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Secondary Appointments Guidelines

Tenure-stream faculty in the College of Arts & Science may be considered for secondary appointments in departments other than their own primary department. (Note that secondary appointments are rare for continuing-track faculty and require a special rationale.) These non-tenure-track appointments are made in support of an individual’s substantial and ongoing academic collaboration with that department beyond routine collegial interactions. Secondary appointments do not provide rights to participate in any personnel actions, regardless of rank (T, TT, CT).

All requests for secondary appointments must be reviewed and approved by the chair of the primary department and the Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs.

When a faculty member is considered for a secondary appointment in another department or school, the following steps are necessary:

  1. The unit where the secondary appointment is to be made requests the appointment using a REDCap form. They will be asked to indicate the length of the term; three years is generally the maximum, but a secondary appointment term cannot extend past the end of a primary appointment term. (Note that the Dean’s Office does not notify the faculty member or the primary or secondary unit when the secondary appointment expires. Secondary appointments should be tracked by the secondary unit and renewed, if desired, when they expire.)
  2. There are three types of secondary appointments:
    1. General secondary appointment: recognizes the individual’s substantial and ongoing academic collaboration with that department beyond routine collegial interactions.
    2. Secondary with teaching obligations to the secondary unit: usually defined as two courses over three years and is approved and arranged in consultation with both units.
    3. Secondary with limited voting rights: limited voting rights include curricular and programmatic matters.
  3. The chair/director of the primary unit and the chair/director of the unit where the secondary appointment is to be made must both approve the appointment via REDCap. Further instructions on how to properly send the REDCap survey to others for approval are listed at the top of the REDCap survey.  
  4. The request then goes to the Dean’s Office for approval. Once approved, a letter is issued to the faculty member. Once the letter is signed, the chairs/directors of the primary and secondary units will receive a signed copy. This is done automatically through REDCap.