UDTS ATS Accreditation 2024

Standard 8: Faculty

• Standard 8: Faculty

  • 8. Faculty: Theological schools are communities of faith and learning dependent upon a qualified, supported, and effective faculty of sufficient size and diversity to achieve schools’ educational missions and support student learning and formation. Faculty responsibilities, composition, and qualifications are clearly defined and appropriate to graduate theological education. Faculty are supported and provided ongoing opportunities for professional development. Faculty roles in teaching and learning, scholarship, and service are clear and consistent with schools’ missions and are fulfilled effectively by the faculty.
    
    Comment: See Faculty Handbook: 1.3.5, 1.4.3, 1.4.4, 2.9
    

  • Faculty Responsibilities, Composition, and Qualifications

  • 8.1 The responsibilities of the faculty are clearly defined and appropriate to graduate theological education. A key ongoing responsibility for the faculty as a whole is to design, implement, evaluate, and improve the school’s educational programs in collaboration with other appropriate parties. Faculty meet collectively and regularly to discuss and implement that curricular responsibility.
    

    Comment: Faculty Handbook 2.9, minutes of faculty meetings.  ATS suggests that  "Schools that are embedded in other institutions might describe the relationship between the school's faculty and the faculty and governance structures of the other institutions, including curricular oversight and assessment."  To the best of my knowledge this is not written down anywhere.  Perhaps we might consider a "Manual of Operations" which address such things.

  • 8.2 The composition of the faculty is sufficient in number and diversity—demographically and educationally—to achieve the school’s mission, in light of the number and nature of its degree programs, the size and composition of its student body, and the scope of its theological commitments. Faculty classifications (e.g., full-time/part-time, tenured/non-tenured, ranked/non-ranked, etc.) are clear, fair to those faculty affected, consistently applied, and appropriate to the school’s mission, context, and academic offerings. The school has a stable core of faculty.
    

    Comment: Faculty Handbook 2.1 and 2.3.  We need to generate a list of the seminary faculty including rank, graduate school attended, length of time, teaching field, full/part time status, and administrative rules. For degrees with specializations we need to note which faculty teach in those specializations. We need to determine "core faculty" (defined as those who teach at least 1/2 of their load in the "graduate school of theology." 

  • 8.3 The qualifications of the faculty are appropriate to graduate theological education, typically demonstrated through each faculty member having an appropriate doctorate and relevant professional/ecclesial/denominational experience. Any school employing faculty without a doctorate documents that such faculty have suitable qualifications. All core faculty (with their names and qualifications) are published in a readily accessible location.
    

    Comment: Faculty Handbook 2.1. , we need narratives of recent faculty hiring or promotion, a link to website page  listing seminary faculty and qualifications, and a file of updated CVs of all faculty with graduate degree transcripts.

  • 

    Faculty CV Submissions Assignment

    View Make a submission
  • 

    UDTS Fac/Staff List URL
  • Faculty Support and Development

  • 8.4 The school supports faculty (whether full-time or part-time) in a variety of ways, including adequate compensation, appropriate workload, suitable working conditions, and sufficient support services.
    

    Faculty Handbook 2.11 and 2.15. Need comparison data of our faculty compensation with peer ATS schools for full-time and part-time faculty. Faculty workload (teaching, advising, administration) need to be articulated. Note faculty longevity.

  • 8.5 The school has and consistently follows fair and ethical policies and procedures for recruiting, appointing, caring for, evaluating, promoting, and, when necessary, dismissing faculty. All policies and procedures concerning these matters are published in a faculty handbook or similar document that is regularly reviewed and updated as needed.
    

    Comment: Faculty Handbook 2.5, 2.6, 2.84. Note when Faculty Handbook was last updated and changes incorporated.  ATS was informed of the change in handbook in 2015 (?) so might just nod to that. Could note process for recent hires and promotions (or cite 8.3).

  • 8.6 The school supports and safeguards freedom of inquiry for faculty with policies and procedures that are consistent with the mission and theological commitments of the school. Those policies and procedures are clearly published, consistently followed, regularly reviewed, and updated as needed.
    

    Comment: Faculty Handbook 2.9.3.1, 2.9.4, 2.9.5.  Any examples of how these policies have been enacted, reviewed, updated?

  • 8.7 The school provides ongoing opportunities and sufficient funds for faculty to develop professionally in ways consistent with the school’s mission and needs, with the changing nature of graduate theological education, and with assigned faculty responsibilities—both ongoing and new. Faculty development opportunities are regularly budgeted and implemented, clearly communicated, and systematically evaluated.
    

    Comment:  Faculty Handbook 2.10.  List of those who have received research leaves or release time (including events such as Wabash Center etc.)since 2014 and the results of these leaves. Note use of IAC funds for faculty development. Has this policy been "systematically evaluated" since 2014? Note training and resources in online education.

  • Faculty Roles in Teaching and Learning, Scholarship, and Service

  • 8.8 The faculty role in teaching and learning includes faculty sharing their expertise with students, using effective pedagogies, being available to students, providing regular and prompt feedback to students, respecting and engaging the diversities that students bring to their educational experiences, and enhancing students’ capacities to serve in a religiously diverse, multicultural, and globally interconnected world.
    

    Comment: Faculty Handbook: 2.9.1.2, 2.9.1.5., 2.11. Discuss teaching load, course evaluations and faculty consideration of evaluations (list or minutes of such events), discuss responsibilities of faculty outside teaching, and aspects of courses that address "religiously diverse, multicultural, and globally connected world."

  • 8.9 The faculty role in scholarship encompasses faculty staying current in their fields, engaging in research appropriate to their responsibilities, presenting their findings in ways consistent with their disciplines and the school’s constituencies, and participating in professional activities germane to their work. The school supports faculty in their scholarship and has clear and consistent policies and practices on its expectations for faculty scholarship, including how that is evaluated.
    

    Faculty handbook 2.9.1.3, 2.10. Discuss standards for promotion related to publishing, participation in guilds or scholarly meetings, and ecclesiastical meetings. Create a list of all faculty publications and presentations (scholarly and ecclesiastical) in the last five years.

  • 

    Faculty Scholarship Submissions Assignment

    View Make a submission
  • 8.10 The faculty role in service covers a wide range of activities, consistent with the school’s mission and with faculty members’ interests and capacities. Whatever service role faculty play, that role is clearly defined, adequately supported, regularly evaluated, and adjusted as needed.
    

    Faculty Handbook: 2.9.1.4.  Describe internal and external service expectations.  List faculty service (internal and external) in last five years..

  • 8.11 Faculty roles in these three areas, as well as other roles to which faculty are called, are viewed holistically and are understood to be interrelated in support of the mission, ethos, and values of the school. Expectations for faculty roles are clearly defined and are aligned with the school’s practices for continuation or promotion. When roles are differentiated, such as for administrative faculty, the school provides clear expectations and appropriate support. Recognizing the particular and changing landscape of theological education, the school attends to the individual and collective vocations of theological faculty.
    

    Comment: Summarize findings from above, noting annual evaluations and any appointment, promotion, or tenure decisions. Summarize the various efforts of the faculty in developing programs in response to the changing landscape of theological education and in support of the mission  since 2014.

  • ---

    Additional Evidence