Promotion Guidelines Lecturer to Senior Lecturer

College of Liberal Arts
September 2019

The College of Liberal Arts (CLA) employs Lecturers to fulfill a variety of teaching and administrative needs. Department/School Heads work with the Dean of Liberal Arts on the specific assignments for Lecturers, with the standard load across the College for full-time being four classes per semester. This assignment may be reduced with the Dean’s approval to account for teaching large-lecture classes, extra engagement expectations or holding administrative duties.

In 2019, the University established a two-tiered promotion system for Lecturers. The University Operating Procedures for Lecturer Appointments which supplements the policy on Terms and Conditions of Employment of Lecturers (VI.F.4), states that there are two ranks: Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. General University 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

Note that research should not be a promotion criterium, due to the nature of the Lecturer position as one that concentrates primarily on teaching. At the same time, some Lecturers conduct research, and it is acknowledged that these projects often impact teaching positively. Relatedly, because a PhD is not required for Lecturers upon hire, a doctoral degree should not be a criterium for promotion to Senior Lecturer.

The University procedures state that Lecturers will be reviewed comprehensively for promotion consideration at least every five years of their employment. These reviews and any subsequent recommendation to the Dean will be conducted by the Department/School Head along with a committee assembled by the Head and consisting of:

  1. The Department/School’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
  3. One or more Senior Lecturers (if not available in the Department/School, recruited for this purpose from another Department/School with similar teaching responsibilities).

Lecturers will collaborate with their Department/School 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.

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.

To better understand each candidate and provide a fair evaluation, CLA has developed College-sensitive guidelines regarding criteria for each rank to inform the promotion evaluation discussion. Decisions to promote or retain in rank are based on a comprehensive review including the University criteria, the CLA guidelines, and the individual Department’s/School’s criteria.

Note that in general, Lecturers will be employed at Purdue for five years before being considered for promotion to Senior Lecturer; however, experience level upon hire in addition to outstanding job performance at Purdue may accelerate that typical timeline.

A Lecturer is primarily responsible for the teaching and related duties (e.g., grading, office hours) of assigned courses and accomplishes the following:

  • Regularly engaged in course tailoring and revision of assigned courses
  • Achieves satisfactory teaching evaluations and student feedback
  • Writes letters of recommendation for students, as applicable

There is no requirement for additional duties or responsibilities. However, upon mutual agreement and on occasion Lecturers may perform additional duties or have additional responsibilities, which may or may not be considered within standard teaching load.

Beyond consideration of successful time in service, Lecturers may be considered for promotion to Senior Lecturer if they take on substantial administrative and leadership roles within their Department or School. Promotion to this rank is based on successful demonstration of some but not necessarily all of the following:

  • Responsible for both the teaching and related duties (e.g., grading, office hours) of assigned courses and significant ongoing administrative or service duties
  • Student Feedback – evaluations and feedback from students are satisfactory and provide evidence of utilizing high-quality pedagogy

  • Course Design/Revision – new course design and/or significant revision of courses and implementation of design/revision to advance learning mission of CLA, Department or School
    • Participation in IMPACT
    • Honors courses or contracts
    • Learning Community
    • Service Learning
    • Study Abroad
    • Independent Study
    • Distance courses

  • Course Resource Development
    • Authors/co-authors a textbook that is adopted for a course
    • Authors teacher’s manual(s) or textbook companion
    • Develops assignments and grading rubrics
    • Develops and shares lesson plans

  • Course Coordination – oversight of a multi-section course
    • Trains, supervises, mentors teaching assistants and/or other instructors
    • Provides course materials (e.g., syllabi, schedules, assignments, quizzes/exams)
    • Provides technological support to other instructors
  • Extra-Curricular Student Mentoring
    • Advises a student organization
    • Involved in recruitment
    • Developing and managing internships
    • Independent studies and work with undergraduate students on research
  • Professional Development
    • Seeks out continuing education/professional development in field/course area and works to implement best practices
    • Participates and/or presents at pedagogy conferences
  • Awards and honors
    • Teaching awards
    • University grants achieved
    • Other grant applications/awards
  • Professional service to the Department/School, University, Community
    • Volunteers professional expertise to community organizations, marginalized populations, etc.
    • Serves on Department/School committees (e.g., undergraduate committee, search committee)

In addition, each Department/School within CLA is charged by the University with determining, communicating, and managing their own specific criteria for promotion from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer.