Faculty Ranks

The Statutes of the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University defines the faculty as follows: "the university faculty" consists of "the chancellor, all professors, associate professors, and assistant professors, and those instructors on continuing appointment" (III.3.A). The Statutes go on to define the "faculty of each college, division, or school" as consisting of "professors, associate professors, assistant professors, those instructors on continuing appointment, and such other members of the university academic staff as that faculty itself shall determine" (III.4.C.1). The Statutes also address the graduate faculty, whose composition "shall be determined by that faculty as a continuing body. Ex-officio members of . . . [the] graduate faculty include the chancellor and the chief administrative officers for academic affairs, colleges, schools, and the library" (III.5.B).

Another definition of the faculty appears in the Operating Paper of the Faculty Senate and is the one used by that body for determining who is eligible to vote in Faculty Senate elections and to serve on the Faculty Senate. According to that definition, the faculty consists of all appointees to the ranks of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, assistant instructor, and lecturer. Research, visiting, adjunct, and clinical categories are also considered faculty, provided they hold at least a 51percent appointment through Academic Affairs or the School of Medicine.

Faculty Ranks

The following is a list of authorized ranks for faculty in Academic Affairs. An individual responsible for teaching a credit course must have a faculty appointment.

Faculty Ranks and Degree Requirement

*** In those instances where the doctor's degree is specified, other appropriate terminal degree maybe acceptable depending on the discipline.

** The rank and title of distinguished professor shall be bestowed only upon a tenured full professor whose scholarly or creative contributions, or whose professional accomplishments (other than service to professional organizations), have had such great impact upon the academic discipline he or she represents as to set that person apart from most other senior professors in that discipline in the eyes of scholars in this country and abroad.

* Service in these ranks does not count toward permanent tenure. The full-time appointment of any faculty member in which the word "visiting" precedes the academic rank may not exceed 2 years unless the position is funded from external grant money or the position is budgeted from state-appropriated funds that result from cost recovery operations, such as the Military Programs.

NOTE: No student in a graduate degree program shall be appointed to any full-time position in the department (or equivalent unit) in which he or she is a student, with the sole exception that a student who has already been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree may be granted a term appointment as a lecturer in the unit in which he or she is a student. Such a term appointment shall not be renewable beyond a period of one year.