Southeastern Louisiana University - Faculty Comprehensive Standard 3.7.1

Table 1
Full Time Faculty Holding Terminal Degrees
Fall 2003

	Total	Total with Terminal Degrees
Full Time Faculty	499	312 (62.5%)
Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty	288	274 (95.1%)

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment

For potential faculty not meeting the SACS credentialing guidelines, the University “also considers competence, effectiveness, and capacity, including, as appropriate, undergraduate and graduate degrees, related work experiences in the field, professional licensure and certifications, honors and awards, continuous documented excellence in teaching, or other demonstrated competencies and achievements that contribute to effective teaching and student learning outcomes.” Any exceptions to the guidelines are carefully reviewed as outlined in the hiring process described below.

The Faculty Hiring Process
The SACS criteria relating to faculty qualifications must be fully considered by the Search Committee and Department Heads when seeking to fill instructional positions at any level. The criteria are widely distributed, being posted on the Human Resources website and the Provost's web page and referred to in specific documentation that guides the hiring process. This documentation includes specific provisions for the hiring of:

Full-time faculty at all ranks – Checklist for Hiring New Faculty (Tenure Track and Instructors) and Procedures for Hiring Faculty
Lecturers (part-time faculty) – Checklist for Hiring Part-time Faculty (Lecturers – New or Rehire) and Procedures for Hiring Lecturers
Graduate assistant teaching fellows – Graduate Assistant Hiring Procedures and Graduate Assistant Handbook, Part III Section A (see pages 2-3)

The faculty hiring process is more fully described in Comprehensive Standard 3.2.9.

Graduate Teaching Fellows
In general, Southeastern Louisiana University employs very few graduate assistants for the purpose of teaching. Graduate teaching fellows are those graduate assistants who are instructors of record for a particular course section and who are responsible for the teaching and learning process and for the assessment of students. The standards for their qualifications are also given in the Graduate Assistant Handbook, Part III Section A and Part IV, Section K, as well as in the hiring procedures documents mentioned above. It should be noted that teaching assistants are not primary instructors and are not held to the same hiring standards as teaching fellows. Teaching assistants are under the supervision of a faculty member who serves as the instructor of record and who has responsibility for the course and the assessment of students. Teaching assistants generally take roll, grade papers, and conduct tutoring or discussion sessions. They may also assist in laboratory preparation and monitoring.

As shown in Table 2, the following departments hired graduate teaching fellows in the 2003-2004 Academic Year:

Table 2
Graduate Teaching Fellows
Employed in the 2003-2004 Academic Year

Fall 2003	No.	Spring 2004	No.
Biological Sciences	2	Biological Sciences	1
English	1	Chemistry & Physics	1
Foreign Languages & Literatures	1	English	1
		Foreign Languages & Literatures	1
		History & Political Science	1
Total	4		5

Office of Human Resources

Departments hiring a graduate teaching fellow must complete a recommendation of employment form. When the Graduate School office receives the form, the Graduate Dean consults with the department head to ensure that the graduate teaching fellow meets all of the criteria. In addition, he/she must meet the English Proficiency requirements. Departments assign a faculty member to serve as mentor/supervisor for the graduate teaching fellow. Graduate teaching fellows teach only freshman/sophomore level courses.

Accountability Checks on Faculty Qualifications
Southeastern has several procedural requirements which serve as internal accountability checks, thereby ensuring adherence to faculty standards for qualifications. These include completing employment forms, requiring all original transcripts to verify coursework and degrees, verifying degrees earned with the issuing universities, and providing a mechanism for requesting, approving, and documenting exceptions to the basic qualifications.

All faculty and graduate teaching fellow recommendation for employment forms have a checkbox in which the hiring department head must indicate that the individual meets SACS qualifications. The forms are submitted to Human Resources with transcripts and reviewed at the Human Resources level to ensure compliance.

In order to verify the credentials of all prospective faculty at the time of hire, Southeastern's policy is that all candidates for faculty positions at the University must present official and original transcripts. Degrees earned are confirmed by having the Search Committee or the Budget Unit Head verify via phone confirmation with the issuing institutions that the transcripts presented are indeed original.

If a department wishes to hire a faculty member who does not meet the basic requirements of the appropriate degree and/or graduate coursework in the discipline, the department head must submit an exceptions request via a memo to the respective dean and to the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, who is also the University's SACS liaison. The memo must explain why the department believes the faculty candidate is qualified, citing exceptional work experience, prior teaching experience, research, awards, or accomplishments. A resume and transcripts must be sent with the memo. The credentials are reviewed and a decision made as to whether the exception is justified. Quite often an exception may be granted with the restriction that teaching be limited to a specific course or course level. The Faculty Credentials Database lists all faculty credentials and also shows exceptions made for 2003 – 2004 with an explanation for each exception.

Southeastern publishes the credentials of its faculty in its General Catalogue. Southeastern Louisiana University accepts full responsibility for justifying and documenting the qualifications of all faculty members. To that end, official transcripts for all faculty members are kept on file with the Human Resource Office.