The Boston University Faculty Handbook contains a description of the classification of faculty ranks and titles. That guide includes: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor; Instructor; the versions of these titles modified with the prefix Adjunct, Clinical, Emeritus, Research, or Visiting; and the versions modified with the suffix “of the Practice.” The guide also defines the standard Lecturer ranks: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Master Lecturer. The guide also provides the university-wide definition of Secondary Appointments. All College of Arts & Sciences faculty personnel policies are consistent with and elaborate on those definitions.
Additional CAS policies and procedures related to classification of ranks and titles are listed below.
- Tenure, Ranks, and Titles: In the College of Art & Sciences, all faculty appointed with unmodified professorial titles must be on the tenure track; only faculty with unmodified professorial titles may be on the tenure track.
- Secondary Faculty Appointments: CAS policies on secondary faculty appointments, including definitions of the three major types of secondary faculty appointments (full joint appointments, joint governance appointments, joint programmatic appointments) are listed in the chapter of the CAS Faculty and Staff Handbook under Faculty Personnel Policies in the chapter on Joint Appointments for Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty.
- Visiting (Assistant/Associate) Professors: In CAS appointments as “Visiting” faculty are typically not renewable.
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Further questions and clarifications should be addressed to the appropriate CAS Associate Dean of the Faculty or to the CAS Director of Faculty Actions.