Faculty Roles and Expectations

For personnel actions through June 30, 2026, the current Faculty Roles and Expectations remains in effect.

Published March 1, 2026
Effective AY27 (Fall 2026)

PREAMBLE

Faculty Roles and Expectations, revised in 2026, provides university-level articulation of Montclair’s values and priorities for its excellent faculty. Montclair’s faculty are diverse in discipline, responsibilities, and career stage and trajectory. Thus, these criteria are capacious, designed to provide broad guidance to faculty and to those responsible for review and evaluation. More granular and specific guidance is provided at the college, school, and department levels through individual feedback and/or criteria that are disseminated locally.

Faculty are referred to the Local Selected Procedures Agreement Section 3.14 Local Guidelines for Appointment, Retention and Tenure of Teaching Faculty for information concerning Montclair’s personnel action processes and procedures, to the chart of “Required and Supplemental Documents: Tenure, Reappointment, Promotion, and Sabbatical Leave  (Updated 7/27/23)”.

WEIGHTING

For Tenure-Track Faculty, reappointment, tenure, and promotion decisions will be guided by a weighting of 40% Teaching, 40% Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities, and 20% Service, with adjustments as appropriate for individual roles and responsibilities.

For Teaching Faculty,  reappointment and promotion decisions will be guided by a weighting of  80% Teaching and 20% Service, with adjustments as appropriate for individual roles and responsibilities.

Some activities may span teaching, scholarship, and/or service. Faculty are encouraged to illustrate their activities, accomplishments, and impacts within and across these categories, as applicable, by crafting a comprehensive and thoughtful narrative accompanied by evidence as part of their submission.

TEACHING

Teaching is an essential activity of the University faculty, and all faculty are expected to achieve excellence in teaching as demonstrated by student outcomes, both in individual courses and in their academic programs. At Montclair, we embrace the principle that all students who choose Montclair can learn and succeed in their field of study, and that faculty are critical to forging the path from intention to realization. At Montclair, we integrate effective teaching with measurable student development and competencies to focus on the ultimate goal of teaching: developing and graduating life-long learners. Montclair recognizes and values faculty work in teaching at every level, in every modality, through mentoring students, and in work with students in laboratories, in clinical and applied settings, and in real and virtual classrooms.

Principles for Teaching

Excellence in teaching for student success requires:

• Clear course design that is learner-focused with engaging activities and assessments that enable students to grow competencies and achieve learning goals.
• Pedagogical strategies that support learning for all students through innovation and attention to changes in our students and the context in which they learn, work, and live.
• Inclusion of diverse perspectives that engage all learners for intellectual growth.
• Attention to the accessibility of pedagogical strategies and course materials, including intentional and innovative use of learning technologies to enhance interaction, collaboration, and student flourishing.
• Continual self-reflection, innovation, and ongoing learning of the science and art of teaching as it occurs within an ever-changing context.
• Attention to and incorporation of disciplinary and interdisciplinary developments, emerging skill expectations, and adaptability that fosters self-directed, life-long learners.

Assessing Teaching

Faculty will cultivate teaching excellence throughout their careers by engaging in ongoing professional development, continuous individual growth, and contributing increasingly to the advancement of both students and colleagues.

• Assistant-rank faculty will focus on demonstrably achieving excellence in teaching and developing and adapting their practice to meet the needs of Montclair students; further, they will contribute their expertise to improve courses, curricula, or pedagogy.
• Associate-rank faculty will continue to adapt and respond to innovations in their discipline, collaborating with colleagues and contributing to their department or school’s efforts to improve instructional excellence, such as mentoring early career and adjunct faculty, and/or program or curriculum development.
• Faculty at the highest rank will engage in the activities of associate-rank faculty and demonstrate leadership, internally and/or externally, in improving instruction to align with the institutional and disciplinary priorities.

As chosen by the candidate, evidence of teaching excellence may include, but is in no way limited to, the following examples of supplemental materials:

• Syllabi, assignments, activities, assessments, and other materials that demonstrate the application of teaching principles.
• Assessment rubrics and systems that demonstrate methods for supporting student understanding of their learning.
• Surveys, university or instructor-designed, and assignments that are used to gain knowledge of student perspectives and their needs.
• Student assessments of their own metacognitive development.
• Peer reviews of teaching.
• Analytics that demonstrate student engagement and success in learning outcomes.
• Participation in workshops or programs of study to develop new teaching competencies.
• Engagement with mentoring and supporting adjunct and early career faculty’s development as teachers.
• Evidence of increased student interest and engagement in courses and/or disciplines taught.
• Evidence of continued attention and responsiveness to students’ experience of the faculty member’s instruction over the years.
• Evidence of leadership in teaching at the department, school, college, university, or professional level.

RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP, AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

Research, scholarship, and creative activities are essential to the University. The following definition is intentionally broad to allow faculty to engage in a variety of both traditional and innovative activities, including discipline-based, interdisciplinary, community-engaged and/or public-facing scholarship, formal inquiry, or creative expression that generates, expands, enhances, or applies knowledge or creative works, and is demonstrably impactful. While each discipline has norms that will guide faculty in their activities, venues for dissemination, evaluative metrics, and criteria, scholars must demonstrate a scholarly agenda that has a clear direction and a record of increasing impact.  The University’s mission as a public-serving institution that advances the common good inspires us to develop or co-develop sustainable solutions to the critical social, technical, cultural, environmental, and other complex issues facing communities.

Principles for  Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities
Faculty are expected to:

• Initiate and lead original research, scholarship, or creative activities.
• Demonstrate rigor, originality, critical insight, and scholarly integrity.
• Produce work that is disseminated and undergoes external validation in rigorous, field-appropriate venues to demonstrate meaningful impact within a community.
• Clearly articulate the nature of their work and document its significance, outcomes, and impacts, including how their work advances the field and/or benefits society.

Assessing Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities

Faculty will build an increasingly impactful portfolio that contributes to the advancement of their field or discipline.

• Assistant-rank faculty will work toward intellectual independence, establishing an original and cohesive scholarly/creative agenda, disseminating their work in venues as appropriate to the field, and showing potential for continuing and impactful contributions to the field. While collaboration is highly valued, the expansion of work beyond that developed under previous mentors is expected.
• Associate-rank faculty will demonstrate increasingly novel and impactful, independent scholarly/creative production to build the substantial body of work required for full professor.
• Faculty at the highest rank will have generated a substantial body of scholarly/creative work that impacts the field on a national or international scale and/or drives measurable, significant change in practice.
• Faculty at all career stages are encouraged to engage the next generation of scholars as appropriate to the field.

As chosen by the candidate, evidence of robust scholarship and a faculty member’s stature within their field at each career stage may include, but is not limited to, the following examples of supplemental materials:

• Peer reviewed publications, book chapters, or books in venues deemed appropriate and rigorous by the professional community.
• Presentations at professional conferences, symposia, or meetings.
• Pursuit and receipt of external funding in support of scholarship.
• Receipt of competitive national fellowships or professional awards that recognize scholarship.
• Exhibitions and performances in venues deemed appropriate and rigorous by the professional community.
• Projects whose outcomes demonstrably advance the public good, often through reciprocal partnerships with community stakeholders.

Evidence of impactful scholarship may include that the body of work:

• Is highly cited by the professional community in rigorous peer-reviewed venues.
• Is externally validated in respected venues that recognize excellence in the faculty’s domain.
• Informs public discourse, public policy, and/or organizational change.
• Strengthens instruction and may drive the development of new curricula that enhance student success and professional preparedness.
• Leads to patents, inventions, or new products and services.
• Leads to election to respected organizations and societies that recognize excellence in the field.
• Leads to awards and/or honors granted by professional societies, government agencies, and industry.

While generally more appropriate as demonstration of service, certain invited service activities (for example, invitation to serve as editor of a journal) may be seen as recognition of the impact of a faculty member’s research, scholarship, or creative activities.

SERVICE

Faculty service is the foundation upon which effective shared governance is nurtured at the University, and thus service is an essential activity, one integral to connecting colleges and programs across the University as well as to the external community.  All faculty members are expected to engage in activities at the department, college, school, and university levels that contribute substantially to the institution’s mission. Additionally, faculty are expected to provide professional expertise; contributing their expertise to relevant issues and activities at the University and/or in regional, state, national, or international organizations; and/or to deliberations about important regional, state, and national issues. Throughout their career, faculty should seek opportunities to increase the value of their engagement and contribution, and thereby their impact.

Principles for Service

In alignment with the University’s mission, excellence in service requires:

• Contributions to the University community, whether on the student, department, program, college, or university level.
• Contributions to the larger community and profession.
• Continuous engagement as a perennial expectation, with increased impact throughout a faculty member’s career.

Assessing Service

Faculty will cultivate service excellence, seeking to increase their impact over the course of their careers.

• Assistant-rank faculty will build their service portfolio by engaging in activities that enhance their understanding of and contributions to the work of the university, such as student success, shared governance, and academic program vitality. They should also explore professional service roles in their discipline and/or public or community service.
• Associate-rank faculty will continue to engage in activities of early career faculty, taking on leadership roles or otherwise increasing their level of responsibility and therefore impact.
• Faculty at the highest rank will have demonstrated a commitment to service, with a track record of continuing and impactful leadership, whether it is through catalyzing valued change at the university, in the professions, or in communities.

As chosen by the candidate, evidence of impactful service may include, but is not limited to, the following examples of supplemental materials:

• Department, college, or university-wide committees.
• Participation in co-curricular student-focused and directed activities.
• Representation of the academic unit at externally facing/focused events.
• Participation in student recruitment and community engagement activities.
• Faculty and adjunct instructor mentoring.
• Course and program development, review, and design and redesign.
• Academic, professional, or governmental service through committees, reviews, consultancies, and/or editorial activities.
• Participation on editorial boards and grant agency review panels.
• Service in organizing or reviewing submissions for meetings and conferences organized by professional organizations.
• Service to other academic institutions and/or accrediting organizations.
• Serving on external advisory boards of regional, state, national, or international organizations.
• Service to the community and professional organizations.