University of Connecticut ePolicy Policy Text Only Page

1. A University exists for the twofold purpose of teaching and research, the dissemination of knowledge and the extension of the boundaries of the known. Though it must have buildings and equipment, wise administrators, and earnest and intelligent students, it is obvious that its purpose cannot be accomplished unless its teachers are without exception competent, and in as many cases as possible, distinguished to a greater or less degree.

The policies of the University in respect to rank, salary, and advancement of teachers evidently have an important bearing on its success. Along with favorable working and housing conditions, a reasonable teaching load, a stimulating intellectual climate, the assurance of academic freedom and tenure and a liberal retirement system, they make it possible to attract and retain desirable teachers, despite the competition of other comparable colleges and universities and of non-academic employers. These policies are therefore established and carried out primarily to enable the University to fulfill its function. If through shortsightedness or lack of funds it falls below accepted standards in its financial relations with its teachers, it cannot increase nor even hope to maintain its value to society.

A teacher's salary is in large part a payment for services rendered, determined at their current value. However, except for those who have reached the climax of their careers, it includes an additional element, which is an investment by the University in the potentialities of the teacher. As members of a learned profession, teachers may be expected to be conscious of their responsibility to themselves, to the University, and to society. They cannot fulfill their responsibility without continuing, throughout their active lives, to invest a part of their time, energy, and money in their own intellectual growth. Adequate salaries will permit the assumption of the expenses of travel and study and other professional and cultural activities, will relieve teachers of the drain on their time caused by the performance of routine tasks beyond the demands of exercise and recreation, and will provide in other respects an appropriate standard of living. Inadequate salaries are contrary to the interest of the University, because they curtail faculty development, or force faculty to supplement earnings at the expense of the time needed for study, thought, and research, and may, of course, even involve the loss of valuable staff members.

Policies for promotion should operate to advance the most promising, and to hold back, or, in accordance with established practices regarding tenure, to eliminate the incompetent and the mediocre. They should give careful consideration both to current performance and to future promise, and should convey an assurance of impartiality by recognizing and rewarding accomplishment and by maintaining opportunities for advancement. To do this they must be based on merit, determined on the broadest possible basis, and must not be matters of routine or mere seniority.

The value of a teacher to the University results from the possession of a number of different qualities. In enumerating certain of these, it is not intended to formulate a rigid set of standards, nor to require that all teachers attain a stated minimum in each of the items. The value of each person is rather to be judged by considering both his or her strong and weak points so as to arrive at an estimate of his or her total contribution. No fixed numerical weighting can be prescribed, though greater emphasis should be placed on scholarship, teaching ability, and activity in research than on other characteristics.

Tenure and promotion in the professorial ranks will be granted only to persons of outstanding achievement. Specific evidence of superior performance in scholarship and in teaching is of primary importance. As a minimum standard for tenure and/or promotion there must be evidence of strong performance in both scholarship and teaching and superior achievement in at least one of these areas. In addition, other contributions to the University will be considered. In individual cases where it is demonstrated that there has been meritorious professional service through which the faculty member has achieved distinction in the profession, such service may also receive significant weight.

All candidates for appointment and promotion, as well as all other teachers, are expected to show satisfactory attainment and continuous growth in the following qualities, though in varying degrees and in different proportions. The teacher's accomplishment in each should be evaluated on every occasion when advancement in salary or rank is being considered, and particular care must be exercised when it is proposed to terminate the probationary period by placing him or her on permanent tenure or otherwise.

a. Professional competence in the field of his or her specialization, as evidenced initially by the record of his or her training and scholastic achievement, and later by the opinion of professional colleagues here and elsewhere; and in certain fields by the execution of professional commissions, the giving of expert testimony, and the like; or by the holding of a license for professional practice, where licensing has been established.

b. Teaching ability and performance, beginning with the capacity to excite interest and evoke response in students, to broaden their outlook, to impart knowledge, to see and convey relationships, to encourage the faculty of criticism, and to stimulate a sense of inquiry. The educational role of the faculty member is not confined to the classroom. It should include willing skillful attention to the individual student who can profit from additional help in the mastery of a course to which the teacher is assigned. Also important is the role of academic advisor, in which a good teacher will encourage students to gain as much as possible from the educational resources of the University, and will guide the student to the proper selection of courses consistent with his or her academic and life goals.

c. Research and such other scholarly activity as gives evidence of the effective utilization and continuing development of his or her natural endowment. This will ordinarily eventuate in publications, lectures, or papers at professional meetings, and should in any case be reflected in the vitality of the person's teaching. Such activity will take many forms, some of which are:

Research, including both the routine application of known techniques to the accumulation and analysis of new data, and the invaluable gift of making fundamental contributions to knowledge, the former to be expected of many teachers, and the latter to be hoped for in a few.

Creative activity in the arts, and the ability to make research contributions of the second or fundamental kind will be especially noted and rewarded.

Although the three qualities listed above are the ones that should receive the greatest consideration, the following items bearing on professional fitness also should be taken into account, particularly when new appointments are being made and at the end of the probationary period. Ordinarily these qualities do not offer the same opportunity for continuous development as do those in the first list.

Personal attributes; integrity, industry, open-mindedness, objectivity, friendliness, effectiveness in speaking, capacity for leadership and cooperation, breadth of intellectual interests.
Concern for the educational, social, and personal welfare of students, such as is demonstrated, for example, by success in counseling.
Willingness and ability to assist in the various types of service which a state University renders, in the answering of inquiries, the giving of advice, the conduct of surveys, and the like.
Competence in fulfilling responsibilities toward democratic University government, as in department and faculty meetings, committee work, and administrative duties.
A sympathetic but discriminating interest in the development of the University, and the assumption of a share of responsibility for the efficient execution of its functions; or, in the case of recent appointees, indication that this interest will develop in due time.

3. In addition to these general desiderata, the following special qualifications will be borne in mind in making appointments or promotions to the several ranks.

1. Training or experience appropriate to the performance of his or her assigned responsibilities. In many cases this will mean the possession of, or evidence of substantial progress toward, the Ph.D. degree, or its equivalent. If a young teacher who does not hold that degree is appointed, the University should in most cases insist that this essential preparation be completed early, and should afford such practical assistance as is reasonable by providing working facilities and by lightening his or her load or granting leave.

2. A consensus on the part of those qualified to judge that the faculty member's training, experience, and interest in his or her subject are appropriate for the performance of the duties to be assigned.

Note: Two years is regarded as the normal length of service in the rank of instructor for those who are qualified for advancement at the end of this period.

For certain types of teaching, it may be more desirable to appoint persons whose qualifications will not ordinarily entitle them to advance into the upper levels of rank and salary. In some fields, for example in the creative arts, the possession of the Ph.D. is not the best criterion of professional competence.

2. A record of success in his or her work, based on all obtainable information. This may include the judgment of colleagues, information from students, and occasionally the comparisons of the progress and achievement of his or her students with that of groups of approximately equal ability in the same or similar courses.

Note: Ordinarily, six years is regarded as the normal length of service in the rank of assistant professor.

1. Ordinarily, those in the rank of assistant professor are not eligible for tenure. Continued reappointment of a person, after it is clear that he or she will not become eligible for permanent tenure, cannot be justified on grounds of immediate convenience. In his or her own interest and that of the University, he or she should be released after the customary notice.

Continued reappointment of a person, after it is clear that he or she will not become eligible for permanent tenure, cannot be justified on grounds of immediate convenience.

In his or her own interest and that of the University, he or she should be released after the customary notice.

1. Continued growth in the qualities desired in all teachers, especially, evidence that he or she is keeping abreast of the times in method and subject matter, and a consensus among colleagues that the faculty member is making a substantial contribution to the advancement of knowledge in his or her field.

1. Service here or elsewhere as an associate professor of at least five years except when there is evidence that he or she is of superior ability as compared with other associate professors.

2. Evidence that he or she is regarded by colleagues within and without the University as a capable, mature teacher, and a recognized scholar.

a. The status of every teacher with regard to salary and rank shall be considered at least once each year. The head of the department shall ordinarily be responsible for seeing that this is done.

b. It is the duty of each department head to conduct a continuing appraisal of the work and potentialities of the people in the department, and by informal consultation to ascertain the views of the other members of the department. It is his or her responsibility not only to give his or her own appraisal but also to transmit that of his or her colleagues within the department. In this connection it should be emphasized that all such evaluations are to be based on the criteria listed above. Recommendations with supporting data shall be sent to the dean of the school or college, and by the dean, with his or her own recommendations, to the Chancellor and Provost for University Affairs or the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs.

c. Before a teacher is placed on permanent tenure the Chancellor and Provost for University Affairs or the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs shall appoint at least five teachers to act as advisers, and he or she may follow the same procedure in other cases of proposed advancement, or at the request of a teacher who desires such consideration. These advisers shall normally include representatives both of the candidate's department, and of at least two other departments. The selection of advisers shall be confidential, and those who serve shall, without meeting as a committee, report individually to the Chancellor and Provost for University Affairs or the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs their answers to such questions as he or she may submit to them. Reports shall be confidential, and record thereof kept in summary form only.

d. The Chancellor and Provost for University Affairs and the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs should experiment with various plans for ascertaining the judgment of a candidate's colleagues concerning proposed advancement, and should report the results to the Senate for further consideration.

e. The research activities of candidates shall be judged by those who are reasonably competent in the general field, who have read the publications of the candidate, and who are familiar with the progress of his or her unpublished work. Care must be exercised to determine the actual amount and true nature of the work. It will be well not to place undue emphasis upon mere volume of publication.

f. In view of the paramount importance of good teaching, and the difficulty of judging the quality of a teacher's performance, a survey of student opinion may be made at the teacher's request, or when his or her promotion is under consideration. It shall be conducted according to a general plan approved by the University Senate on February 10, 1947 as amended on December 11, 1967 and on April 11, 1977. Caution must be observed to discount mass prejudices, and to avoid overestimating the impressions of the moment, which may well be different from the considered judgment of later years. If the teacher has requested the survey, the general nature of the results shall be communicated to him or her, and this may be done in any case. The results shall also be available to deans and heads of departments, but the actual replies are confidential and shall be destroyed after they have been summarized.

The Chancellor and Provost for University Affairs and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs will accept from teachers at any time information about qualifications which they think are apt to be overlooked, and may request such data from teachers.

g. Final action on promotions and increases in salary will be based on all available evidence, and will be taken by the Board of Trustees upon the joint recommendation of the Chancellor and Provost for University Affairs or the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, the dean of the college, the department head, and such other officers as may from time to time be charged with this responsibility.

1. The title "Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor" should be reserved exclusively to recognize faculty who have achieved exceptional distinction in scholarship, teaching and service while at the University of Connecticut.

2. The Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor title will be conferred as a result of a peer review process. The Review Committee will solicit and screen initial nominations. After selecting a list of finalists, the Review Committee will obtain detailed information including materials from external sources and recommend candidates to the Board of Trustees via the Chancellor.

3. The title may be awarded to up to five persons per year up to a maximum of 5% of the full professors on the active faculty.