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Home > Faculty : Joint Appointments

Joint Appointments

Questions concerning CLA's guidelines for the allocation and evaluation of work of faculty with joint appointments should be directed to the Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty.

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General Statement

As part of its commitment to nurturing and advancing interdisciplinarity, the College of Liberal Arts seeks to promote transparency, fairness, and consistency in the allocation and evaluation of scholarly research or other creative work, teaching, and service of tenured and tenure-track faculty with joint appointments in more than one academic unit.

Accordingly, these guidelines are designed to encourage outstanding scholarly and creative achievement; to promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate education; and to advance critical service to the University and the community in ways that are intellectually productive and meaningful for the faculty member and the multiple units they are serving. These guidelines also aim to ensure fair and equitable assessment and equitable distribution of effort across the faculty.

Definitions

For the purpose of these guidelines, a “joint appointment in multiple units” refers to an appointment that involves distribution of a faculty member’s effort across more than one department, program, or center, including appointments made through interdisciplinary/cluster hires and internal faculty visitors. This definition of “unit” is quite broad and does not require the unit to possess a graduate program or a 7.12 document (i.e., be a tenure home). Thus, a joint appointment may exist within the college (e.g., between CSCL and English; between Sociology and IGS; between Music and Collaborative Arts; between Psychology and the Center for Cognitive Sciences; or among History, Religious Studies, and Asian American Studies) or, a joint appointment may exist among one or more units in CLA and one or more units outside CLA at the University of Minnesota (e.g., among Anthropology, GWSS, and the School of Public Health).

Allocation & Assessment of Work

These guidelines should be read and followed in conjunction with (a) CLA’s Workload Principles and Guidelines for Regular (Tenured and Tenure-Track) Faculty Members; (b) if applicable, any arrangements about the allocation and/or assessment of work that are already specified in the appointment letter of the faculty member whose work is being reviewed; and (c) if applicable, any arrangements about the allocation and/or assessment of work that are specified via a formal joint-appointment agreement, shared teaching agreement, or internal faculty visitor agreement. In cases in which no formal joint appointment or other agreement exists, it is expected that the distribution of work across units has been approved by the department/school that is responsible for the faculty member’s annual merit reviews, promotion and tenure appraisals, and oversight of teaching and service responsibilities, in consultation with the associate dean for faculty of the college.

Annual Reviews of Faculty
with Joint Appointments

Each CLA faculty member is expected to accomplish superior teaching, scholarly research or other creative work, and service, although the proportion of each activity in the work of an individual faculty member may vary somewhat from one academic year to the next. The home department should take into consideration, for annual review and merit evaluation purposes, all of the faculty member’s teaching, advising, and service efforts, whether in the home department or elsewhere.

In conducting the annual review and administering salary adjustments, the home department is expected to abide by any arrangements about the allocation and/or assessment of work that are already specified in the appointment letter of the faculty member whose work is being reviewed, or in a formal joint-appointment agreement, shared teaching agreement, or internal faculty visitor agreement already in place.

In the case of tenured and tenure-track faculty members with joint appointments in more than one unit of the college, the faculty member’s annual and merit review of scholarly research or other creative work, teaching, and service should be prepared by the chair of the faculty member’s tenure home in consultation with the chair(s) of other unit(s) where the faculty member’s appointment is held. The review should be based on principles of fairness and transparency and ensure that the contributions of the faculty member are evaluated with respect to quality and quantity in all units.If the faculty member is jointly appointed with a unit that is outside of the CLA, the chair of the collegiate unit should confer with the chair of the unit outside the college about the faculty member’s contributions to research, teaching, and service and incorporate the available information in the faculty member’s annual review.

Teaching

Each CLA faculty member is expected to be an excellent and effective teacher and mentor. Each faculty member is also expected to participate in an appropriate mix of teaching activities that involve the offering of courses as well as advising undergraduate and graduate students; supervising theses, dissertations, and research projects; and serving on examination committees, etc.

In cases of formal joint appointments, faculty members are expected to divide their teaching among the units proportional to the time of the appointment in the agreement. Accordingly, in regard to teaching, a faculty member whose appointment is equally split between two departments will be expected to assume one half of a normal course load in each department. In the case where the joint appointment is primarily administrative (e.g., leadership of a center), the teaching expectation may be reduced as described in the appointment letter.

All of a faculty member’s undergraduate and graduate advising must be taken into account, regardless of how that faculty member’s “home” department has been defined or the units in which the advisees are enrolled.

Service and Outreach

Each faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts is expected to engage in service that contributes to the well being of her or his unit, the college, and the University. This service includes activities such as participating on departmental, college, and University committees and governance bodies.

The College of Liberal Arts also serves an extended community that includes the citizenry of the state, as well as local, national, and international communities and professional organizations. Service and outreach to that extended community are an integral part of the mission of the University and the College of Liberal Arts.

Each member of the faculty is expected to engage in service and/or outreach activities on an annual basis. In cases of joint appointments, faculty members are expected to divide their unit-based service efforts among the units proportional to the time of the appointment. Accordingly, in regard to service, a faculty member whose appointment is equally split between two units is expected to perform no more than 50% of the normal service load in either unit as determined over a three-year period. In other words, at the end of each three-year period, equity must be achieved.

Annual Appraisals of Probationary Faculty

The annual review of probationary faculty is the vehicle for providing feedback to probationary faculty on how well they are meeting the expectations of their academic units in the areas of scholarship/creative work, teaching, and service.In the case of a probationary faculty member with a joint appointment, the candidate's annual appraisal of research, teaching, and service should be prepared in consultation with the chairs of all the units where the appointment is held.

In addition, for probationary faculty holding joint appointments, the college recommends that a mentoring committee of senior faculty members be constituted with representation from each of the units where the appointment is held.This mentoring committee should meet as a group with the probationary faculty member at least once a year and give the faculty member clear direction about the committee’s collective expectations regarding (a) publications/creative work and teaching on which the tenure decision will be based; and (b) the ways in which the probationary faculty member’s service should be coordinated across the units.The key elements of this discussion should be made available to the tenured faculty of the academic unit (candidate’s tenure home) that annually reviews the progress of the probationary faculty member. The recommendations of the mentoring committee should be addressed in the written summary of the review that the head of the tenure home unit prepares and discusses with the candidate about the candidate’s progress toward tenure.

Effective Fall 2009 ; Revised May 2011