Academic Affairs

The faculty has established a procedure for review of the allocation of continuing faculty positions when they become vacant.  The Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee undertakes this review annually in the Spring.  Its role is to advise the President and the Dean whether vacant positions should be reauthorized (and potentially redefined) in the same department or program or be allocated elsewhere.

The purpose of this memo is to outline the process for requesting the reauthorization of a position. Such requests should be submitted in as timely a fashion as possible after notice of a resignation or retirement. Please consult with me about the individual circumstances that your department/program faces.

Criteria

In reviewing requests for reauthorization of faculty positions, the CEP will bear in mind the following criteria:

• The importance of the particular subject matter in the curriculum, looked at from the point of view of the individual department or program;

• The importance of the particular subject matter in the curriculum, looked at from the point of view of the College as a whole, including specifically the potential contribution to distribution requirements and to existing interdisciplinary programs and the relationship to course offerings in other departments;

• The role that the position would play in satisfying student interest in the subject matter, either by maintaining existing offerings in which there is substantial student interest or by providing improved access to over-enrolled subjects;

• The capacity of the position to reduce chronically heavy teaching loads and to reduce course size in the department or program applying for it; and

• The likelihood that the faculty’s diversity goals could be advanced through recruitment to fill the position.

In reviewing these requests, the Committee’s general responsibility will be to reach qualitative judgments that look principally to the long-term curricular interests of the College. Please note that the list of criteria above is not a rank-ordered list of priorities, but rather an inclusive list of areas the Committee will take into account. Materials that CEP may consult in the process of reviewing requests include: departmental annual reports, self-studies, and reviews; enrollment patterns and course data; profiles of departments/programs at peer institutions; and data on PhD’s awarded in particular fields and subfields.  In reaching its recommendations, the CEP will give weight to departmental, program, and institutional considerations. 

Procedure

A department or program in which a vacancy occurs in a tenurable position, and which desires authorization to recruit a replacement, has two options:  the department may request reauthorization of the same position or it may request the authorization of a position in another field of specialization, in response to changing curricular needs or changing enrollment patterns within the discipline.

In order to ensure that it fully understands the role of a faculty position in a department or program, the CEP will consult with the chair/director of any department/program with a vacancy if it appears that the Committee is considering the possibility of moving that position to another department/program.

Format for requests.  A request for reauthorization should be in the form of a memorandum to me.  Please be reasonably brief, and feel free to attach any statistical information or other items that might help the Committee to understand and evaluate the request.  Please be sure that the following questions are answered in the memorandum in whatever way you think would be most efficient:

            1.     In which field or subfield would the appointment be made?  Please include a prototype job description and give examples of courses that an individual appointed to the position might contribute to the curriculum.

            2.     What is the rationale for reauthorizing the position in terms of the criteria listed above?  Please consider the following points:

                    a.     With respect to subject matter, indicate how the field is related to other fields in your discipline and what educational values would be served by including the field in the department’s or program’s curriculum.  How would this appointment contribute intellectually to the long-term direction of the department/program and Bowdoin’s position with relation to the disciplinary field represented.

                    b.     Describe how, if at all, this position would contribute to satisfying curricular needs beyond your department or program.  If appropriate, comment on the potential contribution to distribution requirements; if appropriate, comment on the potential contribution to the interdisciplinary or departmental programs that would be touched by this appointment.  (Where such a contribution is possible, it would be advantageous to discuss the position with the director of the pertinent program or department chair or chairs and to obtain their endorsement of the request.)

                    c.     With respect to enrollment and workload pressures, comment on any trends you observe in departmental or program course enrollments and in the numbers of majors and minors.

                    d.     Note specifically whether (and how) the position might be described so as to attract applicants who would contribute to a more diverse faculty.  Please attach a detailed description of a search plan for the position. The search plan should outline the anticipated pool of candidates, the planned outreach to ensure a diverse pool, conferences to which Bowdoin faculty should be sent as part of an interviewing or recruiting measure, and appropriate venues for dissemination of the position information.

            3.     Please provide an overview of staffing, including anticipated leaves and curricular offerings (including those anticipated for the new position), for the next three years. 

            4.     Would the position entail any additional non-salary costs in your department or program or the College budget generally?  How much and for what purposes?  Would it imply any additional staff costs (e.g., for a laboratory instructor)?  How much and why?

Schedule

Requests for reauthorization of a position that falls vacant after CEP is in active session should be submitted as soon as the vacancy is known.  Vacancies occurring after Commencement may be reauthorized at the discretion of the dean.  Please note that requests received after Commencement for vacancies which could have been reasonably anticipated during the semester will normally be deferred to fall semester. The CEP decision constitutes a recommendation for action; the President and Dean have final authority over reauthorizations and allocation of faculty lines. 

I encourage chairs or program directors to be in touch with me to discuss intended requests.  Feel free to call or drop me a note if you have questions.  On behalf of all the members of the Committee, let me thank you and your colleagues for the time devoted to the preparation of these requests.  The articulation of departmental and program priorities in these proposals provides helpful guidance to future development efforts as well as information to the CEP.

Template

Request for Reauthorization of a Tenure-Line Faculty Position

Date:     ________

To:        Cristle Collins Judd, Dean for Academic Affairs

From:    ________ (department chair/program director)

Re:         ________ (position to be reauthorized, faculty member to be replaced)

Overview

• Provide a summary of the most important argument(s) for reauthorizing this position
• Specify field and subfield, describing any changes proposed in how the position is defined

Rationale

• Contributions to be made by this position within and beyond department/program
• Importance of the subject matter in the curriculum institutionally
• Importance of the subject matter in the curriculum for this department/program
• Relationship of this field/subfield to other fields in the discipline
• Relationship to long-term goals and mission of the department/program
• Relationship to recent department/program review or other assessment
• Contribution to curricular needs of other departments/programs, distribution requirements, etc.
• Relationship to student interest and enrollment needs
• Role in relieving existing pressures (teaching loads, enrollments, course size, etc.)
• Role in advancing goals of faculty diversity

Background (attach data as needed)

• Staffing overview, including anticipated leaves (three year view)
• Curricular offerings, including those anticipated for this position (three year view)
• Trends observed in relevant enrollment/workload pressures, numbers of majors/minors, etc.

Search Plan/Strategy (attach search plan)

• How should the position be described and advertised to attract the best candidates?
• How should the position be described and advertised to attract candidates that contribute to a more diverse faculty?
• Describe anticipated candidate pool
• Outline recruiting and outreach plans in keeping with the current Faculty Recruiting Memo (http://www.bowdoin.edu/academic-affairs/department-chairs/pdf/faculty-recruiting-memo.pdf)
• Proposed timeline for search process

Other Factors

• Specify and explain any additional non-salary or staff expenses anticipated for this position
• Describe any space concerns
• If proposing significant changes in how the position is currently defined, please add greater detail to the rationale

Job Description Prototype

• Draft job ad
• Examples of courses to be taught