What is professor of practice

A university president has described professors of practice as "premier participant[s] in the education of students," but notwithstanding their crucial role in carrying out this fundamental activity, he proposes to deny them the procedural protections that the tenure system provides.

The AAUP has long held that all full-time teachers, irrespective of their titles, should either be tenured or probationary for tenure, except for those appointed under special circumstances for example, short-term replacements for faculty members who are on leave.

Following from this basic position, the AAUP has been sharply critical of full-time non-tenure-track appointments, pointing to the adverse effects of these appointments for individual faculty members, for students, for academic freedom, and for the academic profession as a whole.

The argument that non-tenure-track appointments endanger academic freedom is yet more compelling, however, when aimed at professors of practice. Some advocates of establishing professorships of practice have joined with recent critics of tenure to argue that the protection of tenure is appropriate only for research scholars and is unnecessary and inappropriate for those faculty members whose primary obligation is instruction.

This argument demeans instruction, especially in institutions where teaching is valued as more than the retelling of what is discovered through research.

Even the presentation of a subject that simply recounts what is widely accepted in an academic field of study may incur controversy at a particular time or in a particular locality.

More important, the argument fails to appreciate the need for teachers to be free to express themselves fully and frankly in the classroom.

Colleges and universities seek to instill in their students a mature independence of mind. Teachers guide students in learning, through instruction and example, how to think independently in order to form their own judgments.

Independence of thought is also a characteristic of the successful teacher in higher education. The student thus learns from the teacher, but the learning is diminished if the academic freedom of that teacher is not secure. Freedom in teaching, no less than freedom in research, suffers if faculty, subject to periodic review and serving in positions renewable indefinitely at the pleasure of the administration, fear losing their positions because their opinions are deemed too controversial.

Nor is the freedom of faculty to speak their minds without fear of reprisal limited to what they might say in the classroom. Their academic freedom encompasses the right to express opinions on all manner of issues having to do with their institution and its policies and practices.

Professors of practice are expected to be deeply engaged with students, colleagues, and administrators on a myriad of controversial educational issues, many of which will almost certainly arouse strong opinions. At the same time, professors of practice are necessarily beholden to others—senior tenured colleagues, department chairs, deans, provosts, or presidents—for continued appointment.

Because they serve indefinitely at the discretion of others, professors of practice might reasonably assume a stronger need than their tenured colleagues to be cautious in expressing their opinions. The safeguards of tenure are intended to reduce this threat to academic freedom.

We think it important to observe, however, that providing professors of practice with the opportunity to participate meaningfully in institutional governance carries its own limitations.

On the one hand, the faculty's voice, including the voice of those faculty who are not eligible for tenure, should be heard across the range of issues that bear on its responsibilities for teaching and research. The request for approval should contain a position description for professors of the practice and a rationale for such positions based on the professional training needs of the program.

Units that use lecturers also should address how the duties and qualifications of professors of the practice are distinct from those of lecturers. Units that intend to use the full range of professor of the practice ranks should outline the qualifications for appointment at each rank. A record of significant professional achievement as a practitioner is a requirement even for appointment at the assistant professor of the practice rank.

Recruitment and Appointment Process: The recruitment and appointment process for professors of the practice should follow standard procedures for non-tenure track faculty searches. Job Codes: Job codes vary based upon the level and rank of the position and whether the position includes any administrative duties in addition to teaching and service responsibilities. Length of appointment: Initial appointments to professor of the practice positions will be for a fixed term not to exceed a period of three years, with the provision that a professor of the practice position does not lead to tenure or a tenure-track position.

FTE: Appointments may be either part-time or full-time as required by the needs of the unit. Eligibility for merit: Professors of the practice on multi-term appointments are eligible to receive merit salary increases based on the outcome of annual evaluations.

Reappointment: There is no automatic renewal of a professor of the practice appointment at the end of the limited term period. Additional limited term appointments of up to three years may be offered by the University depending upon satisfactory comprehensive evaluations at the end of each appointment period.

Non-reappointment during an appointment period: Professors of the practice may be dismissed for poor performance, misconduct, budgetary reasons, program changes, enrollment declines, or because a unit determines that the position would be better filled by another individual. The termination of employment may occur prior to the end date of the limited term appointment. As non-tenure track, limited term faculty appointments, the University and Board of Regents regulations on advance notice of non-reappointment do not apply and the non-reappointment or dismissal is not appealable.

Professor of the practice positions that are funded either partially or fully by external sources such as grants and contracts will be designated as contingent on funding and will end immediately upon loss of external funding. Substitutions of required degree requirements may only be approved by the Vice Provost for Faculty Development.

Vice Provost for Faculty Development provost ku. Request Previous Policy Version. Skip to main content. While teaching at Cornell, Center has created several very well-received electives based on his many years of experience in the petroleum industry. He has also been the lead teacher in the senior capstone course on plant design for CBE students.

Together with industry veterans Alan Feitelberg, Muqtadar Quraishi and Simon Coulson, Center shares his insights with senior CBE students as they work their way through design projects that require them to consolidate and apply three-years-worth of learning from their core ChemE classes.

When Glass was a student at Cornell, Center was retired from the petroleum company Caltex and had just recently joined the Cornell Engineering teaching faculty. Really, it is part of how we solve the global energy problem. She listened to what he had to say and today Glass is a fractionation technology group head for ExxonMobil. Marjolein van der Meulen, the James M. These faculty have expertise and experiences that the majority of our faculty do not and that are extremely relevant to our students who intend to continue to industrial careers.

Van der Muelen and the Meinig School jumped at the chance to hire a professor of practice and scooped up Newton de Faria in De Faria brings 20 years of industrial experience at National Instruments to his positions as professor of practice and M. In addition to his professional qualifications, Newton is a high energy, engaging and creative individual. We are pleased to have him here. And he is pleased to be here. But then some friends told me about the posting and the more I looked at the description, the more attractive the position became.

There are so many good people here. I saw the chance for a twenty-year career here doing the things I love to do and I took it. De Faria sees many ways his experience in industry can be put to use at Cornell.

The course is for M. As I have designed this course, I have been able to bring in so much of what I learned while working in industry. De Faria acted as their advisor as they pitched their idea for a device that would streamline the bacterial culturing process from 48 hours to under ten minutes.

He contacts firms who make and market biomedical devices and he explores the possibilities for BME M.