Faculty Competence and the Faculty Roster FAQs

1. What is the Faculty Roster?

The Faculty Roster is a SACSCOC required report, listing all credit courses taught for the review period, the instructor, the instructor's credentials and additional justifications. It is used by the SACSCOC off-site review team to check the instructor credentials for every teaching assignment for the period.

The Faculty Roster will be generated from the FDB.

The period for UK's 2013 reaffirmation is fall 2010 through fall 2012

2. What is the definition of "faculty of record?"

For SACSCOC credentialing purposes, the individual designated by the college as responsible for the course including assigning the grade is the faculty of record. For team based courses, the team coordinator will serve in this role.

3. Who is included in the Faculty Roster?

All instructors who regularly help deliver a credit bearing course or are considered part of a faculty team. These individuals are entered in SLCM.

EXCEPTION: Faculty, staff, or visitors who serve as guest lecturers for a class do not have to be listed.

4. What is the definition of a guest lecturer?

A Guest Lecturer is an individual invited to contribute to delivering a course due to her/his specialized expertise in an area essential to the course and student learning outcomes. Guest lecturers can be internal or external to the educational unit. A Guest Lecturer is different from an individual who is part of a team-based course where team members participate fully in the design, delivery and assessment of the course.

5. Who should be listed as instructor in SLCM for dissertation and thesis research courses?

The committee chair or co-chairs should be listed as instructor in SLCM.

6. Who should be listed as instructor in SLCM for independent study courses?

The actual person that the enrolled student is working with should be listed as instructor in SLCM

7. Are voluntary faculty (preceptors, community based faculty) included in the faculty roster?

Do not include voluntary faculty who serve as supervisors in clinical settings, since they are not the faculty of record.

EXCEPTION: include voluntary instructors who are the faculty of record of credit bearing courses, such as instructors of ROTC courses.

8. Are graduate teaching assistants included in the Faculty Roster?

Teaching assistants who are autonomously responsible for the course must be included. These include those TAs assigned type 1 on the TA contract.

9. Are graduate teaching assistants who teach sub-sections such as labs, discussion groups, or recitations included in the Faculty Roster?

TAs teaching sub-section activities that are linked to a lecture, are not included if a faculty member is teaching the lecture activity.

10. Are instructors of "UK" prefix courses included in the Faculty Roster?

Yes. "UK" prefix courses are credit bearing and so the instructor is included in the Faculty Roster.

11. Do all instructors of credit bearing courses require an academic appointment?

Yes, see policy at http://www.uky.edu/Provost/APFA/Policy_Protocol/ "Contract period and appointment for part-time faculty policy."

EXCEPTION: individuals teaching “UK” prefix courses.

12. Are professional staff members who teach courses with the "UK" prefix entered in the Faculty database?

Yes. These individuals are entered as "Non-faculty Instructors" in order to be included in the Faculty Roster.

13. If a faculty member is teaching a course in a department different than the academic home unit, is a joint appointment required in the other department?

No, a joint (or secondary) appointment establishes a long term relationship between the unit and the faculty person. The regulations do not require units to extend joint appointments before they have faculty from other units teach their courses.

14. What degrees must be entered in the Faculty Database?

All degrees starting with the bachelor's must be entered. Post doctoral fellowships and residencies must be entered. In-progress degrees must be entered and status changed when the degree is completed.

EXCEPTION: individuals teaching "UK" prefix courses, only the master's degree is required entry.

15. Is it sufficient to obtain the transcript of the highest degree, or is a transcript required for all degrees?

Transcripts must be obtained for all degrees that are necessary to document faculty credentials for teaching credit bearing courses.

16. Do all transcripts need to be official, or can the bachelor's and master's be a copy or unofficial, as long as we have the official transcript of the terminal degree?

Yes, all transcripts must be official.

17. Is it necessary to obtain transcripts for instructors who taught in the review period, but are no longer with the university or no longer teaching the course?

Yes, it is necessary to obtain all transcripts for the review period, even for instructors of "UK" prefix courses.

18. When entering graduate credit hours in lieu of the terminal degree or master's degree in the discipline, is it sufficient to identify the minimum 18 graduate credit hours to meet the standard?

Yes, 18 hours is required, but colleges are encouraged to enter all that are relevant to the teaching assignment.

19. When entering graduate credit hours for instructors, is it necessary to list the course numbers and course titles?

Yes. Otherwise, it is left to the reviewer to try and make that determination. This will cause two things: reviewer frustration and the wrong determination, both leading to a finding of non-compliance.

20. Is it necessary to enter degrees for Teaching Assistants?

Yes. For TAs in a primary or type 1 teaching role the bachelor's and master's degrees (or appropriate graduate credit hours) must be entered.

Official transcripts must be obtained as well.

21. How is the "terminal degree" determined in the Faculty Database?

A degree is terminal if it is the highest degree available in the field, as follows:

1. In disciplines where research doctorates such as the Ph.D. and Ed.D. are available, then these are the "terminal degrees."

2. In professional disciplines where there is a professional practice doctorate, such as the D.M.D., D.P.T., J.D., M.D., and Pharm.D, these are the "terminal degrees;" however, in some cases the most advanced level of training occurs with post-doctoral residencies, internships or fellowships that the FDB also recognizes as a "terminal degree" for credentialing purposes.

3. For those few programs where the focus of the degree is practice, such as social work, and a professional practice doctorate is not available, the faculty can determine the "terminal degree" with a justification.

22. How can a college justify using master's level faculty if they have the terminal "practice-oriented" degree?

Colleges may establish a policy that a master's degree (the MSW for example) is the terminal degree for practice oriented programs. Each program must provide a rationale for their policy that is driven by their accreditation agency's standards, our benchmark's, or other best practices in their field. The rationale must be submitted to and approved by Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Heidi Anderson.

23. Are licensures, certifications, or other credentials required entry in the Faculty Database?

Yes, if it is related to justifying the faculty credentials required to teach a credit bearing course.

In other words, if the individual has the appropriate terminal degree and further justification is not required then entry of the license is not required.

24. Which courses are included in the Faculty Roster?

All credit bearing courses must be included.

This includes independent study, dissertation and master's thesis research courses, "UK" prefix courses, and ROTC courses.

25. What is meant by "course settings" within the Faculty Database?

Course settings are 3 attributes assigned to courses within the FDB to control how a course is listed in the Faculty Roster and how the "Warning" status is evaluated for instructor assignments.

The three settings are:

• Sub-Topic Course
• Sub-Topics Vary by Discipline
• Highly Specialized / Advanced Topic Course

26. What are "sub-topic" courses and how are they handled in the Faculty Roster?

Any course with a course title suggesting that course content will vary by section and/or be highly specialized by section will receive close scrutiny by SACSCOC reviewers who are very savvy about this type of programming. Therefore, certification of compliance must occur at the section level, rather than the course level, for the following types of courses: All Courses that indicate a sub-title is required: noted by SR, SRD, SUBT REQ, UNCLASSIFIED, TO BE ASSIGNED, VAR TOP, VARIABLE TOPS, TITLE TO BE ASSIGNED.

In the FDB, when this setting is checked:

• The course will be listed by section in the FDB and Faculty Roster
• If justifications are required, then justifications are entered by section

27. What is controlled by the "sub-topics vary by discipline" setting?

This setting is applicable only for sub-topic courses and controls whether discipline CIP codes are assigned to each section or at the course level.

28. What are "highly specialized/ advanced topic" courses?

These are courses where the subject matter is highly specialized or advanced such that the terminal degree by itself is not sufficient evidence of qualifications. An example is course w/content related to an emerging field in the discipline, such that recent research and publications provide the most defensible evidence of expertise.

29. How are cross-listed courses handled in the Faculty Database and the Faculty Roster?

The cross-listed course will appear in the FDB and will be reported in the Faculty Roster under the different course numbers as listed in SLCM.

For purposes of this discussion and within the FDB:

"Offered-by" units are the units that share a cross-listed course.
"Controlling" units are the units or unit that controls the schedule, instructor assignments and other matters related to the cross-listed course.

• The cross-listed course may have one or many controlling units. In other words, one unit could control all the course numbers, or some of the course numbers.
• For each course number, the controlling unit may change from semester to semester.
• The controlling unit is not designated in the SLCM system.
• In the FDB, for each course number, the offered-by unit is initially designated as the controlling unit.
• In the FDB, the course number appears on the list of the controlling unit and therefore the controlling unit is responsible for assigning discipline CIP codes, for clearing warnings, and for entering justifications.
• In the FDB, a user in the controlling unit may change the controlling unit for the cross-listed course number. The cross-listed course number will then appear in the other unit's list.

30. Do the course settings assigned to a cross-listed course need to match for the different course numbers?

Yes, since system behavior is controlled by these settings, the settings for all course numbers must correspond. The Faculty Database will keep the course setting synchronized and will alert the user when changing the settings on a course number for a cross-listed course.

31. Do the CIP codes assigned to a cross-listed course need to match for the different course numbers?

No, as long as the assignments are valid and defensible, it is not necessary for the units to coordinate.

32. When are additional qualifications or justifications needed?

Justifications are required whenever the reviewer may have the perception that there is not a good match between the discipline of the course content and the faculty degree credentials.

Within the FDB, warning messages generated by matching course CIP codes with faculty degree CIP alert the departments to teaching assignments where there may not be a good match.

In addition, courses with the setting “highly specialized or advanced content “ will automatically prompt the department to provide additional justification.

33. What should be included in a justification?

The institution 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.

34. If publications are the primary additional qualification, how many publications should be listed?

List at least 3 publications in the last 5 years that are relevant to the course content.

35. Are CVs required for SACSCOC ?

Yes, complete, up-to-date C.V.'s are required for SACSCOC . C.V.'s will be produced from Digital Measures as PDF or collected as PDF documents from all instructors included on the Faculty Roster. This process will be initiated in Fall 2011.

This requirement also includes TA and professional staff.

36. What information in Digital Measures (DM) will be used for SACSCOC reaffirmation?

Colleges currently using DM may choose to generate the faculty CV from DM as long as the complete history is available. Otherwise, data from DM will not be used.