| Initiating body: | |
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| Contact: | Vice President and Provost 438-7018 |
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Tenure is an important means of protecting the rights of members of the faculty to freedom of inquiry, research, discourse, teaching, learning and publications.
Tenure entails the faculty member's obligation to strive continuously to improve competence and to cooperate with colleagues in an effort to improve the quality of scholarship and teaching at the institution. The freedom and security provided through academic tenure are fundamental to the success of a university in fulfilling its obligations.
Tenure appointments shall be for an indefinite term and may be terminated only by (1) retirement, (2) acceptance of resignation, (3) demonstrable financial exigencies, (4) discharge for cause, or (5) the reduction or elimination of a department or similar academic unit. Only faculty that hold full-time tenure-track appointments at the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor shall be eligible for tenure appointments. While a faculty member holding a tenure-track appointment with the rank of instructor shall not be eligible for tenure, service at that rank shall count toward the probationary time period prior to a tenure decision.
Administrators and appropriate staff members of noninstructional divisions, departments or other service units, may be appointed with faculty status. However, such individuals become eligible for academic rank only upon the recommendation of the academic unit in which such rank is to be held. Tenure applies to faculty appointments. Full-time administrative/professional personnel are eligible for tenure only if they hold academic rank and are recommended for tenure by a department or other academic unit after an evaluation based upon the same rigorous criteria that are applied in faculty tenure decisions. An individual holding academic rank at the time of assumption of administrative/professional duties may retain such rank and eligibility for promotion and/or tenure. Tenure, if previously granted such administrators, shall be retained; however, in such cases the tenure status of the individual shall be reviewed through the process established for periodic review (See below).
Tenure cannot be acquired automatically by length of service without action by the President. No appointment shall entail tenure unless the contract or official notification of appointment explicitly states this.
Tenure is granted by the University under the authority granted to the President by the Board of Trustees. Tenure appointments shall be held only in academic departments or similar academic units. All changes in the locus of tenure require specific approval of the President.
Newly appointed faculty members shall not be offered immediate tenure except under highly unusual circumstances and then only after advance permission has been received from the President. Such permission shall be requested prior to serious discussion of contract terms between the University and the prospective faculty member.
Faculty members normally will not be granted tenure prior to the completion of six years of full-time experience at the rank of Instructor or above at one or more accredited institutions of higher education, including at least three years experience at Illinois State University.
Faculty members with full-time experience at the rank of instructor or above at accredited institutions of higher education may elect to apply up to three years of credit for such service at other institutions toward their total of six years. Acceptance of credit from other universities shall be agreed to by both the faculty member and the University in the initial appointment agreement but may be modified by mutual consent prior to the end of the first two semesters of service.
Time served on full-time appointments at accredited institutions of higher education other than Illinois State University may be applied toward completion of tenure probationary requirements. Under no circumstances shall the tenure probationary period be less than three years in length.
Time served on nontenure track appointments at Illinois State University shall not count toward completion of the tenure probationary requirements.
Time spent on any type of a leave of absence shall not be counted toward the probationary period of service unless the University and the faculty member agree at the time the leave is granted that the purpose of the leave is such that it should count in the probationary period. Ordinarily a leave of absence to pursue political activity will not count toward the fulfillment of the probationary period of service.
