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Department of Public Administration and Policy
Criteria for Term Faculty Reappointment and Promotion

April 2019
(Approved by Provost July 2019)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Background and Purpose of these Guidelines

II. DPAP Vision Statement

III. General Expectations for Term Faculty
A. Teaching
B. Service
C. Campus Presence
D. Currency in the Field
E. Research (Term Professor Sequence only)

IV. Rank-Specific Criteria
A. Professorial Lecturer Sequence
1. Instructor
2. Professorial Lecturer
3. Senior Professorial Lecturer
4. Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer

B. Term Professor Sequence
1. Associate Professor (term)
a. Research
b. Teaching
c. Service
2. Full Professor (term)
a. Research
b. Teaching
c. Service

PART I.
Background and Purpose of these Guidelines

The 2018 revision of the American University Faculty Manual focused on clarifying promotion sequences for term faculty and specified that “constituent faculty in each teaching unit or academic unit must establish guidelines that define the expectations for the overall contributions of term faculty members” (p. 36). This document seeks to fulfill that requirement by articulating general criteria and standards for reappointment and promotion of term faculty, as well as specific criteria associated with each rank in the professorial lecturer promotion sequence and term professor promotion sequence. Any subsequent changes to these standards must be approved by the CFA.

DPAP affirms Section 14 of the Faculty Manual, which states, “American University is deeply committed to a diverse faculty. All term faculty appointments must be consistent with the university’s commitment to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and nondiscrimination” (p. 48). In addition, “Appointment and reappointment of all term faculty are contingent on the relevant qualifications and performance of the faculty member, the enrollments and other needs of the teaching and academic unit, and the instructional resources of the university” (p. 48).

The Faculty Manual expressly allows movement between term promotion sequences. For example, a term assistant professor may apply to be promoted to senior professorial lecturer, or a professorial lecturer or senior professorial lecturer may apply to become a term associate professor. Faculty who wish to move from the term professor sequence to an equivalent rank in the professorial lecturer sequence may do so with the approval of their department chair, dean, and the dean of faculty. Moving from term assistant professor to senior professorial lecturer is a promotion and requires a corresponding faculty action. Movement from the professorial lecturer sequence to term associate professor or above requires a full review with external letters, as discussed in DPAP’s procedural guidelines (separate document).

PART II.
DPAP Vision Statement

The Department of Public Administration and Policy (DPAP) aspires to meet the highest standards in three mission areas: (1) research that shapes both theory and practice, (2) the provision of professional education of lasting value to our graduates, and (3) service to the university, the profession and community.

A. Research

Tenure-line faculty and faculty in the term professor ranks are expected to advance knowledge by publishing in respected peer-reviewed outlets, with an emphasis on high-impact contributions. Faculty are expected to produce research that makes contributions to knowledge and theory with the potential to influence practice.

B. Teaching

We provide a professional education in public administration and policy through six degree programs, each with a distinctive operating context but all focused on an overarching goal of promoting public service:

• Key Executive MPA
• Master of Public Administration (MPA)
• Master of Public Policy (MPP)
• Master of Science in Organization Development (MSOD)
• Online Master of Public Administration & Policy (MPAP)
• PhD in Public Administration

C. Service

We expect our faculty to promote our public service mission in three ways: (1) by engaging in departmental and university governance; (2) by serving on committees, task forces, and boards associated with relevant membership organizations in the field; and (3) by serving the broader community where possible through applied research, consulting, or other community involvement.

PART III.
General Expectations for Term Faculty

Term faculty seeking reappointment or promotion are expected to meet the general criteria described in this section and the relevant rank-specific criteria described in Part IV.

• Promotions are not based on length of service.
• There are no limits on time spent in any term rank, and at no point is a term faculty member expected or required to apply for promotion.
• All promotions proceed one step at a time; requests to skip a rank will not be considered.
• All term faculty may be reappointed in the absence of a promotion, and, should an application for promotion prove unsuccessful, may be reappointed and seek promotion at a later date.

A. Teaching

All DPAP faculty are expected to be effective teachers, and effective teaching is the cornerstone of term faculty appointments in the department. Teaching includes not only formal classroom instruction but also advising and mentoring of students in both required and concentration areas in our programs.

A base level of expectation for all term faculty on teaching performance includes consistently positive performance each year in each of the following:

1. Teach graduate courses as needed by the department (or undergraduate courses if the department’s strategic plan takes it in this direction)
2. Courses must be designed to meet the curriculum of the department
3. Classroom materials must be up-to-date
4. Course outlines and syllabi must be provided for each course in a timely way (e.g., ready before the beginning of any semester). These documents should clearly state course objectives and relate those objectives to the students’ overall preparation in the degree program (i.e., competencies for MPA, etc.)
5. Faculty members are expected to:
   1. Prepare and present course activities in the classroom or online utilizing accepted educational methods
   2. Be available to students for advising and consultation both in person and online in a timely and responsive way
   3. Provide students with information on how student performance in the class will be evaluated; changes should be made rarely and not be made lightly.
   4. Inform students in a timely fashion if they plan to change evaluation criteria during the semester, why they are changing evaluation criteria, and why students will not be adversely affected
   5. Provide timely, fair, and objective numerical and substantive feedback on their performance in the class during the semester and at the end of the semester; grades must be posted in accordance with university policies and procedures
   6. Always treat students with courtesy and respect; all faculty must act in accordance with student rights, including, but not limited to, academic freedom and those rights as outlined in the student manual.

B. Service

No department or university can properly fulfill its mission and responsibilities unless all faculty are willing to devote time and effort to professional activity, committee activity, program and coordination tasks, special projects, etc. The privileges associated with faculty membership carry a reciprocal responsibility for periodic service to various departmental, college, university, or external functions. A record of positive, consistent, and engaged performance in department, college, university, professional, and/or community service is expected of all faculty.

A term faculty member’s contractual workload includes an appropriate level of service, which, in some instances, may be substituted for teaching, scholarship, or contributions outside the university if applicable to the position and approved by the chair, the academic unit, and the dean. In these instances, service will be considered with greater weight in the reappointment and promotion process. While the Department expects term faculty in all ranks and all contract lengths to perform service, it recognizes that high quality teaching should be the highest priority.

C. Campus Presence

Among its institutional peers, DPAP has a reputation for accessibility to students. We have a strong tradition of faculty involvement and collegial work. These are important traditions that we wish to preserve. They are promoted by campus presence. In addition to meeting classes, faculty should be accessible to students and physically present on campus for sufficient periods of time to complete this work. When not on campus, faculty should be available to students, colleagues, and staff via email. Faculty are also encouraged to make use of online tools for communicating with students. We have found that students are not shy about expressing their concerns about faculty access should it fall short of expectations, permitting us to take action in cases involving individual misuse of discretion.

D. Currency in the Field

Section 15 of the Faculty Manual includes “currency in the field” among the general criteria for term faculty performance, and leaves it to units to define the term. A 2018 memo from the provost to the deans notes that “Achieving currency in the field may include a wide range of activities depending on the academic unit and the individual appointments.”

Following is a sample of the many activities that qualify as evidence of staying current in fields relevant to public administration and policy. The list is not meant to be exhaustive and items are not presented in order of importance. One or more of these activities may be sufficient; the particular mix is expected to vary depending on each faculty member’s background, experience, skills, and interests.

Research and Scholarship activities

• Scholarship, research, and publications
• Manuscript review and editorial work for journals or presses
• Participation in conferences, symposia, and other types of panels by presenting a paper, chairing a panel, serving as a discussant, etc.
• Organization of panels and other events for sharing or developing research and scholarship
• Grant development

Practice

• Giving briefings, conducting trainings, and engagement with external organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sector
• Public outreach and education (e.g. talks, lectures, panels, etc)

Professional and Public Engagement

• Consulting and contract work
• Media publications and appearances (e.g. op-eds, blogs, interviews, podcasts)
• Organizing professional events

Teaching

• Up-to-date syllabi, that incorporate new scholarship and/or address new developments in the field as appropriate
• Pedagogical innovation (including, but not limited to, new course development) and new instructional modalities
• Participation in training in the field of teaching, including attendance at teaching-focused conferences
• Publication or presentation of teaching materials and pedagogy

E. Research

Only term faculty at the rank of associate or full professor are expected to conduct research or contribute original scholarship. See Part IV.B. for rank-specific research criteria in the term professor promotion sequence. 

PART IV.
Rank-Specific Criteria

A. Professorial Lecturer Sequence

Term faculty who seek reappointment or promotion within the professorial lecturer ranks must meet the general expectations above (Part III) and the specifications for the relevant rank below.

Expectations for term faculty within the professorial lecturer sequence are primarily based on teaching and service.

1. Instructor

The rank of instructor is reserved for those term faculty members who have not yet been granted their terminal degree, in which case the rank is normally a temporary one-semester or one-year appointment, or for temporary appointments of faculty in certain skill areas or professional fields where the terminal degree is not deemed necessary. Reappointments at the rank of instructor are typically subject to annual review.

2. Professorial Lecturer

The Faculty Manual states that term faculty members are “customarily awarded the initial rank of professorial lecturer if they hold the terminal degree in the field, or have professional experience and achievement equivalent to a terminal degree” (p. 46). This is the main distinguishing feature between the ranks of instructor and professorial lecturer.

Candidates who were hired as instructors and do not hold the terminal degree in their field may apply for promotion to professorial lecturer, typically after a period of three years. 

3. Senior Professorial Lecturer

After five years of service, professorial lecturers are customarily eligible for promotion to the rank of senior professorial lecturer. Appointments at this rank are also possible for candidates with “extensive professional experience but little direct teaching experience” (p. 46).

Candidates for promotion to senior professorial lecturer should be highly effective teachers whose courses motivate and challenge students to learn and achieve. Their course materials will promote the goals of the department or program and demonstrate currency in their academic field(s). Their professionalism and expertise will be displayed through their course and curriculum development, syllabi, assignments, evaluation of student work, advising or mentorship, and student evaluation of teaching assessments. They will have records of professional development, which may include leadership in professional organizations, faculty mentoring, assessment work, and other contributions to their field, as well as service to their department, college, and/or the university.

4. Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer

The Faculty Manual describes appointees at this rank as having demonstrated “meritorious performance through sustained excellence in teaching and in service internally to the university and/or externally in their profession or field of scholarship” (p. 46). 

Candidates for promotion to Hurst senior professorial lecturer should be master teachers, demonstrating a consistent record of marked teaching excellence. Their application portfolios will show that they have significantly refined their teaching.

Evidence of higher levels of teaching performance may include, but is not limited to, any combination of the following sources:

• Honors or special recognitions for teaching accomplishments
• Development or significant revision of programs and courses
• Results of student evaluations and evidence of teaching accomplishments and/or innovations
• Peer evaluation of expertise in instruction
• Publication activities related to teaching
• Grants related to teaching

A record of positive, consistent, and engaged performance in department, college, university, professional, and/or community service is requisite to a favorable promotion decision. To assure strong and effective faculty governance, faculty in the highest ranks have a special responsibility to contribute to the health of their department, school, university, and profession. To merit promotion to the rank of Hurst senior professorial lecturer, a candidate must therefore have a record of active and constructive contributions to faculty governance at all levels of the university community, and to one’s discipline and profession. The candidate should have a record that demonstrates a willingness and ability to provide both service and leadership in service.

B. Term Professor Sequence

Term faculty who seek reappointment or promotion at the rank of associate or full professor must hold the terminal degree in the field and have demonstrated achievement in teaching, scholarship, and service as outlined in the general expectations above (Part III) and the specifications for the relevant rank below.

Criteria for promotion to the ranks of term associate professor and term professor are identical to those for their tenure-line equivalents. There are, however, several notable differences:

• There is no “clock” for promotion within the term professor sequence. Term faculty who wish to apply for promotion to associate professor may do so whenever the standards for the rank are thought to be met, but typically not before six years of full-time service.
• Term faculty are never required or expected to apply for promotion. Term assistant professors are not required to apply for promotion to term associate professor after six years or at any other time.
• All term faculty, including those in the term professor sequence, may be reappointed in the absence of a promotion.
• Should an application for promotion prove unsuccessful, a term faculty member may be reappointed and seek promotion at a later date.

1. Associate Professor

The Faculty Manual states that promotion to term associate professor will depend on “significant scholarly accomplishments appropriate to the field; professional recognition and growth; and potential for a career of sustained scholarly distinction and/or prominent accomplishments” (p. 47).

a. Research

Successful candidates for promotion to the rank of term associate professor are expected to demonstrate excellence in research, as well as the likelihood of continuing that excellence. They do this by publishing high-quality scholarship in refereed outlets, by achieving emerging recognition as nationally or internationally known experts in their fields of specialization, and by producing evidence of a research program that is likely to continue in the future, as well as by demonstrating effective performance in teaching and service.

The department also expects the scholarly records of candidates for promotion to term associate professor to:

• Be recognized and reviewed favorably by members of the national and international scholarly community in the candidate’s area(s) of specialization and in the broader areas of public administration and policy.

• Be consistent with the department mission.

DPAP aims to be among the top five public administration/public management and policy departments in the country. Accordingly, high profile, influential (in the field and in practice), and rigorous scholarship are expected of all faculty at the rank of associate or full professor, most especially as they accumulate increasing numbers of years of service. Scholarship may be anchored in a faculty member’s disciplinary education and training and should appear in respected peer-reviewed outlets appropriate for their discipline and subjects. Faculty may focus scholarship on a range of public administration, public management, public policy, and nonprofit management topics and find appropriate outlets for these works.

Basic responsibilities in the area of research/scholarship include the following:

• Faculty members are expected to remain current in the research and scholarly literature in public administration and policy and their subfields. Evidence of such currency is found in an active and productive research program.
• Faculty members maintain an active research program of scholarly publications and presentations.
• Faculty members seek research grants to support scholarly activity when appropriate, available, and conducive to professional development and promotion. Opportunity costs and probabilities of success in competing for grants and/or contracts vary across fields, subfields, and grant funding opportunities. These costs should be weighed in deciding to pursue funding opportunities and should not negatively affect advancing research productivity and impact, especially for junior faculty.

In assessing the quality and quantity of published works, DPAP is guided by the following considerations:

• At the most general level, greatest weight will be given to published high-quality work with demonstrated scholarly and academic impact. Impact on practice will also be valued.
• With this in mind, the following list of publication outlets provides a guide to departmental evaluation of publications:
  • Articles in refereed jurnals, with top-tier journals given greater weight than second- or third-tier journals.
  • Boks reflecting original scholarship and research (with university presses normally given higher weight than commercial presses).
  • Edited schlarly books.
  • Original chapters in schlarly books.
  • Textboks.
  • Refereed reprts and working papers issued by respected institutions.
• Our fields (public administration and public policy) value both single- and multi-authored publications. In evaluating multi-authored publications, the candidate should provide information describing the extent of his/her participation in research and writing of the publication (e.g., senior authorship? junior authorship? methodologist? etc.). This is not designed to discourage collaboration with colleagues at AU or at other research institutions. It is designed solely to assess a candidate’s contribution to the research and writing of the publication.
• Emphasis in reviewing a file for action will be given to work completed while at American University. For candidates bringing in substantial credit, the balance can be adjusted accordingly.
• Evidence of a future research trajectory will be evaluated and be given considerable weight.
• If a publication is not already in print and a candidate wants it to be considered relevant to assessing qualifications for promotion, the following guidelines must be met:
  • If an article, a cpy of the completed manuscript with a letter from the journal editor must be provided stating when it will be published without substantial revisions;
  • If a bok or edited book, a copy of the completed manuscript must be provided along with a letter from the publisher or editor stating that the manuscript will be published without substantial revisions in less than twelve months from the date of the written statement.
• The date of submission of the file for action to the department is the last relevant date for reporting publication of scholarship, other than updates regarding publication acceptances of materials already referenced in the file (as provided in the CFA’s “Instructions for Submitting Files for Action”).

b. Teaching

At the time of candidacy for promotion to term associate professor, the evidence should demonstrate unequivocally that the faculty member is a highly effective teacher and adviser of graduate students in an interdisciplinary, graduate professional program. The candidate’s courses will motivate and challenge students to learn and achieve. Their course materials will promote the goals of the department or program and demonstrate currency in their academic field(s). Their professionalism and expertise will be displayed through their course and curriculum development, syllabi, assignments, evaluation of student work, advising or mentorship, and student evaluation of teaching assessments.

As members of a PhD granting department, term faculty at the rank of associate or full professor are expected to serve on dissertation committees and otherwise contribute to doctoral education.

c. Service

Candidates for term associate professor will have records of professional development, which may include leadership in professional organizations, faculty mentoring, assessment work, and other contributions to one’s field, in addition to service to their department, college, and/or the university.

Although a record of service is expected of all candidates for term associate professor, it does not provide sufficient basis for promotion in the absence of satisfactory performance in teaching and research/publication, as specified above.

2. Full Professor

The Faculty Manual states that promotion to term professor will depend on “continuing excellent scholarship and/or prominent accomplishments in the field… and evidence of the potential to sustain excellence in…these areas” (47).

In addition to the criteria for associate professor above (IV.B.1), the following hold for term faculty promotion to full professor:

a. Research

Successful candidates for promotion to term full professor are expected to demonstrate national or international recognition as among the leading scholars in their areas of expertise and exhibit strong likelihood of maintaining and enhancing that stature into the future.

A candidate for promotion to term full professor should have consistently published articles of high quality in respected, refereed professional journals or books, and there should be other demonstrable evidence that scholarly research activity is continuing. Scholarship, including basic and applied research, means in-depth study in a specific field leading to contributions to knowledge in that field. Scholarship—as measured by peer recognition of its originality, impact on, and importance to the development of the field—is demonstrated most typically by refereed publications, such as journal articles and books of high quality, as well as citation rates of the candidate’s research, research awards, and speaking invitations at other universities.

b. Teaching

Candidates for promotion to term professor should be master teachers, demonstrating a consistent record of marked teaching excellence. Their application portfolios will show that they have significantly refined their teaching.

Evidence of higher levels of teaching performance may include, but is not limited to, any combination of the following sources:

• Honors or special recognitions for teaching accomplishments
• Development or significant revision of programs and courses
• Results of student evaluations and evidence of teaching accomplishments and/or innovations
• Peer evaluation of expertise in instruction
• Publication activities related to teaching
• Grants related to teaching

c. Service

A record of positive, consistent, and engaged performance in department, college, university, professional, and/or community service is requisite to a favorable promotion decision. To assure strong and effective faculty governance, term professors have a special responsibility to contribute to the health of their department, school, university, and profession. To merit promotion to the rank of full professor, a candidate must therefore have a record of active and constructive contributions to faculty governance at all levels of the university community, and to one’s discipline and profession. The candidate should have a record that demonstrates a willingness and ability to provide both service and leadership in service.