Standard 5: Faculty

1. The faculty's qualifications, numbers, and performance are sufficient to accomplish the institution's mission and purposes. It competently offers the institution's academic programs and fulfills those tasks appropriately assigned it.
2. The preparation and qualifications of all members of the faculty are suited to the field and level of their assignments. Qualifications are measured by advanced degrees held, evidence of scholarship, advanced study, creative activities, and relevant professional experience, training, and credentials.
3. The faculty is sufficiently numerous to carry out such functions in addition to instruction as student advising and academic planning and to participate appropriately in policy-making, course and curricular development, and institutional governance.
4. The institution employs an open and orderly process for recruiting and appointing its faculty members. Faculty participate in the search process for new members of the instructional staff. The institution observes pertinent legal requirements related to equal employment opportunity and compatible with its mission and purposes, addresses its own goals for the achievement of diversity of race, gender, and ethnicity. Faculty selection reflects the effectiveness of this process and results in a variety of intellectual backgrounds and training. Each prospective faculty member is provided with a written contract that states explicitly the nature and term of the initial appointment and, when applicable, institutional considerations that might preclude or limit future appointments.
5. Similarly, the institution publishes, makes accessible, and explains upon appointment the explicit criteria and procedures for the appointment, evaluation, advancement, and termination of academic support staff who are not members of the faculty but who have academic responsibilities. Such staff are appropriately qualified and are provided reasonable employment security. Salaries and benefits are consistent with the requirements of the positions. The institution provides appropriate opportunities for staff development.
6. Where graduate teaching assistants are employed, the institution carefully selects, trains, supervises and evaluates them.
7. Faculty are accorded reasonable contractual security for appropriate periods consistent with the institution's ability to fulfill its mission. The institution sets salaries and benefits at levels which ensure its continued ability to attract and maintain an appropriately qualified instructional staff of a quality consistent with the institution's mission and purposes.
8. Faculty assignments and workloads are consistent with the institution's mission and purposes. They are equitably determined to allow faculty members adequate time to provide effective instruction, advise and evaluate students, continue professional growth, and participate in scholarship, research, and service compatible with the mission and purposes of the institution. Faculty workloads are reappraised periodically and adjusted as institutional conditions change.
9. Faculty categories (e.g., full-time, part-time, adjunct) are clearly defined by the institution as is the role of each category in fulfilling the institution's mission and purposes. Should part-time or adjunct faculty be utilized, the institution has in place policies governing their role compatible with its mission and purposes and the Standards of the Commission. The faculty includes adequate numbers of individuals whose time commitment to the institution is sufficient to assure the accomplishment of classroom and out-of-classroom responsibilities essential for the fulfillment of institutional mission and purposes. It avoids undue dependence on part-time faculty, adjuncts, and graduate assistants to conduct classroom instruction.
10. In a faculty handbook or in other written documents that are current and readily available, the institution clearly defines the responsibilities of faculty and the criteria for their recruitment, appointment, evaluation, and promotion. Such policies are equitable and compatible with the mission and purposes of the institution; they provide for the fair redress of grievances, and they are consistently applied and periodically reviewed.
11. The faculty are demonstrably effective in carrying out their assigned responsibilities. The institution employs effective procedures for the regular evaluation of faculty appointments, performance, and retention. The evaluative criteria reflect the mission and purposes of the institution and the importance it attaches to the various responsibilities of faculty members, e.g., teaching, scholarship, creative activities, research, and professional and community service. The institution has equitable and broad-based procedures for such evaluation, in which its expectations are stated clearly and weighted appropriately for use in the evaluative process.
12. The institution provides the faculty with substantial and equitable opportunities for continued professional development throughout their careers. Such opportunities are consistent with and enhance the achievement of the institution's mission and purposes. Faculty members accept the obligation to take advantage of these opportunities and take the initiative in ensuring their continued competence and growth as teachers, scholars, and practitioners.
13. The institution protects and fosters academic freedom for each member of the faculty regardless of rank or term of appointment.
14. The institution has mechanisms to ensure that faculty act responsibly and ethically, observe the established conditions of their employment, and otherwise function in a manner consistent with the mission and purposes of the institution.