Recruitment and Appointment of Visiting Faculty

Proposals for Visiting Faculty
Heavier Teaching Expectation for Visiting Faculty
Affirmative Action Review of Searches for Visiting Faculty
Collegiate Review of Visitor Searches Not Subject to Affirmative Action Review
Offer Letters for a Visiting Position
Submitting the Appointment Papers
Extending a Visiting Faculty Member

Proposals for Visiting Faculty

The visiting faculty budget derives from the College’s share of the salary lines vacated on account of externally funded leaves, unpaid leaves, resignations, retirements, or other reasons. It therefore consists of non-recurring funds only.

The department has an option to receive a partial return of funds for one year from permanently or temporarily vacated faculty lines. (See Return of Funds from Vacated Faculty Lines on the Budget and Resources Administrative Help Page.) A DEO who receives released funds from a vacated faculty line may not ask for additional visitor funds for replacement teaching related to that line.

In other cases, DEOs may send Dean Curto a request for visiting faculty funds for the next academic year as early as December 1. These requests may be revised as additional information on leaves of absence, resignations, or retirements becomes known. All requests should be submitted by March 1; very late requests may be more difficult to support.

On the College’s request form or in a cover letter accompanying the form, the DEO:

• describes the effort the department has made to cover teaching needs internally, without additional funding for visitors;
• specifies the particular courses that need to be covered and their importance for the General Education Program, the undergraduate major, or other departments’ majors;
• estimates the cost of temporary instruction, including fringe benefits for visiting faculty appointments of 50% or more for the entire academic year; and
• prioritizes the needs, if the request is for multiple positions or covers different types of teaching needs.

Ordinarily, Dean Curto will first authorize those positions that will require a search under Affirmative Action guidelines (see Affirmative Action Review of Searches for Visiting Faculty) or that will require an extension from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (see Reappointing a Visiting Faculty Member). Thus, he may be able to respond to only part of a DEO’s request in the first round of authorizations. Dean Curto will give priority to those requests needed to meet crucial curricular needs. Paid leaves, including developmental leaves, can rarely be covered by the visitor budget.

Heavier Teaching Expectation for Visiting Faculty

Since visiting appointments do not ordinarily carry the service expectations of tenure-track positions and since the College does not ordinarily support the research of visiting faculty, teaching expectations are at least 50% higher for visiting faculty than for tenure-track faculty. Exceptions may be made for distinguished senior visitors.

Affirmative Action Review of Searches for Visiting Faculty

The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity must review and approve each stage of the search for a position advertised at 50% time or more for one calendar year or more. If it is likely that a two-semester visiting appointment may be continued to a second year, the department must conduct that search as a formal Affirmative Action search from the start, following the recruitment procedures for tenure-track faculty.

The Office of the Dean gives final approval at each stage of the search for part-time visiting positions, for less than 12 months, and spanning both semesters (see Collegiate Review of Visitor Searches, below).

For visiting appointments of less than 50% or less than one academic year, the search is not subject to review by either the College or the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, although the department is expected to hire affirmatively. The offer letter in this case should still follow the College’s model offer letter (contact Mary Lou Doyle) for visiting faculty, and Dean Curto must approve the draft offer letter before it is released to the candidate.

Collegiate Review of Visitor Searches Not Subject to Affirmative Action Review

When authorizing a position of at least 50% time spanning two semesters, Dean Curto will request that, as soon as practicable, the DEO or search committee chair address a letter to him describing the plan the department expects to follow in disseminating information about the vacant visiting line, including:

• the text describing the terms of the visiting appointment, and
• the manner of distribution of the vacancy notice (e.g., print ads, websites, professional e-mail lists, individual colleagues, other schools and universities, etc.).

Dean Curto will review the information and respond with an approval or with suggestions.

Once an applicant pool has been developed, the search committee fills out the Affirmative Action Form B, listing and rating all applicants, and indicating in the Action column those individuals being proposed for interviews (usually by phone, not on campus). The Form B, along with the curricula vitae of proposed interviewees and a cover letter summarizing their credentials, should be sent to Dean Curto. In the spirit of the shared goal of diversity, the letter should explain cases in which women and known minorities are in the applicant pool, but none are proposed for interviews. Dean Curto will review the information and respond quickly with his approval or suggestions.

Once the faculty or search committee has agreed on a candidate, the DEO notifies Dean Curto in writing and states the reasons, based on the interviews, for the final decision. A draft offer letter should be attached (Contact Mary Lou Doyle for the College's model offer letter).

Offer Letters for a Visiting Position

Offers of a visiting position should follow the College’s model offer letter to a visiting faculty member (Contact Mary Lou Doyle for the College's model offer letter). Departments should establish a rate of pay for quarter-time, third-time, and half-time appointments, rather than paying on a per-course basis. Dean Curto must approve the offer letter before it is sent to the candidate.

The appointment of visiting faculty, even for a single course, is subject to the verification of oral communication competence and the verification of employment eligibility (see Verifying Identity and Employment Eligibility).

Submitting the Appointment Papers

The department enters the faculty temporary appointment into the HR Transaction System.

Extending a Visiting Faculty Member

Extension of a visiting appointment is contingent upon funding and upon a review of the visiting faculty member’s contributions. On the rare occasions when the visitor was not originally identified through an Affirmative Action search, the department seeking a reappointment must submit a request for a waiver to Dean Curto, who will determine whether to forward the request to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity for possible approval.

A visiting faculty appointment may not be renewed for a total of more than three years of full-time service (or more than a combined total of 300% FTE over a longer period of time). However, an individual who has completed three years of full-time service as a visitor may apply for a new appointment through a new Affirmative Action search.

To extend the appointment, the department must submit a Change in Status - Faculty Status Change form, generated on the HR Transaction System.