Faculty Classification and Evaluation

General

• Administrative or Staff Positions with Faculty Appointments
  Persons assigned full-time or part-time administrative or staff duties may be appointed to faculty rank if they are qualified (as determined by the academic unit) or they may retain faculty rank and tenure if they already have them. Such persons are informed at the time of appointment whether their rank is as tenured, tenure track, clinical track, librarian track, teaching track, or non-tenure track faculty. Administrators or staff personnel who are not appointed to faculty positions are not considered as faculty.
• Emeritus Faculty
• Graduate Faculty
  Graduate faculty are responsible for program content, they serve on graduate student committees, and they assure the quality of preparation of the University’s graduates.Generally, nine-month graduate faculty members, once they have agreed to either chair or serve on a master’s or doctoral student’s committee, are expected to make every effort to fulfill this obligation even during those periods when they are not under contract, e.g., summer terms.
• Summer Session Faculty Summer session faculty members are selected and separately contracted by their chairpersons or deans to teach specific courses during the summer. Time given to teaching, research, or service in the summer is not included in the number of years counted in a faculty member's tenure-track period. Summer session faculty are expected to be available for a reasonable amount of time to counsel students in their course work.

Faculty Evaluation Process

• West Virginia University Board of Governors Faculty Rule 4.2 - Appointment, Promotion, Tenure, and Dismissal For Cause
  
• West Virginia University Policies and Procedures for Annual Faculty Evaluation, Promotion, and Tenure (Approved 1997, 2014; adjusted annually)
• West Virginia University Board of Governors Faculty Rule 4.5, Modification of Duties for Certain Full-Time Faculty; Extension of the Tenure Clock
• West Virginia University Board of Governors Phased Retirement Program

Intent to Renew an Appointment

A faculty member in the tenure-track will be advised of the intent of the College or School in which his/her appointment is held to renew the faculty member’s appointment for the coming academic year by March 1.

Separation from the University

• Resignation
  Faculty members who wish to terminate their appointments during or at the end of the academic year must give notice in writing at the earliest opportunity. Professional ethics dictate that the needs of the University and its efforts to find replacements for a full complement of faculty throughout the academic year are foremost concerns.
• Non-Renewal of Appointment: Tenure-Track Faculty
  During the tenure-track period, contracts are issued on a year-to-year basis. Prior to the end of any contract year during that period, notices of non-renewal of appointment may be issued for any reason that is not arbitrary, capricious, or without factual basis.
• Non-Renewal of Appointment: Non-Tenurable Faculty
  Prior to the end of any contract year, notices of non-renewal of appointment may be issued for any reason that is not arbitrary, capricious, or without factual basis.
• Termination of Appointment
  A faculty member's appointment may be terminated for one or more of the following reasons:
  
  • Dismissal for cause
    
  • Termination because of reduction or discontinuance of an existing program
    
  • Financial exigency