Description of the Plan

 Revision of the faculty system is intended to achieve several objectives. The faculty system should foster the career development of all faculty members and provide appropriate recognition for excellence and accomplishment in the major areas of academic endeavor (research, education, clinical and community service, and professional leadership). To the extent possible, faculty appointments should be equitable regardless of academic degree or department in which the appointment is made. Appointment and promotion criteria should fully and accurately reflect the standards applied to appointment and promotion actions by the school and University. These standards should be understandable to the faculty and applied in a manner that seeks to achieve the objectives of both school and faculty.

The faculty appointment categories and their definitions, faculty ranks, and the modifiers of faculty title have not been changed in the revised system, with the exception that one category (clinical associate) has been added. Click on the link below to view a diagram of the faculty system showing appointment categories, ranks and titles.

Faculty System Diagram  

 A new category of faculty appointment titled clinical associate (without ranks) has been created. Appointment in this category will be offered to health professionals whose total compensation is provided by an approved Medical School source but who are geographically based outside the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University and who have no teaching, research, or academic administrative responsibilities.

Faculty members will be appointed for periods of one or more years, as detailed below. Salary and fringe benefits will be provided on a 12-month basis for all full-time faculty members. Instructors will be appointed to one-year renewable contracts. Assistant professors and nontenured associate professors will be appointed to three-year renewable contracts. Nontenured professors will be appointed to five-year renewable contracts. Tenured faculty members will have an indefinite appointment.

Four academic career tracks (investigator, investigator-clinician, clinician-investigator, and clinician) will be available for faculty career development. The emphasis on research and clinical activity will vary with the track. All faculty members are expected to teach and provide institutional service. Click on the link below to view the system of career tracks for full-time faculty members.

Career Tracks for Full-Time Faculty Members 

Full-time faculty scientists without clinical responsibility will be appointed to the investigator track. These faculty members must qualify for the rank of assistant professor before appointment to the investigator track. Faculty members who do not qualify may be appointed for no more than two years at the rank of instructor. Full-time faculty members with service responsibilities that usually will include clinical activities can be appointed to any of the four tracks. These faculty members may be appointed at the level of undifferentiated instructor but must be promoted to assistant professor by the end of their second year. Full-time faculty members with service responsibility appointed at, or promoted to, the rank of assistant professor can be undifferentiated but must be appointed to a career track by the end of their third year. Therefore the maximum period that a junior faculty member can hold an undifferentiated appointment is five years. Faculty members appointed to a senior professorial rank must be placed on a career track at the time of appointment.

Junior faculty appointments (instructor, assistant professor) will have five years during which a track may be selected and a track switch can be made; this five-year grace period may include both undifferentiated time and time on track. After five years of appointment no track switch will be permitted.

Contributed service faculty members will be appointed to the clinician track. Part-time faculty members with clinical responsibility who are compensated in total from approved Medical School sources can be appointed to one of the four tracks. Part-time faculty members compensated from both external and school sources will be appointed to the clinician track.

Department chairs are responsible for recommending appointment of a faculty member to a career track and recommending a track switch.

Each academic track has a set of standards for the evaluation of promotion to the three professorial ranks. The standards by rank for the four tracks are contained in the Standards for Faculty Advancement section.

All faculty members on the investigator and investigator-clinician tracks will be eligible for tenure. The tenure probationary period for these faculty members at junior rank will be nine years and will commence at the time of appointment to the rank of assistant professor. In other words, upon selection of a tenure track, time previously spent as an undifferentiated assistant professor will count against the tenure clock. When indicated, faculty members can be recommended for tenure review before the ninth year. A faculty member denied tenure on early review can remain on faculty with the approval of the dean and can be recommended for tenure review one additional time before the end of his/her probationary period. The tenure probationary period for faculty members who are appointed at the rank of associate professor will be six years.

The rank of associate professor must be achieved to receive tenure, but promotion to associate professor can occur in the years prior to review for tenure. Failure to achieve tenure by the ninth year will result in a tenth and terminal year of appointment.

The process used to evaluate candidates for new appointments, promotion, and tenure has not been changed from the previous mechanism.