Operating Procedures for Lecturer Appointments

These procedures supplement the policy on Terms and Conditions of Employment of Lecturers (VI.F.4). Refer to the policy for contact information and applicable definitions.

Effective Date: August 1, 2019

New Appointments    

Lecturer: All new appointments to the Lecturer staff must be made using an offer letter, which requires approval by the President, or designee.

Limited-term Lecturer: All new appointments to the Limited-term Lecturer staff must be made using an offer letter, which requires approval by the President, or designee. The begin date and the end date of the appointment must be set forth in the offer letter.

Refer to the Provost’s website for offer letter templates.

REVIEW AND PROMOTION of Lecturers

Ranks

Two ranks will be available to Lecturers: lecturer and senior lecturer. General criteria for the two ranks are outlined below.

Lecturer

1. Previous teaching experience
2. Appropriate degree in the area

Senior Lecturer

1. Substantial and successful teaching experience
2. Other considerations specific to the college, school or department. Examples include: designing or revising courses, participating in the design of curricula, and training or supervision of other lecturers and/or teaching assistants

Units that employ Lecturers must determine, communicate, and manage their own specific criteria for promotion from lecturer to senior lecturer.

Promotion and Merit Review

Lecturers will be reviewed comprehensively for promotion consideration at least every five years of their employment. These reviews will be conducted by the unit head along with a committee assembled by the head and consisting of:

1. the unit’s associate head for teaching and learning (or equivalent),
2. one or more faculty with teaching responsibilities in the same general area as the Lecturer, and
3. one or more senior lecturers (if not available in the unit, recruited for this purpose from another unit with similar teaching responsibilities).

Lecturers will collaborate with their unit leadership to prepare a full curriculum vitae and a document that summarizes their duties and accomplishments; these together will serve as the basis of the review. The focus of the document is on teaching responsibilities and performance, which will be assessed in a holistic manner. Thus, where relevant, the document will present, and the review process will consider, not only classes taught and evaluations, but also mentoring, advising, and curricular or pedagogical innovation. No single indicator should be used as the sole sign of excellence. In particular, care should be exercised in using standardized scores on student evaluations to compare Lecturers to each other, as bias in these scores is well documented.

Decisions to promote or retain in rank are based on this review and the unit’s criteria. Senior lecturers will continue to be reviewed comprehensively at least every five years. 

All lecturers and senior lecturers must also be reviewed annually as part of the merit process in the same fashion as other staff and faculty, allowing for performance-based salary increases within their rank.

ReAppointment

Lecturer: Lecturer appointments must be renewed each academic year by the Board of Trustees' approval of the annual operating budget for Purdue University or by approval of the President, or designee. Contract extension documents are not normally required unless the current contract included an end date.

Limited-term Lecturer: If the Limited-term Lecturer appointment is being renewed, a contract extension document is required for each semester the University employs the Limited-term Lecturer (exception: renewal for a summer session that is preceded by a spring session appointment does not require a new contract extension document, but an offer letter is required to outline the duties for the summer). 

Non-Renewal of Appointment

Lecturer: If the University does not intend to continue the appointment of a Lecturer, written notice of this intention will be given via the appropriate university document on non-renewal of contract. The University will give the written notice to the Lecturer at least one academic semester before the end of the current appointment. For purposes of this notice, summer session is not considered an academic semester.

Limited-term Lecturer: Limited-term Lecturer contracts are made for one semester at a time. No further notice is required.

Transfers from a Non-benefits-eligible position

In the case where a person is in a non-benefits-eligible position and transfers to a Lecturer position of at least half time, only service after appointment to a Lecturer position will be considered when determining eligibility for University benefits including, but not limited to, calculating the waiting period of any benefit program. Where a staff member transfers to a Lecturer position from another benefit-eligible position, the service period will include time in the prior position.

History and Updates

August 1, 2019: These procedures were updated and separated from the policy on Terms and Conditions of Employment of Lecturers (VI.F.4).