Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission SCOF
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The Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission ("SCOF") oversees and advises SEC on matters relating to the University's policies and procedures concerning the academic mission, including the structure of the academic staff, the tenure system, faculty appointments and promotions, faculty research, and faculty governance. In general, the Committee deals with the matters covered by the following sections of the University's Handbook for Faculty and Academic Administrators: I.E.-F., H.2., II.A.-D.
Specific Charges, 2020-2021
- Assess and evaluate ways to change University structures, practices, and biases (at the University, school, departmental, and individual levels) that perpetuate systemic racism as they apply to the committee’s general charge.
- Facilitate the changes identified in the previous charge.
- Review and comment on the level and quality of departmental, school and University support for faculty to ensure that the best possible online education can be delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Develop best practices for decision making across schools, including for hiring and promotion, with emphasis on inclusivity across ranks and tracks.
- Identify voting practices across departments and schools to determine who votes on what issues and why.
- Review voting practices to ensure that those practices cannot be used to discriminate against junior faculty.
- Monitor the extent to which departments and schools are articulating standards of engaged scholarship.
- Recommend ways in which broader impacts of engaged scholarship are recognized and rewarded in the promotion and compensation process. Collect best practices for setting up guidelines for evaluating faculty activities.
- Consider any matters affecting faculty size, appointments and tracks brought to the committee by individual schools.
SCOF 2020-2021 Membership
- Ariana Chao (Nursing)
- Eric Clemons (Wharton)
- Chenoa Flippen (SAS/Sociology)
- Ani Nenkova (SEAS/CIS), CHAIR
- Rebecka Peebles (PSOM/Pediatrics)
- Alexander Reiter (Vet Medicine)
- Bruce Shenker (Dental Medicine)
- Julia Ticona (Annenberg)
- Ex officio:
- Roger Allen (SAS/NELC), PASEF non-voting representative
- William Braham (Weitzman Design), Senate Chair-Elect
- Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Annenberg), Senate Chair
Guidelines for Faculty Track Change Requests from Schools
For schools wishing to amend the faculty tracks laid out in the Faculty Handbook, the above Guidelines (approved by the Faculty Senate in 2011) must be followed for purposes of the Senate's review. Any supporting documentatoin, including records of approvals in School faculty meetings, should be routed to the Office of the Provost, which then relays the information to the Senate together with a cover letter indicating the Office's position on the proposal.
The documentation is then reviewed by the Senate Committee on Faculty and the Academic Mission (SCOF), which will reach out to the School with questions or clarification requests. SCOF meets monthly between September and April. Upon approval by SCOF, it is then reviewed by the Senate Executive Committee (SEC). Upon SEC approval, the Senate's review of the proposal is concluded.
