in which the two faculty are co-owners of a business enterprise, with or without other partners, where the two have a total of $10,000 or more in equity and where one or both of the following conditions are met:  one or both of the faculty have managerial (decision-making) authority, or the total ownership share of the enterprise held by the two faculty members exceeds 10%.

   Faculty who are not disqualified from participating in these decisions by these criteria but who have relationships which significantly affect their judgment on these matters are encouraged to discuss the issue with departmental or college promotion and tenure chairs and to request to be removed from committees, if appropriate.

   Only under the most unusual circumstances should a person exercise significant supervision with respect to another member of his/her/their family. Thus, for example, he/she/they should not schedule classes or other work assignments, nor participate in decisions regarding leave of absence for the other person. Further, they should not be involved in grievance or hearing procedures at any level regarding the other family member.

The Faculty Senate authorizes its Standing Committee on Professional Relations to act as a consultative agency for the adjudication of the rules and definitions pertaining to faculty rank and faculty status in such cases that, from time to time, are in need of judgment. The Standing Committee on Professional Relations will recommend refinements and amendments to these regulations as may be necessary to cover emerging situations.