Title Descriptions
Professor
Professors (job code 1100, also called “Full Professors”) should have the terminal degree appropriate to their field or its equivalent, and; (a) a record that, taken as a whole, may be judged to be excellent; (b) a record significant contribution to graduate and/or undergraduate education, unless individual or departmental circumstances can be shown to require a strong emphasis, or singular focus, on one or the other; and (c) a record since receiving tenure or promotion to Associate Professor that includes substantial, significant, and continued growth, development, and accomplishment in teaching, research/creative work, and service.
Associate Professor
Associate professors (job code 1102) should have the terminal degree appropriate to their field or its equivalent, considerable successful teaching experience and promising accomplishment in scholarship or in research. Normally the award of tenure accompanies appointment to or promotion to associate professor, except at the School of Medicine, where tenure may be granted at any point in the faculty member's career when he/she meets the school’s standards for tenure.
Assistant Professor
Assistant professors (job code 1103) appointed to tenure track positions should have the terminal degree appropriate to their field or its equivalent, plus some teaching experience. They should be well-qualified to teach at the undergraduate or graduate levels and possess qualifications for research or scholarship in a special field or clinical discipline.
Conferral of PhD
If the hire is contingent upon conferral of PhD, proof needs to be submitted to the Office of Faculty Affairs no later than 30 days prior to the start date of their appointment. If PhD requirements are not met in time, the appointment will be at the rank of Instructor with a reduced compensation amount and the faculty member will be allowed up to two academic years to complete PhD. The appointment will then be converted to the rank of assistant professor at the beginning of the semester after the one in which the requirements for PhD are met and the compensation will be adjusted at the same time.
Teaching Limitations
Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty may teach one additional course per semester above the standard teaching expectation for their department, including courses taught on all CU campuses and through Continuing Education with one exception; self-paced courses taught through Continuing Education do not count against teaching limits. Full-time faculty members holding chair and associate chair appointments are not eligible for overloads.
Benefits Eligibility
Tenured and tenure-track faculty with 50% appointments or greater are eligible for benefits, including retirement benefits, and are eligible for leave as outlined on the Sabbatical, Leave and Fellowship page of the College's website.
Background Checks
Per the Background Check Policy found on the University of Colorado website, a background check must be conducted at reappointment or promotion review if a background check has not been processed within three years. The college interprets this to mean that if the background check was passed more than three years prior to the start of the reappointment period, the instructor must undergo a criminal background check at time of offer letter for the reappointment.
Note: The standard progressions from assistant professor to associate professor to full professor are not considered to be "promotions" and are exempt from the background check requirement every three years after initial hire.
The date in which the most recent background check was processed is found in HCM in Personal Information on the "CU Personal Data" tab.
Campus Human Resources Recruitment Team will handle all background checks for hires within Avature. To ensure this happens, when you have identified a finalist, notify your recruitment coordinator by advancing the candidate to the "Offer Accepted" step in the portal/Avature.
Moving Expense Reimbursement
The standard moving expense funding, provided by the college, is $6,000, which will be transferred by the college to the unit. This funding will be available to the faculty member after their effective start date. For more information, please visit the Moving Expense Policy.
Signing Bonus
The College of Arts of Sciences will allow individual units (departments) to offer a pre-tax signing bonus to potential tenured and tenure-track faculty members rostered in their units, under the following guidelines:
- The budget for the signing bonus must reside completely within unrestricted Gift Fund accounts within the rostering department and must be an allowable expense according to the terms of the original fund agreement(s).
- The College of Arts and Sciences will not contribute budget (funds) to any signing bonus.
- If the candidate accepts the bonus but resigns from or fails to be reappointed at CU Boulder before five years elapse from their original start date, they will be required to repay the bonus remainder at that time, proportioned such that 20% of the signing bonus is forgiven for each full year completed by candidate.
Tenure Clock Delay Option for Spring Hires
When a tenure-track faculty member begins in the spring semester , they can request that their tenure clock be delayed by one semester, per the Boulder Campus Policy pertaining to Adjustments to the Tenure Clock. For example, for a start date of January 6, 2020, by filling out the request to delay tenure clock, the tenure clock would then start in Fall 2020, moving comprehensive review to academic year 2023-24 and tenure review to academic year 2026-27. However, it is mandatory (per the Office of Faculty Affairs) that the initial offer letter dates are not altered, but rather follow the standard template.
To request a tenure clock delay, the faculty member completes the Tenure Clock Addendum before the end of their first semester of employment. Once department-level signatures are obtained, unit to submit to the faculty affairs manager via email for further processing.
Record Retention
Please see the Campus Controller’s Office website for your responsibilities to retain documents.
Reviewed 26 January 2024