University Senate                                                                                             

Proposed: March 30, 2012

Adopted: By voice vote with no abstentions

RESOLUTION TO CHANGE ACADEMIC TITLES AND TRACKS

AT THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

WHEREAS      a committee of administrators and faculty has worked for more than two years on a plan to change academic tracks and titles at the Columbia University Medical Center, and

WHEREAS      the new proposed titles would simplify an arcane and often arbitrary system of “clinical” prefixes and suffixes by adding the title “at CUMC” to professorial titles for all full-time faculty members not on the tenure track, and

WHEREAS      the new proposed titles simplify an arcane and often arbitrary system of “clinical” prefixes and suffixes by adding the phrase “at the Columbia University Medical Center [or another affiliated institution]” to professorial titles for all full-time faculty members not on the tenure track, and

WHEREAS      the new system, for the first time, also delineates the criteria for promotion for non-tenure-track faculty engaged in the types of scholarly activities that are vital for a great medical center, including clinical practice, didactic teaching, population-based health care, and translational and basic science research; and

WHEREAS      the new system, unlike the current system, is more like faculty title systems in peer institutions;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED       that the Senate approve the CUMC proposal to change academic tracks and titles at the Medical Center;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED            that within three years of the adoption of this resolution, the Faculty Affairs Committee will participate in a review of the consequences of the proposed changes, will particular attention to the impact of the criteria for promotion, and 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the new system include a procedure for the review of faculty (at their request) who have not been promoted under the new criteria.

Proponent: Faculty Affairs Committee