New Guidelines:

EXTENDED FIXED-TERM CONTRACTS AND

FIXED-TERM PROFESSORIAL POSITIONS

These guidelines address the conditions and criteria for awarding extended fixed-term contracts. They also add a new fixed-term professorial rank of Extension Professor (Assistant, Associate, and Full). They have been incorporated into the Academic Appointment Guidelines (

Extended Fixed-term Contracts

In the past, Section D.2. of the Academic Appointment Guidelines, stated:

Extended Fixed-Term Appointments: Extended fixed-term appointments have terms of up to two years and with administrative approval may be extended for one year at the start of each year. This type of appointment thereby leaves the faculty member at the beginning of each year with an appointment having the same length as the prior appointment.

The appropriate Dean or Vice President and the Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs must support extended fixed-term appointments. These appointments are generally only available for heads of major administrative units.

With these new guidelines, OSU has expanded theuse of extended fixed-term appointments to the following academic ranks: Senior Instructors, fixed-term Extension Associate and Full Professors (to be defined below), Senior Research Associate and Full Professors, Clinical Associate and Full Professors, and Senior Faculty Research Assistants. People in these positions can be awarded a two-year appointment with approval of their Department Head/Chair, Dean, and the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and International Programs. The following criteria should be considered.

  1. Time in academic rank and quality of service
  2. FTE
  3. Source of funds
  4. Anticipated continuation of the position
  5. Support of the Unit Head

Time in rank and quality of service

The criteria for moving a fixed-term employee from an annual contract to a two-year contract should include the time that the employee has held the rank in the same position, and the quality of service over that time period. In many ways, this is similar to the criteria for granting of tenure for tenure-track employees. For that reason, fixed-term appointments will only be considered for academic faculty who have passed the first promotion in rank. For fixed-term faculty that move into new positions, there should be a period of evaluation before granting a multi-year contract, even if they are already on a multi-year contract in another position. The minimum time in a position to be considered for an extended contract is three years.

FTE

Two-year contracts should only be considered for employees who make significant contributions to the University over a sustained period. Therefore, these contracts will only be for employees with a minimum of 0.75 FTE on a 12-month or 9-month basis.

Source of Funds

Extended contracts can only be considered when there is a reasonable expectation that funds for the position will be available for the duration of the contract, i.e., at least two years into the future. While no funds are guaranteed, E&G funds are considered reasonably stable for the short term, and positions funded on E&G may be considered for extended contracts. Other stable funds (e.g., Federal or County Extension funds, Federal Ag Experiment Station or Forest Research Lab funds) may also meet the criteria.

For fixed-term faculty on grants and contracts, multiyear contracts would only be considered for grants that cover the two-year time commitment, and for which the faculty member is written into the grant by name. Other criteria (time in rank, quality of service, FTE, continuation of the position, and support of supervisor) would still have to be met for these faculty. Appointment letters would indicate that the appointment is contingent on the availability of funds from the grant or contract.

Anticipated Continuation of the Position

Extended contracts would only be considered for positions that are anticipated to continue for the duration of the contract. The Supervisor would need to provide justification/documentation for this criterion.

Support of the Unit Head

If all other criteria are met, it should still be up to the discretion of the unit head whether or not to offer an extended contract. While this may result in different treatment depending on the unit, some unit heads may be more cautious about the need for budget flexibility.

Fixed-term Professorial Faculty

Investment of recurring funds into tenured and tenure-track positions is essential for a land-grant university. Faculty advocacy groups support tenured/tenure-track positions over fixed-term positions. However, there is a need for administrative flexibility, especially in light of changing budgets and shifting priorities, balanced by an institutional commitment to excellent employees.

TheAcademic Appointment Guidelines specify the criteria for professorial rank in Section II.B.

  • Professorial ranks (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor) will be limited at Oregon State University to:
  • teaching-related positions with an expectation for scholarly accomplishment;
  • professorial-level appointments (including Senior Research positions) whose principal responsibilities are related to scholarly research;
  • extension specialists, extension agents, and other extension faculty members whose assignments carry an expectation for scholarly accomplishment;
  • librarians whose positions carry an expectation for scholarly accomplishment;
  • professional faculty whose assignments carry an expectation for scholarly accomplishment (Section V).

These Guidelines make it clear that all professorial ranks will have scholarly expectations. In the promotion and tenure process, scholarship is a key criterion, even for fixed-term professorial positions. It is unrealistic to expect a faculty member to be successful in meeting the scholarship criterion for promotion with less than 15% FTE allocated to scholarship in the position description. Therefore, no fixed-term professorial positions will be approved without 15% FTE of scholarship in the position description.

Section IV.B. of the Guidelines previously described the following fixed-term professorial positions:

  • Professorial ranks will be available for faculty members on Senior Research or Clinical appointments. Such appointments are for fixed-term faculty primarily engaged in research or clinical practice at a level normally appropriate for a professorial rank. Ranks for these appointments are Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor. At Oregon State University, these faculty members are commonly identified as:

Assistant Professor (Senior Research) Assistant Professor (Clinical)

Associate Professor (Senior Research)Associate Professor (Clinical)

Professor (Senior Research) Professor (Clinical)

The new guidelines provide for the addition of fixed-term Extension (Assistant, Associate, or Full) Professor appointments. The fixed-term professorial ranks of the past did not fit Extension faculty positions. Instructor wasnot always the appropriate rank either, because many Extension faculty have scholarship expectations consistent with professorial ranks. Research ranks werenot appropriate because even though Extension faculty conduct applied research, most of their duties involve translating research to a variety of audiences. The changing nature of state and federal support for Extension has resulted in a mixture of recurring and non-recurring funds being used to fund faculty. In addition, the changing nature of Extension programming has led to educational programming horizons of limited duration in many cases. Therefore, there is a need to be flexible and responsive with respect to staffing, and tenured professorial positions are not always appropriate.

Criteria for using the rank of Extension (Assistant, Associate, or Full) Professor are:

  1. Position description includes at least 15% scholarship
  2. Funding for the position is entirely or partially non-recurring state or federal funds
  3. If recurring funds are used, the programming need is of limited duration (2-6years)
  4. No more than approximately 30% of an Extension program’s state and federal recurring funds are allocated to fixed-term professorial positions. Here we define “program” to mean the major Extension program areas (4-H, Agriculture, Family and Community Development, Forestry, Sea Grant). This will be evaluated over a number of years, recognizing that staffing decisions are not smoothly distributed over time, and some transition time may be necessary to return to the 30% standard.

Current Guidelines also allow for the temporary appointment of fixed-term professorial positions in cases where “Research,” “Clinical,” or “Extension” do not apply. Section IV.C.1.d. and the accompanying “note” discuss the use of fixed-term appointments for:

  • appointments that are temporary, regardless of rank. Positions established with non-recurring funds are defined as temporary, unless there is reasonable assurance of long-term continued support. Appointments associated with temporary assignments such as a visiting professor or a sabbatical leave replacement also are considered temporary.

NOTE: Appointments at the Assistant Professor rank (not Assistant Professor, Senior Research) will normally not be extended beyond two years. With approval by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, the appointment can be extended to a third year. Additional one-year extensions may be approved if the need for the appointment can be justified; in no case will this type of appointment be extended beyond a total of six years. Conversion of a fixed-term Assistant Professor position to a tenure track position will require a regular search. (This policy assumes the use of consecutive one-year fixed-term appointments, not multiple year fixed-term appointments.)

This provision for fixed-term professorial appointments should continue to be used in situations where a faculty member is being paid primarily from recurring funds, but a tenure-track position is not currently available (e.g., for dual career situations). If such a position involves only teaching duties, then the appropriate rank is Instructor. As in all other cases, for the position to be designated as “professorial,” there must be at least 15% FTE devoted to scholarship. If the Department foresees the position to continue beyond six years on recurring funds, then it is appropriate to open up a tenure-track position.

The University will assess these two policies, including their impact on budgets, faculty mix, and the institution’s effectiveness in providing its programs and services after three years (at the end of the 2008-09 academic year). A decision to continue the implementation of the policies as articulated in this document or to make a change in them will be made at that time.

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Office of the Provost

5.30.2006