Instructional Faculty | Policy Manual

10.9(3) Instructional Faculty

Preamble. Consistent with the university's need to fulfill its important public educational mission, instructional-track faculty may be appointed and promoted as provided below. This policy sets parameters within which individual colleges can develop specific policies and procedures that permit the hiring of instructional-track faculty (see paragraph i below). Operationally, any collegiate policy will be consistent with this policy and subject to approval by the Provost.

Definitions. Instructional faculty contribute predominantly to the teaching mission of the university and may also do some service. Instructional faculty typically occupy full-time positions, but must be 0.5 FTE or greater. They participate in the faculty governance process as described below and as defined by individual colleges and the Faculty Senate. They are not eligible for tenure.

Instructional faculty shall hold rank at Assistant Professor of Instruction, Assistant Professor of Practice, Associate Professor of Instruction, Associate Professor of Practice, Professor of Instruction, or Professor of Practice as defined below in III-10.11d Qualifications for Specific Ranks.
Role of instructional faculty. Instructional faculty may be hired to teach courses or to educate and prepare students for their professional roles. Instructional faculty shall devote a substantial amount of their time to providing or overseeing the delivery of instruction to University of Iowa students in the classroom or in other settings appropriate to the discipline. Instructional faculty may also perform administrative and/or service functions; however, instructional faculty shall not be assigned primarily to perform service or administrative functions with few or no educational obligations. Similarly, research, scholarship, or artistic creation shall not be a requirement for appointment, reappointment, or promotion of instructional faculty, but may be considered as evidence of professional productivity if provided for by collegiate policy.
Hiring and terms of appointments. Salaried instructional faculty are searched for and appointed through university-wide recruitment processes. (See III-9 Hiring and Appointments.)
1. Assistant professors shall receive a probationary (initial) 1- to 3-year appointment. If an applicant is hired as an associate or full professor, the college may choose to provide a probationary 1- to 3-year appointment.
2. Terms of appointments subsequent to a probationary period vary, based on rank:
  1. Assistant Professor of Instruction or Assistant Professor of Practice: Upon meeting the qualifications prescribed below, and upon mutual agreement of an applicant and the department and/or college, an applicant may be appointed as an instructional faculty member at the rank of Assistant Professor. Following the initial probationary appointment, Assistant Professors, if renewed, shall receive one- to three-year appointments.
  2. Associate Professor of Instruction or Associate Professor of Practice: Upon meeting the qualifications prescribed in III-10.11d, and upon mutual agreement of the faculty member and the department and/or college, an instructional faculty member may be hired or promoted into the Associate Professor of Instruction or Associate Professor of Practice rank. Following the probationary appointment, Associate Professors, if renewed, shall receive 3- to 5-year appointments.
  3. Professor of Instruction or Professor of Practice: Upon meeting the qualifications prescribed below, and upon mutual agreement of the faculty member and the department and/or college, an instructional faculty member may be hired or promoted into the Professor of Instruction or Professor of Practice rank. Following the probationary appointment, Professors, if renewed, shall receive 3- to 7-year appointments.
  4. A decision to terminate, not to renew, or not to promote an instructional faculty member may occur only as described below.
Qualifications for specific ranks. The ranks of instructional faculty shall be assigned according to the qualifications below, and in accordance with collegiate policies.
1. Assistant Professor of Instruction:
  1. Terminal degree or other educational qualifications appropriate to the position;
  2. Evidence of potential in teaching, which can be demonstrated through experience in classroom teaching (including as a teaching assistant), pedagogically related advising or mentoring, curriculum development, or other means; and
  3. Evidence of potential to contribute to departmental and collegiate service and/or professional productivity, if the appointment will require service and/or professional productivity.
2. Assistant Professor of Practice:
  1. Terminal degree or other educational qualifications appropriate to the position;
  2. Experience in a profession relevant to the position;
  3. Evidence of potential in teaching, which can be demonstrated through experience in classroom teaching (including as a teaching assistant), pedagogically related advising or mentoring, curriculum development, or other means; and
  4. Evidence of potential to contribute to departmental and collegiate service and/or professional productivity, if the appointment will require service and/or professional productivity.
3. Associate Professor of Instruction:
  1. Terminal degree or other educational qualifications appropriate to the position;
  2. Established record of excellence in teaching; and
  3. Established record of excellence beyond teaching in professional productivity and/or service, if required and as defined by the college.
4. Associate Professor of Practice:
  1. Terminal degree or other educational qualifications appropriate to the position;
  2. Experience and achievement in a profession relevant to the position;
  3. Established record of excellence in teaching, advising students, developing curricula, or other pedagogical activities related to expertise, or an established record of success in professional endeavors indicating the potential for such excellence; and
  4. Established record of excellence in professional productivity and/or service, if required and as defined by the college.
5. Professor of Instruction:
  1. Terminal degree or other educational qualifications appropriate to the position;
  2. Sustained record of excellence across a range of teaching endeavors as recognized by faculty and students within the department, college, and/or university community; and
  3. Sustained record of excellence beyond teaching in professional productivity and/or service, if required and as defined by the college.
6. Professor of Practice:
  1. Terminal degree or other educational qualifications appropriate to the position;
  2. Substantial experience and outstanding achievement in a profession relevant to the position;
  3. Sustained record of excellence in teaching, advising students, developing curricula, or other pedagogical activities related to expertise, or a sustained record of success in professional endeavors indicating the potential for such excellence; and
  4. Sustained record of excellence in professional productivity and/or service, if required and as defined by the college.
Titles. Colleges shall use the title Assistant Professor of Instruction or Assistant Professor of Practice for the first rank of instructional faculty. Colleges may choose the Associate Professor/Professor of Instruction titles or Associate Professor/Professor of Practice titles, or both, for subsequent ranks. Colleges may use these titles in conjunction with particular subject matters, if desired (e.g., Professor of Practice in Marketing; Professor of Instruction in Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research). Exact titles shall be stipulated in college procedures and approved by the Provost.
Review and promotion. All reviews of instructional faculty shall be conducted according to written standards of competence and performance defined by the relevant units and in compliance with applicable university policies. Promotion of instructional faculty shall occur during the regular faculty promotion cycle and shall follow both collegiate procedures and Procedures for Instructional Faculty Promotion Decision Making at the University of Iowa. Given that promotion decisions within instructional faculty ranks do not carry the same “up or out” decision associated with tenure, a negative recommendation on a promotion request need not translate into termination of employment.
Decisions to terminate or not to renew.
1. Termination. Termination of instructional faculty during the term of the appointment shall be for failure to meet written standards of competence and performance established by the unit or violation of any applicable university policy.
2. Non-renewal.
  1. A decision not to renew an appointment during the probationary period is within the discretion of the dean or designee.
  2. A decision not to renew any other instructional faculty appointment shall be for failure to meet written standards of competence and performance established by the unit, violation of any applicable university policy, changed economic circumstances, or program or curricular needs.
3. Notice. Notice of non-renewal of appointment, or of intention to recommend non-renewal shall be given by email in accordance with the following standards.
  1. Instructional-track faculty in the probationary period shall be given notice of non-renewal no later than 2 months prior to the end of an academic-year appointment and no later than 3 months prior to the end of a fiscal-year appointment.
  2. For all other instructional-track faculty appointments, notice of non-renewal shall be given no later than 6 months prior to the end of the appointment.
Instructional faculty disputes. Instructional-track faculty disputes are governed by the III-29.8 Specialized-Faculty Grievances .
Collegiate policies and guidelines.
1. Every college that offers salaried, non-tenure-track instructional faculty appointments shall develop its own written policy statement with respect to such appointments consistent with all the terms of this policy. Each policy shall address all of the following items:
  1. Justification for hiring instructional faculty. Each college shall provide a statement describing the justification for hiring instructional faculty, rather than tenure-track or tenured faculty, to fulfill the college’s teaching mission.
  2. Participation of instructional faculty in faculty governance. Colleges are encouraged to integrate instructional faculty into relevant matters of collegiate and departmental governance, as appropriate. Specifically, colleges and departments are encouraged to allow instructional faculty to participate in the review of other instructional faculty. In addition, collegiate or departmental policy shall not permit instructional-track faculty to vote on the reappointment, tenure, or promotion of any tenured or tenure-track faculty member, but colleges and departments have discretion to decide whether instructional faculty may participate in the review of other faculty tracks.
  3. Evaluation of instructional faculty. Every instructional faculty member shall be evaluated annually, but not every annual evaluation must be equally extensive. Colleges shall define appropriate evaluations, including intervals for extensive and less extensive evaluations. Colleges shall specify the criteria used to evaluate instructional faculty, and those criteria shall be consistent with the instructional faculty member’s workload allocation. See paragraph i(1)(g) below.
  4. Procedures for appointment, reappointment, and promotion of instructional faculty, including distinction between Instruction and Practice ranks, if appropriate.
  5. Criteria for appointment, reappointment, and promotion for instructional faculty, including which degree(s) or educational qualifications are required under paragraph d above.
  6. Service and/or professional productivity. The collegiate policy shall define what type of service and/or professional productivity, if any, is expected of instructional faculty, and this definition shall be applied to the evaluation criteria for appointment, reappointment, and promotion purposes. Research, scholarship, or artistic creation shall not be a requirement for appointment, reappointment, or promotion, but, if present, may be considered as evidence of professional productivity.
  7. Workload. Colleges shall specify the standard expectation for calculation of teaching and service load for its instructional faculty, including for part-time instructional faculty. Additionally, the colleges’ individual employment contracts shall specify expectations for workload allocation (e.g., the percentage of time the faculty member shall devote to teaching, service, administration, or other functions) for each instructional faculty member.
  8. Eligibility to apply for tenure-track positions. Instructional faculty members may apply for open positions on the tenure track, but they may be appointed to the tenure track only one time during their career at the University of Iowa. Similarly, tenure-track faculty may apply for open instructional faculty positions, but an instructional faculty appointment shall not be used as an automatic default appointment for accomplished teachers who made an unsuccessful tenure bid. Colleges may further define their own policies related to switching of tracks.
2. Each college adopting an instructional faculty policy shall monitor the percentage of its total salaried faculty (computed in FTEs) that hold salaried instructional faculty appointments.
3. Each collegiate instructional faculty policy, and any subsequent proposals to change the policy, shall obtain the approval of a majority of the voting faculty within the college by a referendum supervised by the Associate Provost for Faculty. Any proposal to adopt or to change a college’s instructional faculty policy shall also be approved by the Provost or designee.
Participation by instructional faculty in the university mission. Consistent with the role of instructional faculty and with institutional needs, instructional faculty shall be full participants in the educational mission and intellectual life of the university. The university, as well as individual colleges and departments, shall strive to integrate instructional faculty into faculty governance, to stimulate innovation and collaboration in their teaching and other endeavors, to promote diversity and inclusion among their ranks, and to protect their academic freedom.
Representation in Faculty Senate. Instructional faculty are eligible to vote in Faculty Senate elections and to hold Senate positions; however, no more than 20 percent of the senators from any college, or one senator, whichever is greater, may be instructional-track faculty from that college. Instructional faculty may be appointed to any committees of the Senate or to university committees as a faculty representative.