College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Professor Proposal

Posted: September 24, 2025

Proposal to Authorize the College of Arts and Sciences to Use the Teaching Professor Title1

Last revised – April 28, 2025

1. Justification
   The College of Arts and Sciences requests permission to use the Teaching Professor title at all ranks to retain and recruit excellent teaching faculty in pursuit of the College’s educational mission. Teaching Professor titles will underscore the importance the College places on that educational mission.
2. Description of the Position
   The Teaching Professor titles – Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, and Teaching Professor – will be used in the College of Arts and Sciences for long-term, benefits-eligible (FTE of .5 or greater), non-tenure-track faculty appointments focused on teaching and not on research.The principal responsibility for faculty who hold Teaching Professor titles is teaching, advising, and/or mentoring at the undergraduate and/or graduate level. Teaching Professors are also expected to demonstrate engagement through activities such as mentoring other teaching faculty, service on search committees, teaching faculty leadership roles, or the development and/or publication of curriculum materials.
3. Terms of Appointment
   C.1.1 Degree Requirements
   Teaching professors should typically hold a graduate degree appropriate to the level and field of instruction. For certain Teaching Professorships this is a PhD. But for many faculty eligible for this title in the College, a PhD in the field taught is not standard or not available. For example, Performing and Media
   ‌1 For background, see https://deanoffaculty.cornell.edu/faculty-governance/archives/resolutions/resolution-195-to-establish-a-teaching-professor-track/Arts and Music Performance teaching professors would typically hold degrees such as a Master of Fine Arts or a Doctor of Musical Arts. For Teaching Professors in language education, often no directly relevant PhD is available, and in such cases the dean may accept other degrees. The dean may also accept degrees other than the PhD in cases in which a faculty member without a PhD is already appointed at Cornell or at another university and has demonstrated the appropriate skills and accomplishments.C.1.2. Course Load
   The Teaching Professor is primarily a teaching position, with a full-time course load corresponding to four to six courses per year. The College will specify course loads for teaching professors per department, based on precedent and the size and types of courses taught. Course relief can be requested for individuals based on additional responsibilities that might be assigned by the department.
   1. Searches
      Search procedures shall follow best practices and applicable College and University rules for academic appointments.Processes
      1. New Appointments
         New appointments to a Teaching Professor title at any rank are evaluated based on a dossier documenting the applicant’s teaching experience and expertise. Dossiers shall include a CV; teaching, advising, and/or mentoring statements; an optional statement of experiences supporting diverse communities; a synopsis of previous teaching evaluations (if available); and three or more reference letters. Eligible voters on appointments are all departmental tenure-track faculty and all departmental RTE faculty with Teaching Professor titles or Professor of Practice titles, at any rank. The details of the appointment process may be specific to a department, whereupon they shall be set out in writing and available to departmentfaculty. The chair sends the department’s recommendation to the dean, who has the authority to make the final decision on appointments.Reappointments
         Assistant Teaching Professors are normally appointed for an initial three-year term and are evaluated in the third year of that term for a second three-year term. Assistant Teaching Professors in their second three-year term are evaluated in the third year of that term for reappointment, and also, typically, for promotion to Associate Teaching Professor (see Section C.3.3). Associate Teaching Professors are normally appointed for an initial five-year term and are evaluated in their fifth year for reappointment for another five-year term, and also, typically, for promotion to full Teaching Professor (see Section C.3.3). Full Teaching Professors are normally appointed for an initial five-year term and evaluated for reappointment to subsequent five-year terms at that rank in the fifth year of each term.
         Dossiers for reappointment shall include a CV, peer teaching evaluations, letters on teaching, advising, and mentoring from students, and student course evaluation summaries. The reappointment process is typically internal to the Teaching Professor’s department. Procedures shall be standard within the department, exist in written form, and be distributed to all Teaching Professors upon appointment and again at a reasonable interval prior to a reappointment review. The chair sends the department’s recommendation on reappointment to the dean, who has the authority to make the final decision on reappointments.
         If a decision on reappointment is negative, the candidate will be allowed to serve at least two full semesters after written notice of nonrenewal. That notice must inform the candidate of the grievance process (see Section C.3.4).
         All reappointment reviews must be completed at least four months prior to the termination of a teaching professor’s current contract.Promotion to Associate and full Teaching ProfessorAssistant Teaching Professors are normally evaluated in their 6th year for promotion to Associate Teaching Professor. Associate Teaching Professors are normally evaluated in their 5th year for promotion to full Teaching Professor. A review for promotion may coincide with a review for reappointment. Requests to be considered for early promotion shall be exceptional and considered on a case-by-case-basis.
         The promotion schedule for part-time Teaching Professors, i.e., those with ≥0.5 but less than 1.0 FTE, is prorated in proportion to their FTE level. Thus, 0.5 FTE Assistant Teaching Professors are normally evaluated in their 12th year for promotion to Associate Teaching Professor, and 0.5 FTE Associate Teaching Professors are normally evaluated in their 10th year for promotion to full Teaching Professor.
         The case for promotion is evaluated on the basis of excellence in teaching, advising and/or mentoring, and engagement. Dossiers for promotion shall include a CV, peer teaching evaluations, letters on teaching, advising and/or mentoring from students, and student course evaluation summaries. The department shall meet to discuss and vote on the promotion case. (Voting rights are described in section E.) The dossier, the results of the vote, a summary of the department’s discussions, and the recommendation of the chair shall be sent to the dean, who has the final decision-making authority.
         A candidate for promotion may elect to defer or decline a promotion review without prejudice to their reappointment or opportunity for future review for promotion. The decision not to be reviewed should be provided by the candidate in writing to the chair.Assistant Teaching Professors who are not promoted to Associate Professors may be reappointed at the rank of Assistant Teaching Professor. Associate Teaching Professors who are not promoted to full Teaching Professor may be reappointed at the rank of Associate Teaching Professor.
         Assistant Teaching Professors who remain in that rank shall be reviewed for reappointment every three years. Associate Teaching Professors who remain in rank shall be reviewed for reappointment every five years.All promotion reviews must be completed at least four months prior to the termination of a Teaching Professor’s current contract.Grievances
         Teaching Professors have the right to invoke a formal grievance action, which may seek to redress decisions made and/or actions taken at the unit, college, and/or university level, actions they consider to be intolerable in view of the effective execution of their responsibilities. Grievable actions are described in Policy 6.2.10, on page 5. All final decisions with regard to RTE appointments belong to the Dean of the College. There is no appeal to the Provost.
      Appointment Lengths
      Assistant Teaching Professors shall normally have three-year appointments. Associate Teaching Professors shall normally have five-year appointments. Full Teaching Professors shall normally have five-year appointments.Professional Development
   
   The College will provide each Teaching Professor with an annual fund for conferences, teaching workshops, and other professional development opportunities. Full time Teaching Professors are eligible for professional development leave by application and approval by the department chair and the dean. Such leaves are subject to the academic needs of the units and available funding and must be used in ways that benefit the College and its educational mission (Cornell University Policy 6.2.1, Leaves for Professors and Academic Staff).
4. Limitations
   1. Scope
      The principal responsibility of faculty holding Teaching Professor titles is teaching, advising, and/or mentoring at the undergraduate and/or graduatelevel. Teaching Professors are encouraged to engage with the research culture of the College, especially for purposes of keeping the curriculum up to date and of incorporating recent research results into their teaching as appropriate for the level of courses taught. However, neither research nor publishing are expected or required for appointment, reappointment, or promotion of Teaching Professors.
   2. Numbers
      The total number of benefits-eligible (≥50% FTE) RTE faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences with university voting rights (including Senior Lecturers and all ranks of Teaching Professor, Professor of the Practice, and Research Professor) will not exceed 30% of the total number of tenured or tenure-track faculty and benefits-eligible RTE faculty with appointments in the College.2 This is meant to be an average across the College; some departments may have a greater, some a smaller fraction of RTE teaching faculty with university voting rights. The limitation on the percentage of RTE faculty with university voting rights is meant to prevent erosion of the number of tenure-stream faculty in the College.
5. Voting and Other Rights
   Teaching Professors are RTE faculty with all the rights, responsibilities, and limitations pertaining thereunto. Teaching Professors shall be required to submit annual reports per established College guidelines.
   Teaching Professors at all ranks will have University Voting Rights. Within the College, Teaching Professors at all ranks may vote on those matters which the dean of the College, in accordance with College Bylaws and University Bylaws XIV.1, has determined are germane and appropriate for their consideration.New appointments of Teaching Professors will be voted upon by RTE and tenure-stream faculty in the department.
   ‌2 Colleges have been asked by the Provost and Dean of Faculty offices to define a cap on the total number of RTE faculty with University Voting Rights, not on the Teaching Professor title alone. Info on University Voting Rights: https://deanoffaculty.cornell.edu/policies-procedures/faculty-handbook/faculty-and-the-senate/#onePromotions of Teaching Professors to a higher rank will be voted upon by teaching track and tenure-stream faculty of higher rank.Teaching Professors at all ranks shall be eligible to vote on curricular matters at the department and college level. Other departmental voting rights of Teaching Professors shall be determined by and standard within departments and codified in department bylaws/guidelines. Votes on issues pertaining to the graduate fields are governed by field rules and not by this document.
   Rights to grievance procedures that are available to academic employees generally are also available to Teaching Professors (Cornell University Policy 6.2.10).
6. Impact
   1. Titles
      The College will use the Teaching Professor, Professor of the Practice, and Lecturer and Senior Lecturer titles in support of its teaching mission. The Lecturer and Senior Lecturer titles will be used largely for short-term teaching positions. The Teaching Professor title will normally not be modified with “Acting,” “Courtesy,” or “Visiting.” The associate and full ranks of the Teaching Professor title may be modified with “Emeritus/a.”
      Those now holding Lecturer and Senior Lecturer titles who do not meet or wish to meet the criteria for the Teaching Professor titles during the initial transition phase described below will retain their current titles. No change in the implementation of the Professor of the Practice track is expected.
   2. Transition Process
   
   Upon activation of the Teaching Professor titles in the College each department chair, in consultation with their department faculty, shall compile a list of teaching faculty who may qualify for Teaching Professor titles: Lecturers for Assistant Teaching Professor, Senior Lecturers in their first five-year appointment for Associate Teaching Professor, and Senior Lecturers past their first renewal for full Teaching Professor. Each of those faculty whowish to be appointed to a Teaching Professor title shall provide a CV and a rationale that describes their teaching, advising and/or mentoring, and further activities and plans for activities that demonstrate engagement. The chair shall send these materials to the dean together with the last departmental review, if one exists, and an endorsement of the title change. The dean has the final decision-making authority on transitions to Teaching Professor titles.
   This initial transition process will only be available at the time the Teaching Professor titles are first adopted by the College. Going forward, individual lecturers and senior lecturers may be considered for transition to the Teaching Professor track only at the time of reappointment or promotion, contingent on recommendation by the department chair and approval of the dean of the College.
   The review schedule for faculty who transition to the Teaching Professor track from Lecturer and Senior Lecturer titles shall be the same as their schedule in place prior to the transition.
7. Definitions

In this document the following definitions apply:

Tenure-track faculty are those faculty in the ranks of Assistant, Associate and Full Professor.

Research, Teaching and Extension (RTE) faculty are non-tenure-track faculty at all ranks, including Lecturers, Clinical Professors, Professor of the Practice, Research Professors, and once approved, Teaching Professors.

For the purposes of voting on this Teaching Professor proposal, RTE Teaching Faculty are defined as all faculty in the College appointed as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Professor of the Practice.

Teaching Professors are those faculty in the ranks of Assistant, Associate and full Teaching Professor.