Published: Dec. 11, 2023

Under two newly approved Administrative Policy Statements (APS) and a new state provision, CU Boulder faculty members who specialize in teaching will have new teaching professor titles (APS 5060). Additionally, CU Boulder can now award a five-year contract as the maximum multi-year appointment for specialized faculty on the teaching and clinical tracks (APS 5053). 

“The campus’s key guiding principle for both these changes is to promote consistent practices regarding titles and contract lengths for teaching and clinical faculty across colleges/schools,” said Michele Moses, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for faculty affairs. 

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Key provisions of APS 5060

The key provisions of CU Boulder’s implementation of APS 5060 are: 

  • Recent changes in APS 5060 outline new faculty titles, including for the Teaching Professor series and Instructor series.
  • CU Boulder faculty members who specialize in teaching will have new faculty titles from the Teaching Professor series: 
    • Assistant Teaching Professor 
    • Associate Teaching Professor 
    • Teaching Professor 
  • All current teaching-track faculty will be automatically converted to these faculty titles once the associated job codes are created by the CU System administration. 
  • CU Boulder will no longer use the Instructor series of faculty titles to avoid creating additional tiers or hierarchies of specialized teaching faculty.
  • CU Boulder will not use the new Senior Lecturer (APS 5060) title as the lecturer position; by job code definition, it is temporary, short in duration and not a career track.  

Key provisions of APS 5053

The key provisions of CU Boulder’s implementation of APS 5053 are: 

  • Recent changes in APS 5053 are intended to reflect the state law amendment that permits multi-year contracts of up to five years for teaching/clinical-track faculty. CU Boulder deans will have the option of awarding a five-year contract at the time of a faculty member’s next reappointment or promotion. The five-year contract is to be used as a mechanism to reward the best teaching-track faculty; they are not to be used for new hires.
  • Contract length changes will not be made midstream of a faculty member’s current contract. 
  • At CU Boulder, the offer of one-year or multi-year contracts for a teaching/clinical-track faculty member will be based on various factors including (but not limited to) seniority, merit, performance and unit teaching needs. 
  • Expedited review for reappointment will not be available for those on five-year contracts, in alignment with the parallel requirement that tenured faculty go through a full post-tenure review every five years. 

Moses said the campus will receive further guidance on instructor titles as they are implemented by the CU system for the campuses. 

The Office of Faculty Affairs is available to assist with any additional questions at facultyaffairs@colorado.edu

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