Effective Date Jul 4, 2011

FH 2.5 Policy on Periods of Faculty Appointments

Beginning Spring 2009, the periods of faculty appointment at Florida Tech are as follows:

Full professors receive five-year appointments with renewal review during the Spring Semester of the fourth year of the appointment; associate professors, four-year appointments with renewal review during the Spring Semester of the third year; and assistant professors, three-year appointments with the renewal review during the Spring Semester of the second year of the appointment.

A senior member of the faculty is one at the rank of professor, associate professor or assistant professor. He/she becomes “established” when he/she has progressed beyond the first year status, except in unusual cases when he/she is initially appointed as an established member. The chief operating officer must approve these unusual cases.

A new member of the senior faculty, unless initially appointed as established, will be informed before December 15 of their first year on the faculty if their services will not be used in the following academic year. His/her status will be reviewed in the Spring Semester of the first year when their appointments will either be renewed for four years in the case of a full professor and three years in the case of an assistant or associate professor, or they will be re-appointed on first-year status and subsequently treated as one who commences service the following Fall Semester. Professors without previous university faculty experience should expect a second one-year appointment. Reappointment may continue on a first-year status with the approval of the chief operating officer.

Established faculty members who serve as administrators of academic units (department heads, institute directors and directors of off-campus sites of the Department of Extended Studies of the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business), will be considered to be serving in the penultimate year of their established period.

Faculty members shall be notified of subsequent year salary and promotion by April 1 of each academic year.

A member of the faculty may obtain a prompt Faculty Senate evaluation of any administrative action taken on his or her appointment status. The senate’s recommendation is submitted to the chief operating officer.

This policy applies only to persons holding faculty rank whose primary duty is teaching. Therefore, those holding academic rank such as the president of the university, the chief operating officer, the vice president for academic affairs, deans, department heads, (except where an established faculty member as noted above), all research professors, librarians and ROTC officers will be automatically excluded.