XIII. Special Provisions in regard to Faculty Status

A. The Proportion of the Faculty Holding Tenure. The College takes seriously the commitment to a member of the Faculty when a tenured appointment is made; it also takes seriously the concerns that are frequently expressed when the proportion of the Faculty holding tenure appears to limit the College’s ability to alter, to modify, or to change academic programs when good reasons are presented for such changes. By action of the Board of Trustees the President and the Vice President for Academic Affairs are to present annually an accounting of the current profile of the Faculty, including the proportion of the Faculty holding tenure, and to present a projection of the Faculty cohort over the next five years, showing anticipated changes due to non-reappointment, tenure contracts awarded, and expected retirements.

B. Policy on the Replacement of Faculty Recruited to Administrative Positions. The expertise and experience of senior members of the Rhodes faculty can make them attractive candidates for administrative positions at the College, and their work in administration provides valuable service to the College. When the administrative appointment of a faculty member results in the loss of some teaching capacity to an academic department, that department should routinely be allowed to hire replacement faculty, on a term basis, to cover the courses lost. If the administrative duties of the faculty member are likely to extend over several years, a term appointment of three years or more may be justified. However, because administrative positions are not lifetime appointments, and because the length of an administrative appointment may be difficult to define or predict at the outset, replacement hires for faculty serving in administration will not be tenurable. 

The College may consider an exception to this general policy under certain circumstances. If a faculty member has served in an administrative position for a period of not less than four years, and if all parties expect her or his administrative appointment to continue indefinitely, her or his home academic department may apply for the creation of a tenure-track position to replace that colleague. Such applications should be made only if the department can demonstrate that there is a special need for a tenure-track or tenured faculty member in this position. These applications should be submitted according to the regular process for requesting new faculty positions.