V. Criteria for Full-Time Faculty Appointments

A. Evaluation Areas for Teaching-Track Appointments. Teaching-Track Appointments are expected to bring excellence in instruction to the classroom and service to the college.

Faculty members with Teaching-Track Appointments will be evaluated based on the performance and accomplishments in the areas of teaching-and teaching-related activity; and service to the College, profession and community (“Evaluation Areas for Teaching-Track Appointments”). The criteria for evaluating these areas are explicated below (Section V.C.). Faculty members with Teaching-Track Appointments are required to demonstrate evidence of teaching and curricular development, and service that has contributed significantly to the mission of the College.

In the evaluation area of service, faculty members with Teaching-Track Appointments should primarily make service contributions to the College. Service to the profession and community may be expected but must be agreed to in advance by the School Director and is not a complete substitution for service to the College. While faculty members with Teaching-Track Appointments may produce scholarly or creative work, such endeavors are not required as part of their evaluation.

Underlying the criteria articulated below is the College’s commitment to building and fostering an environment that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Therefore, the College particularly values a faculty member’s ability to demonstrate a commitment to these principles in the criteria for evaluation.

1. Criteria for Teaching-Track Appointments. The criteria for evaluating a full-time faculty member’s performance and accomplishments in the Evaluation Areas for Teaching-Track Appointments are listed below in the order of their importance.

a. Teaching and Teaching-Related Activity. Teaching means the skilled, effective, and knowledgeable presentation in the classroom of college-level subject matter. Such presentation requires thorough current knowledge and expertise in the relevant discipline and significant skills in the appropriate disciplinary pedagogy as shown by:
  • course and curricular design;
  • assignment design;
  • evaluation of student performance;
  • application of grading standards;
  • course management; and
  • thesis advising where appropriate.
In addition, teaching requires:
  • motivating students;
  • being available to students;
  • advising students about courses, the curriculum, college policies, and career prospects, and
  • being responsive to students’ cultural and personal circumstances, and how those affect them socially and academically.
Curricular development means the imaginative, efficient, and knowledgeable development and application of instructional standards, materials, and activities within Schools and, where appropriate, across disciplines. Such development and implementation require:
  • subject matter expertise;
  • adherence to learning objectives;
  • an appreciation of and sensitivity to the academic preparedness of the college’s students;
  • knowledge and application of relevant educational methods and technologies, and
  • a demonstrated commitment to student learning and student success.
b. Service to College, Profession, and Community. Service contributions to the College are those that involve substantive and constructive participation in standing and ad hoc committees, task forces, special appointments, projects, and events that support the School and College and improve its operations as an institution. Service to the profession involves leadership or significant contribution to educational or other relevant professional organizations. Service to the community is the contribution of professional expertise to one or more civic communities. Such services are especially worthy of notice when they are important to the communities they serve and, as a practical matter, available only through the services of Columbia College Chicago faculty members.

 

B. Evaluation Areas for Tenured Appointments. The grant of a Tenured Appointment is important both to the applicant and to the long-term academic quality and creative distinction of the College. As a consequence, the job security, employment protections, and institutional status conferred by this Statement on a faculty member with a Tenured Appointment (“Tenure Rights”) are appropriate and justified only when such an Appointment, given the applicant’s performance and accomplishments to date and the reasonable expectations as to the applicant’s performance and accomplishments in the future, constitutes as good a long-term appointment in the applicant’s area of expertise and creative endeavor as Columbia College Chicago is capable of making, then or in the
foreseeable future.

Tenure can and should be granted only when, in the Provost’s assessment, after completion of a process specified in Section XVII (Grant of Tenured Appointments), an applicant has demonstrated the potential to contribute significantly over the course of the applicant’s academic career to the mission of the College and its fundamental responsibilities of (1) teaching and teaching-related activity, (2) scholarly or creative endeavor, and (3) service to the College, profession, and community (“Evaluation Areas for Tenured Appointments”). Such a demonstration requires strong evidence of excellence in teaching and curricular development, professional distinction in creative endeavors and scholarship, and outstanding service that has contributed significantly to the mission of the College and the broader community.

During the Tenure-Track Period (as defined in Section XV.B. of this Statement), a faculty member with a Tenure-Track Appointment will be evaluated based on performance and accomplishments in the Evaluation Areas for Tenured Appointments. At the end of the Tenure-Track Period, a faculty member with a Tenure-Track Appointment must fully satisfy the criteria in the Evaluation Areas for Tenured Appointments.

Underlying the criteria articulated below is the College’s commitment to building and fostering an environment that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Therefore, the College particularly values a faculty member’s ability to demonstrate a commitment to these principles in the criteria for evaluation.

1. Criteria for Tenured Appointments. The criteria for evaluating a full-time faculty member’s performance and accomplishments in the Evaluation Areas for Tenured Appointments are listed below in the order of their importance.

a. Teaching and Teaching-Related Activity. Teaching means the skilled, effective, and knowledgeable presentation in the classroom of college-level subject matter. Such presentation requires thorough current knowledge and expertise in the relevant discipline and significant skills in the appropriate disciplinary pedagogy as shown by:
  • course and curricular design;
  • assignment design;
  • evaluation of student performance;
  • application of grading standards;
  • course management, and
  • thesis advising where appropriate.
In addition, teaching requires:
  • motivating students;
  • being available to students;
  • advising students about courses, the curriculum, college policies, and career prospects; and
  • being responsive to students’ cultural and personal circumstances, and how those affect them socially and academically.
Curricular development means the imaginative, efficient, and knowledgeable development and application of instructional standards, materials, and activities within Schools and, where appropriate, across disciplines. Such development and implementation require:
  • subject matter expertise;
  • adherence to learning objectives;
  • an appreciation of and sensitivity to the academic preparedness of the
    college’s students;
  • knowledge and application of relevant educational methods and
    technologies; and
  • a demonstrated commitment to student learning and student success.
b. Scholarly or Creative Endeavor. Sustained accomplishments recognized by professional peers as impactful and programmatic in nature in an area of scholarship or creative endeavor and evidence that this activity will continue.3
Examples of such accomplishments and recognition include:
  • scholarly work published in refereed and/or reputable journals or publications;
  • creative work presented, performed, or published in recognized and/or reputable media, outlets, or venues;
  • awards, honors, and grants issued by recognized, reputable, and/or refereed entities;
  • formal acknowledgment of achievements or distinction bestowed by recognized professional societies;
  • critical praise or citation by qualified peers in written reviews and evaluations of published works and public performances and exhibitions of the faculty member’s skills or creative production, and
  • distinguished editorial service provided to appropriate journals, newspapers, or other publications.
c. Service to College, Profession, and Community. Service contributions to the College are those that involve substantive and constructive participation in standing and ad hoc committees, task forces, special appointments, projects, and events that support the School and College and improve its operations as an institution. Service to the profession involves leadership or significant contribution to educational or other relevant professional organizations. Service to the community is the contribution of professional expertise to one or more civic communities. Such services are especially worthy of notice when they are important to the communities they serve and, as a practical matter, available only through the services of Columbia College Chicago faculty members.

 

C. School Criteria

1. Content. Because the evaluation criteria set forth in Section V.A. and V.B. are of necessity general, those criteria do not fully reflect the expectations that the College’s various Schools have of their faculty members with Provisional, Teaching-Track, Tenure-Track, and Tenured Appointments.

Therefore, each School of the College shall have a written statement that articulates with reasonable specificity the indices and standards that the School will use to evaluate whether a full-time faculty member has met the applicable general criteria set forth in Section V.A. and V.B. Each School’s written statement of such specific criteria (“School Criteria”) must both conform to the general criteria and go beyond them by making clear how the School will apply the general criteria in the context of its specific subject matter, programs, needs, and aspirations.

Each statement of School Criteria must specify the evidence necessary to document a faculty member’s performance and accomplishments in each of the applicable evaluation areas that a full-time faculty member should develop and preserve.

When School Criteria change, full-time faculty must conform future work to their School’s new statement.

2. Creation and Revision. Upon the formation or restructuring of a School, the Tenured faculty members to be assigned to the new School including the School Director, in consultation with the appropriate Dean of Faculty Affairs, shall develop the School Criteria.

A review of existing School Criteria may be initiated by the School, by the Dean of Faculty Affairs, or by the Provost, and at minimum will be conducted every five years. During a review, the Tenured members in the School including the School Director, in consultation with the Dean of Faculty Affairs, may consider and propose amendments.

3. Approval. To ensure that they conform to the general criteria in Section V.A. and V.B. and facilitate achievement of the objectives of this Statement, School Criteria will periodically be reviewed and approved by the Dean of Faculty Affairs, then Delivered (as defined in Section XXVIII.B.) to the Provost for review and final approval.

4. Distribution. At the commencement of a faculty member’s Provisional, Teaching-Track, or Tenure-Track Appointment, the School Director will meet with the faculty member and Deliver a copy of the statement of School Criteria. In the event of amendment of the School Criteria, the Office of the Provost will publish the amended School Criteria on the College’s intranet site. Additionally, the School will Deliver a copy of such amendment to each full-time faculty member in the School.

Link to Criteria

3 Faculty members at Columbia College Chicago pursue a broad and diverse range of academic and artistic interests and objectives. Each faculty member who is evaluated for a Tenured Appointment will be evaluated in light of the particular nature of the faculty member’s academic pursuits, distinction in that self-chosen area of professional involvement, and the relevance and importance of that area for the College and the School.