17 September 2024
TO: Unit chairs
FROM: The Committee on Appointments and Promotions (CAP)
RE: Principles for requesting visiting lines
The college has a goal of using visiting faculty as sparingly as possible, since visitors are unable to build long-term connections with students in the same way as tenure-line faculty and cannot be expected to contribute to the service work of the unit and the college. Nevertheless, the need for a visitor may arise when for some reason the unit is unable to mount its curriculum with the faculty that are in residence or the unit is facing significant enrollment pressures in its course offerings.
Such needs arise most often due to the leave (sabbatical, other professional work, or family/medical) or departure of a tenure-line faculty member. When possible, units should endeavor to cover sabbatical leaves with existing faculty. Units are encouraged to plan ahead, and if delaying or advancing a sabbatical of a tenured faculty member would allow a unit to avoid needing to request a visitor, the chair should consult with the Dean of the Faculty about implementing such a plan.
In some cases, however, particularly for small units or units with curricula involving a high level of teaching specialization among the faculty, even planning ahead is not sufficient to cover the courses the unit needs to offer to mount its curriculum when a member of the unit goes on leave. When such a need is projected to arise, the unit should include a request for a visiting position in its Staffing Report, Part 1 for consideration by the CAP. Such requests are due by April 15 for permission to search in the next year with a start date of the following July 1.
Especially as the size of the faculty is not growing, the resources the college can devote to faculty hiring are finite. Thus when considering requests, the CAP uses the following criteria to determine how to allocate the pool of visitor lines among them:
- A visitor is needed to enable the unit to mount its curriculum.
- Top priority is given to the most urgent need of ensuring that students who have already begun the major or concentration can complete it.
- The CAP will also consider whether without the requested visitor, students would be limited in their ability to make timely progress through each track of the major/concentration.
- Another important consideration is whether the unit is facing substantial enrollment pressures that are hampering students’ ability to take courses they need for their major/concentration.
- Though innovative use of visitors that both satisfy an existing need and offer the possibility of new curricular directions is welcome, lasting curricular changes should follow the usual process which involves curricular review by the Committee on Educational Affairs (and approval by the faculty) as well as by the CAP for staffing implications.
A unit can make a request to hire a visitor at times other than during the annual cycle when an urgent need arises unexpectedly, such as when a faculty member is going on previously unplanned leave for professional or family/medical reasons. Such “off-cycle” requests are considered using the same criteria as for requests made by the deadline. However, as the CAP allocates most of the visitor pool during the cyclical request process, only urgent, unexpected requests may be accommodated off-cycle. Such requests should clearly outline the need, why it has arisen unexpectedly, and how the request meets the criteria outlined above.
There are a few notable exceptions to these general principles:
- One is for distinguished visiting lines that are either connected to a particular unit (e.g. the Margaret Bundy Scott Professorship in English) or that have a selection committee (e.g., the Croghan Bicentennial Professorship in Biblical and Early Christian Studies). These lines do not need to be requested annually, but units planning to hire for such a line should follow the usual timeline for hiring visitors, and such lines are included in the Staffing Report, Part 1.
- Another exception is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships and Bolin Fellowships. Ideally, Mellon postdocs should be requested during the Staffing Report, Part 1 process, but if an opportunity arises unexpectedly a request may be made to the CAP off-cycle. The Bolin Fellowship has its own call for participation made directly to unit chairs.
- Finally, visiting positions may sometimes be offered as part of an effort to attract or retain a tenure-line faculty member.