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1. Introduction
2. Faculty Distinction: Guiding Principles, Recommended Actions
   1. Balancing Research, Teaching and Service
   2. Faculty Recruitment and Retention
   3. Faculty Development
   4. Promotion and Tenure
   5. The Need for and Pursuit of Diversity
3. Emory and Peer Data Overview in Power Point Format
4. Benchmarks and Measures of Progress

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I. Introduction

For more than a quarter of a century, the faculty at Emory University has engaged in a series of examinations of how to develop and sustain a faculty of excellence. During the 2006-2007 academic year, the "Year of the Faculty," members of the faculty were once again called on to address the fundamentals of this larger question and to help chart a course of action for the University as we look to the next two decades. Over the course of meetings with faculties in all schools and colleges, several general observations emerged. It became clear that faculty excellence encompasses the strengths of individual faculty members-scholarly achievement, potential and passion-as well as institutional excellence. Faculty excellence is confirmed by internal as well as external recognition. Fundamentally, achieving excellence is not about competing for accolades. It is about leading and contributing; it is about changing the world through new research, clinical delivery and pedagogical advances. Sustaining a faculty of excellence requires, therefore, a "community of excellence." To evoke a "Year of the Faculty" is thus, at some level, to acknowledge the university as a place where scholarship and service, teaching and learning, should permeate all aspects of our life together.

We discovered during the process that a belief in a singular community of excellence requires that we think anew about faculty differences—including titles, duties, rank, schools, and academic backgrounds. Colleagues regularly talked about the issues and opportunities in their individual schools and colleges. Few could connect those particulars to broader, crosscutting opportunities or issues. As a result it became clear that many of us "live locally" in a university that consists of multiple cultures.

An overview follows of the core principles and associated action items for each of the five aspects of the roadmap to faculty excellence. As we continue to gather input and act upon the recommendations, three salient dimensions are emerging. First, no matter what action we take, we do not want to compromise on the importance of excellence. Second, though the meaning of excellence is shared, its form is likely to differ across academic units. Third, faculty and community excellence are closely linked.

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II. Faculty Distinction: Guiding Principles, Recommended Actions

Five domains of faculty excellence provided a road map for the Year of the Faculty conversations. These are: (1) balancing research, teaching and service, (2) faculty recruitment and retention, (3) faculty development, (4) promotion and tenure, and (5) the need for and pursuit of diversity. Any discussion of guiding principles, however, also reveals potentia barriers and challenges. Those, in turn, result in action items - meaning both the creation of new opportunities and the resolution of existing barriers or challenges.

This is an invitation to comment on the guiding principles and action items

A. Balancing Research, Teaching and Service

Balancing the demands of research, teaching, and service is a challenge faced by all faculty members. Finding effective and healthy ways to mediate this tension is essential to the well-being of individual faculty members and Emory as a whole.

Guiding Principles for Balancing Research, Teaching and Service

1. Value faculty contributions to research, teaching and service in equitable ways
2. Acknowledge the multiple forms of teaching and facilitate teaching excellence
3. Ensure an optimal infrastructure for research administration that is service-oriented and that matches the size of the university's research enterprise
4. Recognize service activities as a key form of instiution building

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Action Items

1. Establish a university-wide center for teaching and learning
   1. Recognize the shifting demands on teachers, including those triggered by technology and innovation
   2. Reward scholarship of teaching and learning
   3. Provide leave time for teaching enhancement
2. Allow for flexibility in teaching
   1. Establish a flexible teaching load
   2. Create procedures and business models that allow for teaching across academic units and for team teaching
   3. Establish incentives for teaching that occurs outside the classroom
3. Recognize teaching, research and service "of practice," typically performed by faculty from the professional schools
4. Foster a community of faculty who are engaged in the development of the university
   1. Ensure that faculty members at all levels share in the opportunities and responsibilities of service
   2. Enable senior faculty to leave a legacy through service as institution building
5. Enhance the research administration infrastructure
   1. Appoint a Vice President for Research Administration and an Associate Vice President for Research Administration (completed in February 2007)
   2. Create a culture in all research administration programs that is service-oriented and that recognizes disciplinary differences
   3. Enhance the ability for timely electronic grant submission
6. Reduce the dependence on external funding for research, specifically among those faculty members who hold "soft money" positions

B. Faculty Recruitment and Retention

Universities will face an increase in faculty hiring over the next decade, largely triggered by the aging of the professoriate in American higher education. Consequently, faculty recruitment and retention increasingly will become competitive. The Faculty Distinction Fund has been established to provide resources for competitive recruitment and retention.

Guiding Principles for Faculty Recruitment and Retention

1. Base faculty recruitment on aspirations and institutional needs as opposed to automatic replacement
2. Balance the external recruitment and internal fostering of faculty
3. Determine the distribution of faculty by rank and type based on the goals of the department/division, school, and university
4. Recognize the competitiveness of the faculty labor market, including the problem of salary compression among the current faculty

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Action Items

1. Establish a faculty recruitment plan that considers projected faculty needs
   1. Identify "ecological niches" of excellence and engage in targeting and cluster hiring (example N16 scientist project)
   2. Link faculty recruitment, when appropriate, to the university and the schools' strategic priorities
   3. Allocate financial resources for faculty recruitment, including competitive compensation and recruitment packages, options for spousal / partner hiring, housing subsidies, and research support
   4. Ensure adequate space and other infrastructural support
   5. Facilitate joint faculty appointments across academic units
   6. Establish an infrastructure that supports the increasing need for effective search committees
   7. Assess our views on hiring recently finished Emory graduate students as faculty
2. Establish a faculty retention plan that considers the competitive faculty recruitment and retention labor market
   1. Engage in proactive faculty retention
   2. Recognize salary compression among the faculty and remedy when appropriate
   3. Ensure a competitive work environment

C. Faculty Development

No matter how excellent the faculty of an institution, faculty development provides opportunities for continued growth. It also serves as the foundation for a thriving intellectual community.

Guiding Principles for Faculty Development

1. Maintain a thriving intellectual community in which faculty development contributes to the excellence of the faculty as well as to that of the community
2. Maintain a systematic and robust faculty development program that addresses all career stages
3. Recognize the role of non-tenure track faculty to the university's mission
4. Recognize the role of graduate students as the "next generation" of faculty

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Action Items

1. Establish faculty/graduate student workgroups that focus on research, teaching, and service and that are interdisciplinary in nature
2. Appoint a Vice President for Research to stimulate intellectual community
3. Foster a "culture of mentoring" among the faculty, with rewards, whereby senior faculty members serve as mentors / advocates to those in more junior positions, including graduate students
4. Establish a Center for Faculty Excellence that provides services in areas such as teaching and learning and scholarship on teaching and learning, manuscript development, grant writing and getting, mentoring, and other faculty development programs
5. Recommend faculty for external awards and recommendations
6. Allow for posting of talks and presentations on the web and through e- flash
7. Set policies to enhance academic leave time
   1. Make sabbaticals available to all faculty and increase the frequency of sabbaticals
   2. Allow faculty to "bank" time from teaching, research and / or service for leave time
   3. Provide leave from teaching and service responsibilities (Candler School of Theology model)
   4. Establish alternative term leave options such as short term and internal leaves
8. Establish a three-tier career trajectory for non-tenure track faculty
9. Enhance professional development opportunities for non-tenure track faculty
10. Nourish a culture that facilitates a healthy work-life balance:
    1. Standardize the policies and implementation of maternity and other family leave
    2. Create extended day care opportunities

D. Promotion and Tenure

Promotion and tenure allow for an assessment of a tenure-track faculty member's progress through the career trajectory. Similarly, successful and timely progression of the non-tenure track faculty reflects institutional success.

Guiding Principles for Faculty Recruitment and Retention

1. Ensure the development of and adherence to clear promotion and tenure guidelines and criteria across all academic units
2. Establish career trajectories for all faculty, including instructional, research, and clinical faculty
3. Recognize the value of contributions in all areas, including research, teaching, and service
4. Recognize the value of multi-level review of promotion (and tenure) dossiers
5. Maintain a faculty peer-review process and recognize its value as an occasion for introspection and collaborative reflection

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Action Items

1. View promotion to Associate Professor in the context of the potential to become a Professor
2. Involve the Deans through presentations to the Presidential Advisory Committee for each of the candidates proposed for promotion and/or tenure
3. Establish a peer-review process at regular intervals (based on model in Candler School of Theology)
4. Allow for an expedited promotion track for progress from associate to professor rank
5. Update the faculty handbook
6. Review all associate professors for subsequent promotion no later than six years after last promotion

E. The Need for and Pursuit of Diversity

Universities need diversity in order to achieve excellence. This includes diversity in terms of sex, race/ethnicity, age, religion, socio-economic background, and sexual orientation. In addition, diversity in modes of inquiry and opinions fosters academic and cultural vitality. Excellence requires diversity among the faculty but also in the community at large, including the students and staff.

Guiding Principles for Diversity

1. Enhance the racial, gender, and intellectual diversity among the faculty
2. Ensure a culture of diversity that is driven by tolerance
3. Recognize that for Emory to be diverse requires a strong engagement with the multifaceted Atlanta community and beyond
4. Recognize disciplinary strengths and emerging fields that cross disciplines

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Action Items

1. Maintain funding for faculty diversity (e.g. , allocation through the Faculty Distinction Fund)
2. Stimulate intellectual dialogues around diversity that involve the Emory community and also go beyond it
3. Create a central office for diversity and community relations (Appointed Senior Vice Provost for Community and Diversity in March 2007)
4. Create proactive recruitment strategies to ensure diversity among the faculty

III. Emory and Peer Data Overview in Power Point Format

Year of The Faculty  

IV. Benchmarks and Measures of Progress

Accomplished in 2006 – 2007

1. Implemented the Faculty Distinction Fund ($35M) and an associated equipment fund ($10M) for faculty recruitment and retention

2. Initiated the N16 project to identify outstanding scientists to be recruited to Emory

3. Continued collaboration between academic units to ensure faculty recruitment that is linked to the unit's and the university's strategic priorities

4. Appointed Vice President for Research Administration, Associate Vice President for Research Administration (February 2007) and Senior Vice Provost for Community and Diversity (March 2007)

5. Invested significant financial resources to enhance the infrastructure for research administration (e.g. , Institutional Review Board, Office of Sponsored Programs, and Office of Grants and Contracts Administration)

6. Initiated planning for university-wide center on teaching and learning: (a) received proposal from the University Advisory Committee on Teaching (February 2007) and (b) allocated space

7. Initiated distribution of Emory Williams Teaching Award annually to an outstanding faculty member at each of the academic units

8. Expanded the library collections in targeted areas

9. Fostered interdisciplinary seminars and workgroups (e.g. , President-Provost seminar, Transforming Community Project, Gustafson seminar, and seminars as part of the Strategic Plan Initiatives)

10. Initiated systematic nomination of faculty for prestigious external awards and other professional recognitions

11. Explore three-stage career trajectory for non-tenure track faculty (Proposal from Faculty Life Course Committee and Faculty Council, March 2007)

12. Established review of Associate Professors in rank for eight years or longer to identify career goals and develop an action plan

Within One Year

1. Review sabbatical and alternative academic leave policies (conduct pilot project for the latter)

2. Foster a service-oriented culture and efficient infrastructure for research administration

3. Establish a Center for Teaching and Learning, including staffing, based on feedback from key constituents on UACT proposal

4. Develop strategies to further acknowledge service as institution building

5. Development a data-driven action plans based on assessment of faculty hiring, retention, departures, and movement along the career track

6. Institute a Human Resources infrastructure, in collaboration with the provost office and the academic units, that is prepared for increase in faculty hiring and faculty transitions over the next decade

7. Enhance options for faculty peer-review (using model of Candler School of Theology)

8. Enhance the appointment of joint faculty hires (within and across schools) and track the size of such appointment

9. Assess faculty retention and develop institutional (department, academic unit, and university) preparedness to retain faculty if appropriate

10. Continue to work with the Work - Life Task Force in areas such as day care, leave, and stop-the-tenure-clock options

11. Update the Faculty Handbook

12. Ensure adequate (process and outcome) assessment plan for all measures of progress

13. Pilot-test a Faculty Club

14. Review the role of the Emeritus College

Within Three Years

1. Establish policies and associated business plans within each of the academic units for flexible teaching loads, across-school and team teaching, and non-traditional teaching

2. Create a Center for Faculty Excellence using the existing faculty development resources as a foundation

3. Allocate service activities among the faculty based on career stage and develop an assessment of service workloads to ensure fair distribution

4. Establish a business model and provide resources that make faculty less dependent on external funding, specifically those on "soft money"

5. Enhance the role of the Gradudate School in Emory's intellectual community

6. Foster programs that prepare graduate students to be competitive as the next generation of faculty

7. Develop business plan to reduce salary compression, considering the local culture in each of the academic units

8. Review need for a Vice President for Research

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