All faculty scheduled to teach at the University of La Verne are approved by the appropriate academic department. An application with adequate documentation is submitted when approval is being considered.
In order to be considered for teaching at ULV, an individual must have academic training in the subject matter as well as research and/or experience in the field. In addition, applicants must show evidence of, or potential for, quality teaching.
Records of faculty approval are maintained by the Department of Human Resources, individual on-campus departments, college/-school deans, off-campus program/center directors, and QM:
1. On-campus and Athens departments keep full files on all regular contracted and part-time faculty, off campus as well as on campus, who teach for the department. These files include curriculum vitae/résumés, transcripts, letters of recommendation, student evaluations, and other academic information as well as letters of appointment.
2. For regular contracted faculty, with the exception of those in Athens, the Department of Human Resources keeps much the same information, but the Human Resources' file is the official one. The Human Resources' files also contain records pertaining to hiring, promotion, tenure, salary, benefits, degree completion, completion of other education requirements, other information upon which employment decisions are based, and documents required by Federal law. Human Resources also keeps full files on full-time off-campus instructors as well as employment files on part-time off-campus nstructors. Athens keeps these files for Athens faculty.
3. Each dean and the associate dean at Athens keeps files on the regular contracted faculty in the college/school/campus. These contain complete information relating to promotion and tenure decisions including the "Annual Faculty Growth Report and Plan."
4. Off-campus program/center/campus directors (including the directors of EPIC and Weekend Series) keep full files on each of their part-time faculty. In addition, the Dean of the School of Continuing Education keeps a complete file for all part-time instructors who teach at the residence centers.
5. QM maintains the official list of approved part-time faculty, including those in Athens, showing the courses for which each individual has received approval and disapproval, their highest degree and the institution that awarded it, their primary teaching site, and other statistical information needed for institutional research. QM keeps no other documents on faculty except records of collegial reviews and certain student evaluation records.
2. Academic departments are responsible for obtaining teaching applications/letters of application, curriculum vitae/résumés, official transcripts, letters of recommendation, I9's, and W4's from each full-time and part-time instructor. These will usually be copies of the originals in the Human Resources files. The department copy of teaching evaluations should be kept in these files along with a list of courses the instructor has taught and other relevant nformation. In Athens these records are included in one consolidated file for each faculty member.
3. Academic departments are responsible for providing the Department of Human Resources with copies of the curriculum vitae/résumés, official transcripts, I9's, and W4's of each part-time instructor who teaches on campus prior to allowing the instructor to teach. In Athens relevant documents are collected by the Athens associate dean and director of human resources.
4. Each dean and the associate dean in Athens is responsible for keeping files relating to promotion and tenure for each regular contracted faculty member in his/her college/school/campus.
5. Off-campus program/center/campus directors are responsible for maintaining files for all instructors who teach for them. These files should contain a complete application packet as described in Section D below along with copies of instructor approval forms (QMS9), teaching evaluations, instructor reviews, and other relevant information. For the purposes of instructor and course approval, the directors of EPIC and Weekend Series are considered off-campus directors.
6. Each on-campus department will keep files on part-time faculty who teach courses for which the department is responsible. Athens departments keep part-time faculty information in the associate dean’s consolidated files and provide copies of this to the on-campus relevant department.
7. The Dean of the School of Continuing Education is responsible for maintaining files for all faculty who work at the residence centers. These files contain originals of the material in the residence center directors' files.
8. QM is responsible for keeping the official list of the courses for which part-time instructors are approved.
9. All faculty, on-campus and off-campus, full-time and part-time are responsible for submitting all application materials, information on education/degree completion, and other relevant information to keep their files current. Regular contracted faculty are also responsible for submitting completed Annual Faculty Growth Reports and Plans.
2. After the dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and President (or the associate dean and CEO in Athens for Athens faculty) approve the position, the appropriate Department of Human Resources advertises it in the appropriate newspapers and journals as recommended by the department. Résumés and letters of application are requested of applicants.
3. The dean (or associate dean in Athens), with the assistance of the department chair, establishes a search committee, which carefully screens applications, conducts interviews, and makes recommendations on hiring. This is the first--and the principal--approval the candidate must win, the academic approval.
4. The most favored candidate then completes his/her application file by submitting official transcripts and letters of recommendation. The chair of the search committee, department chair, and/or dean (or associate dean in Athens also telephone(s) references.
5. Once the application file is complete, the department chair (who will usually be the chair of the search committee), dean (associate dean in Athens), Vice President for Academic Affairs, and President must also approve the candidate. Prior to an offer of employment being made, the appropriate Director of Human Resources will review for possible discriminatory practices in an effort to reduce the possibility of law suit against ULV and its administrators.
6. Offers of employment are contingent upon the individual providing proof of right to work in the US (or in Greece).
7. No oral or written agreements or commitments made by any representative of ULV regarding compensation, benefits, tenure, promotion, continuation of employment, conditions of employment, and the like will be valid if they vary from established policy as delineated in PEPPIT and/or the Faculty Handbook unless such agreements or commitments are approved in writing by the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the President of the University (or by the associate dean and CEO in Athens).
8. After a regular contracted member of the faculty has been hired, it is generally the responsibility of the department chair, in consultation with the faculty member, to decide which courses the faculty member should be allowed to teach.
Part-time faculty are not issued contracts; they are issued letters of appointment which do not require written acceptance. Most part-time faculty are hired on a course-by-course, term-by-term basis, but Department Associates may be hired with year-by-year letters. Part-time letters do not commit to future or continued employment. Part-time faculty may be terminated at any time.
Nevertheless, no one, neither on campus nor off campus, may be approved to teach for ULV unless an application packet containing the following items has been prepared and evaluated:
b. Curriculum vitae/professional résumé.
c. Official transcripts showing all relevant courses and degrees.
d. Notes/letter by the department/program chair or program/site director based on a personal interview with the candidate stating why the individual should be approved/hired, noting such things as teaching experience, academic preparation, etc. An "Instructor Interview" form may be used for this purpose.
e. Three letters of recommendation.
b. The chair then contacts the potential instructor and asks him/her to submit official transcripts and three letters of recommendation to complete the application file.
c. After the file is complete, the chair (and the associate dean in Athens) interviews the candidate. If the chair concludes that the individual is qualified, he/she completes an “Instructor Approval Form Cover Sheet” (QMS9), retains a copy for the departmental files (campus files in Athens), and sends the remaining copies to QM.
d. QM logs the approval, places the QM copy of QMS9 in the approved instructor log book, and sends Human Resources its copy of QMS9 (along with a copy of the curriculum vitae/résumé if it is a first-time instructor at ULV). Before logging approval of Athens part-time faculty, QM sends a copy of the instructor packet to the appropriate dean for review.
e. Human Resources will not approve a letter of appointment for a part-time instructor to teach a course for which there is no signed QMS9 on file approving the instructor the teach the specific course.
b. Off-campus directors use the same general guidelines on instructor qualifications that on-campus department chairs use. In addition, to assist off-campus directors determine whether candidates have the qualifications for approval, most departments have prepared specific lists of academic, professional, and teaching qualities that they look for when evaluating potential instructors. The current lists are contained in Appendix B.
c. For each instructor recruited, the director must assemble an application packet including an application form (QMS43), curriculum vitae/résumé, official transcripts, and three letters of reference. For the latter the "Instructor Reference Form" is available, but other letters of reference are acceptable. Applicants who have not yet prepared curriculum vitae/professional résumés should use QMS44, "Guidelines for Curriculum Vitae/Professional Résumé" as a guide. Several instructor interview forms are available and can be used, but a letter from the director commenting on the need for the instructor, the instructor's qualifications, and the instructor's approach to teaching is an acceptable substitute. Where possible, candidates should also be interviewed by the Department/Program Chair, designated regular contracted faculty, designated Special Assignment Faculty, or designated Department Associate, and his/her written notes and comments on the candidate included in the packet.
d. When the application packet is complete, the director must complete the bottom of the Teaching Application (QMS43) indicating which courses he/she wishes the applicant to be considered to teach and send the whole packet to QM. No more than five courses can be submitted. Residence center directors should send the packet to the Dean of SCE for forwarding to QM.
e. QM will log in the packet, prepare an "Instructor Approval Form Cover Sheet" (QMS9) for the instructor, and send the packet and cover sheet to the appropriate Department/Program Chair. If courses from two departments are included in the request, QM will have to prepare two QMS9 forms and send the packet to different programs specialists, one after another.
f. For each course included on the cover sheet, the Department/Program Chair can either approve the applicant to teach, disapprove the applicant for teaching, or approve him/her with conditions. Frequently, program specialists will approve some courses, disapprove others, and put conditions on still others. When the Department/Program Chair has made his/her decision, he/she indicates the decision on QMS9, signs it, and returns it and the packet to QM.
g. After QM has received responses from the Depart-ment/Program Chair(s), QM enters the information in the database, places the QM copy of QMS9 in the log book of approved instructors, sends Human Resources its copy of QMS9 (along with a copy of the curriculum vitae/résumé if it is a first-time instructor at ULV), and returns the packet with the SCE copy of QMS9 to the appropriate program/center director or to the Dean of SCE.
h. Only after the off-campus program/center director has received approval for an instructor to teach a course can the director schedule the instructor to teach the course.
* Must be carefully reviewed after the first course.
* Must submit an official transcript showing terminal degree.
* Must provide documentation for work experience.
3. "Meeting the conditions" usually means resubmitting the instructor's application packet with the additional material requested. The packet is submitted to QM, which handles it precisely as if it were any other request for instructor approval. The "Instructor Approval Form Cover Sheet" (QMS9) is prepared for the Depart-ment/Program Chair who considers the resubmission and then responds to QM. The department/program chair may fully approve the instructor for the course, disapprove him/her on the basis of the new information, or approve with new conditions. For Athens part-time applicants, conditional approvals are set and removed by Athens departments, but copies of the QMS9 forms documenting this are submitted to the appropriate on-campus dean to review and QM to file.
Emergency approvals are only to
be requested and granted in emergency situations, not merely because an
applicant's application packet is not complete nor because the department/program
chair has disapproved the instructor to teach the course
in question. In most cases a conditional approval (generally, a one-time
only approval) should be requested rather than an emergency approval. If
the applicant has submitted as much as a résumé or unofficial
transcripts, this is sufficient to request conditional approval pending
receipt of the complete official application packet.
When a conditional approval is requested by an off-campus director in an emergency situation and the approval is not granted by the Department/Program Chair, the off-campus director may appeal the decision to the appropriate dean and then to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
2. To obtain an emergency approval, the department chair/off-campus director must send a written request for the approval to the dean.
3. The dean, if he/she approves the emergency approval, will notify the chair/director as well as QM.
4. If the dean rejects the emergency appeal, the chair/director may appeal to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
5. QM will put the dean's (and Vice President's, if appropriate) signed emergency approval/disapproval into the approved instructor notebook as a record that the emergency approval was granted/rejected. This record also helps assure that the instructor is not granted a second emergency approval.
6. In Athens these steps are streamlined because the associate dean has the power to grant emergency approvals. Copies of emergency approvals granted by the Athens associate dean are sent to QM and filed with the instructor’s other approvals.
2. Off-campus directors may request approval for instructors to teach additional courses by completing QMS8, "Instructor Sub-sequent Approval/Removal Request," and submitting it to QM along with the instructor's entire application packet and any student evaluations, instructor reviews, documentation showing previous approvals, or other pertinent information that has accumulated on the instructor.
3. QM will process the request in the same way that it handles initial requests for approval as described above.
4. When approval of more than a maximum total of five active course approvals is proposed, either an equivalent number of previously approved courses over the maximum must be removed (as provided in §III.H) or the appropriate dean and the Vice President for Academic Affairs must approve (in addition to the program/department chair).
b. QM logs the request and sends it along with a completed QMS9 signature cover sheet to the department/program chair.
c. If he/she approves and signs, it is forwarded in turn to the dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
d. If chair, dean (or associate dean in Athens), and Vice President approve, the appeal is approved. If any disapprove, the appeal is denied.
e. The completed QMS8 and attached documents are returned to QM which processes them as any other course approval.
When a center/campus/program director/associate dean at Athens, on the one hand, and the department/program chair, faculty liaison, or faculty specialist, on the other, are in agreement that a particular part-time faculty member needs to be removed from the list of approved instructors, they can jointly remove him/her. However, if they are not in agreement, the part-time instructor can only be dismissed after a collegial review and evaluation by a regular contracted faculty member. The final decision rests with the appropriate dean (associate dean in Athens) in consultation with the reviewer, program chair/faculty specialist, and center/program director.
b. If the chair/specialist and director do not agree to the removal of an instructor, the chair/specialist (or his/her designee) must conduct a collegial review and evaluation before the final decision is made.
2. The director should obtain additional supporting documents to support his/her appeal and submit these through QM to the department/program chair. QM will process this request as it does any instructor approval, starting with logging the request and completing QMS9, "Instructor Approval Form Cover Sheet."
3. If the director is dissatisfied after appealing to the department/program chair, he/she may appeal directly to the department's dean, and then to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. All of the additional appeals should be done in writing or in person.
4. When a conditional approval is denied in an emergency situation, the director may request an emergency approval.
2. The on-campus Faculty Personnel Committee is responsible for seeing that the "Teaching Evaluation Form" is appropriate. Currently, the evaluation form has a multiple choice quantitative section which is tabulated by computer and compared across the University as well as a brief-answer qualitative section where students are asked to describe the most and least satisfactory aspects of the course.
3. Each term the dean of every college/school or his/her designee(s) (or the associate dean at Athens) sees that sufficient Teaching Evaluation Forms are distributed. Included with the forms are instructions on how to administer the evaluation and a self-addressed return envelope.
4. Faculty are instructed to schedule time for the evaluation during the last or second-to-the-last class meeting before the final exam. One student or coordinator in each class is asked to distribute the evaluation forms to the class while the instructor steps out of the room. Students complete the evaluations and return them to the proctor who in turn puts the evaluations in the return envelope and forwards it to the center/program director (off campus), dean (on campus), associate dean at Athens, or his/her designee.
5. Upon receipt of the evaluations, the center/campus/program director (off campus), associate dean in Athens, dean (on campus), or designee unseals the envelope and examines the results. The center/campus/program director (off campus) will take corrective action as appropriate if evaluations have not been submitted for all classes or if any evaluations are poor even before sending the completed questionnaires to the central campus.
6. After the dean (or associate dean at Athens) makes sure that evaluations have been received for all courses offered under his/her responsibility that term, the entire group of evaluations is forwarded to data processing. If evaluations were not completed in any class, the dean should determine why and take appropriate action.
7. Data processing inputs the quantitative portions of the on-campus evaluations into the computer, batching the evaluations for whole terms so that comparisons can be made. SCE processes its own evaluation to hasten responses to SCE directors and instructors. The dean (or associate dean at Athens) is responsible for forwarding a copy to the instructor and to the department and/or program chair. Off-campus center/program directors and the directors of EPIC and Weekend Series are sent copies of the statistical analyses for courses offered in their programs along with the students' handwritten comments for these courses.
8. The deans (or the associate dean at Athens) are responsible to insure the storing of the original evaluation forms with the students' handwritten comments for three years and for keeping the statistical analyses from all courses in their jurisdiction for as long as the instructors are teaching for ULV.
9. The deans (or the associate dean at Athens) are responsible for making the handwritten evaluation forms available to instructors. In general, instructors may see the original evaluations one week after they turn in their grades for the course, if the evaluations are ready. Instructors who receive poor evaluations--defined as evaluations which receive 2.6 or higher for the overall mean--may not see the handwritten evaluations, at least not for courses offered on campus. Instead, on campus at least, the deans are responsible for preparing typewritten summaries of the students' comments recorded in the brief-answer section of the evaluation.
10. Each dean (or the associate dean at Athens) is responsible for documenting the action taken by department chairs (on campus) and program/center directors (off campus) concerning instructors with poor evaluations (overall means of 2.6 or higher*). To do so, department chairs and program/center directors complete an "Action Report on Teaching Evaluations" (QMS74) each semester/term listing the number of courses offered, the number evaluated, and the number with overall means above 2.6 as well as action taken regarding the means below 2.6. [From 1977 until 1992 the evaluation scale went from a high positive of 1 to a low negative of 6. During this period poor evaluations were defined as an overall mean of 2.6 or above. In 1992 the scale was reversed, making 6 high positive and 1 low negative. Consequently, for a part of 1992 and 1993 "poor" was defined as those with overall means below 3.4. The evaluation scale was returned to a high positive of 1 in 1993.]
b. Copies of all Action Reports are sent to QM.
2. The Director of Institutional Research is responsible for providing information on evaluation techniques used successfully and reported in the literature. Examples are the methods described in Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for Faculty by Pat Cross and Thomas Angelo.
2. The deans (and the associate dean at Athens) are also responsible for seeing that a class session or two of those part-time faculty with poor student evaluations is visited during the first term that the instructor teaches after receiving the poor evaluation.
3. Deans (and the associate dean at Athens) may delegate this responsibility to department chairs.
4. The collegial visitors should observe the part-timer's teaching style, check to see that what he/she is teaching addresses the requirements for the course, make sure that the reading materials are appropriate, and make other observations pertinent to the course and teaching. Deans (and the associate dean at Athens) may direct reviewers to utilize the same forms used in reviewing off-campus part-time faculty (QMS25 and QMS52), or they may devise other forms or formats.
5. The collegial visitors are to report their observations to the department chair and to the dean (and the associate dean at Athens) in writing, using QMS25, "Instructor/Course Review Report Form," or another format specified by the dean.
6. The deans (and the associate dean at Athens) are responsible for making appropriate responses to these reports, and for sending a copy of each report along with the dean's follow-up actions to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
7. Department chairs are responsible for seeing that the results of the reviews are shared with the faculty who are reviewed.
2. Center/campus/program directors and department/program chairs are collectively responsible for arranging collegial reviews of off-campus part-time faculty by full-time on-campus faculty (or department associates as determined by department program/chairs.
b. For part-timers who teach at distant centers, reviews by Special Assignment Faculty, faculty liaisons, and department associates are arranged or by on-campus faculty or appropriate administrators when they visit the centers. Center/campus/program directors are responsible for monitoring the quality of their instructors and for notifying the dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs, or QM, if a need for a special review visit arises.
b. QM provides the reviewer with a copy of QMS52, "Guidelines for Collegial Review of Instructor/Course" and QMS25, "Instructor/Course Review Report Form."
b. The reviewer should make his/her report on the review on QMS25 within one week after conducting the review. QM will examine the report, file the original, and send copies to the off-campus director, Dean of SCE, and chair of the appropriate on-campus department. QM will request the director to react or respond to the review, if appropriate. The off-campus director should share the review with the instructor.
c. Reviewers are reimbursed for mileage and appropriate meals as reported on a completed ULV Expense Report with supporting receipts. They also receive a small honorarium authorized by a Pay Advice initiated by QM and added to the reviewer's regular paycheck.
2. Center/campus/program directors are responsible for submitting the examinations they receive to the appropriate on-campus department/program chairs for regular and systematic review.
3. Department/program chairs are responsible for reviewing examinations in their fields and providing appropriate feedback to the instructors and to the center/program directors.
4. Once reviewed, it is the responsibility of the department/-program chair to see that the examinations are placed in the instructors' portfolios (see next item).
2. Portfolios for central campus part-time faculty and for Department Associates are maintained by the appropriate academic department/program chair.
3. Portfolios for SCE programs and centers are maintained by the appropriate SCE program/center chair.
4. Portfolios for special programs such as EPIC, Weekend Series, and the off-campus religion programs are maintained by their respective directors.
5. Department/program chairs may keep duplicate portfolios for regular contracted faculty and off-campus part-time faculty in their department/program offices.
6. The Dean of SCE may keep duplicate portfolios for all faculty in SCE.
7. Faculty members are encouraged to keep a duplicate portfolio of all items submitted for inclusion in their official portfolios.
Each department will have a faculty sufficiently diverse in formal educational preparation to cover the major areas of study in the degrees offered by the department.
Although the doctoral degree is not the only measure of a faculty member's knowledge and skill, it is the most recognized and respected measure. Consequently, it is ULV's goal to hire faculty to teach courses in fields which they possess doctoral degrees. The University has established the following quality indicators regarding faculty degrees:
* 80% of all regular contracted faculty should have the doctorate and have taken post-master's courses in all areas in which they teach.
* 75% of all part-time faculty teaching graduate courses should have the doctorate or have taken post-master's courses in all areas in which they teach.
* 50% of all part-time faculty teaching undergraduate courses should have the doctorate.
2. If any of the figures do not show a trend consistent with the Policy on Faculty Degrees stated above, the inconsistency should be analyzed, and the figures and analysis reported to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Part-time faculty needs are usually advertised in the general media in the geographic area surrounding the center or program site where instruction is to take place. A pool of prospective instructors is interviewed and submitted through QM for approval. Every effort is made to insure diversity in the pool of qualified, approved part-time faculty at every center and in every program. It is ULV's intention to advertise for part-time faculty only when there is an anticipated need so that instructors recruited can actually be scheduled to teach and not merely appear on a list of individuals approved to teach.
b. A search committee, appointed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs (or the associate dean at Athens) in consultation with the department chair and dean, screens the applications, interviews a short list of candidates, and makes recommendations concerning hiring.
b. As each teaching packet is complete, the center/campus/program director sends the packet through QM for approval.
2. It is the responsibility of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the deans (and the associate dean at Athens) to see that sufficient funds are available for sabbaticals, workshops, conferences, library resources, and other necessary components of an active and productive faculty development program.
3. It is the responsibility of department/program chairs and center/campus/program directors to see that their faculty participate in faculty development, especially mandatory meetings and workshops.
4. It is the responsibility of each
faculty member, part time as well as regular contracted, to participate
in faculty development.