Rules for Faculty

The Board of Trustees has established the rules governing your employment here at The University of Akron. The rules and regulations are available on the Office of General Counsel website.

Listed below are a few of the general rules and regulations of which you need to be aware during your employment here at The University of Akron.

Faculty Appointments

University rule defines the types of full-time faculty appointments and the rights and restrictions associated with each type of appointment (3359-9-02 General academic and administrative personnel matters). These categories of full-time faculty members include regular faculty, visiting faculty, instructors and lecturers. Part-time faculty members are subject to different rights and restrictions per University rule and according to the specific terms of their appointments (3359-20-06.1 Part-time faculty appointments).

Bargaining Unit Faculty

These full-time faculty include regular faculty, who are awarded tenure or are eligible for tenure, lecturers, and instructors. All are subject to the collective bargaining agreement of the Akron-AAUP.

• Regular faculty. Includes ranks of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, and distinguished professor. Responsibilities include teaching, research, scholarship and other creative professional work, and service to the unit, the university and the public.

• Non-tenure track bargaining unit faculty. Includes ranks of college lecturer and instructor; associate college lecturer and associate instructor; senior college lecturer and senior instructor. If the university’s needs or goals change, such positions may be modified or eliminated. Responsibilities for college lecturers primarily are teaching; instructors have teaching duties as well as service and/or research duties appropriate to the current needs of the academic unit. The specific duties of college lecturers and instructors are specified in their appointment letters.

Reappointment, tenure, and promotion (RTP)

RTP guidelines are used annually by each academic unit to review the performance of the bargaining-unit faculty. These reviews include: non-tenure track faculty for consideration for reappointment; tenure-track faculty as they progress toward or reach their tenure decision; and faculty seeking promotion. The guidelines and criteria differ for each department and school depending on their distinctive missions and areas of focus. All, however, include the basic categories of teaching, research, service and professional conduct.

As you begin your teaching here at UA, organize yourself to be able to describe your good work effectively. At a minimum, take the time to set up a file (hardcopy, digital or both) to document your teaching, research, service and professional conduct. As you complete activities, add them to your file.

Visiting Faculty

Visiting faculty are full-time faculty hired for a specific term of employment. They are not eligible for tenure and they are not subject to the collective bargaining agreement.

The performance expectations for all faculty members on general matters, including attendance at professional meetings, reporting illnesses and absences, attending commencement and faculty meetings, responsibilities to our students (grading, office hours, classes, testing, counseling and advising, record-keeping), and responsibilities as scholars within their discipline, are outlined in University rule (3359-20-04 The Faculty: personal matters and special instructions).

Part-Time Faculty

The responsibilities of part-time faculty members include

(3359-20-06.1 Part-time faculty appointments):

• Develop the course syllabus for each section taught (unless the syllabus is standardized by the department);

• Hold classes on a regular basis according to the university schedule;

• Keep required student grades;

• Maintain the confidentiality of student records;

• Maintain office hours or another method of allowing students in their classes to meet with them;

• Prepare and grade tests, quizzes, and other student assignments;

• Attend scheduled departmental meetings when possible;

• Provide current vitae and teaching portfolio to the department.

Excellence in teaching is documented in the part-time faculty members’ teaching portfolio. Items in the teaching portfolio include student evaluations, peer evaluations, supervisor evaluations, awards, commendations, and documentation of faculty development through workshops or presentations.

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