Duties
The Associate Chair for Faculty (ACF) assists the Department Chair in supporting the professional development and success of tenure track and specialized faculty members, including postdoctoral faculty. Areas of responsibility include mentoring programs, grant and award opportunities and some aspects of annual reviews and evaluations, as described in more detail below. The Associate Chair for Faculty for 2021-2024 is Professor Richard Laugesen.
Tenure system faculty
- Administer the research and teaching mentoring programs for Assistant Professors.
- Suggest opportunities for professional recognition and research support to Assistant and Associate Professors.
- Support the Department Chair in the preparation of faculty nominations for prestigious appointments, named scholar appointments, national and international academy memberships, prizes and awards.
- Organize information sessions for faculty members, in collaboration with the departmental Business Manager, on grant opportunities, proposal writing, grant administration, etc.
Specialized faculty
- Coordinate the mentoring program for specialized faculty (which has yet to be developed).
Postdocs
- Coordinate the mentoring assignments for postdocs.
- Inform postdocs about career development resources for academia, industry and government.
Other duties
- Attend meetings of the Executive Committee occasionally to report on faculty related matters.
- Liaise regularly with the Promotion and Tenure Committee and the Personnel Committee for Specialized Faculty to inform them of mentoring arrangements and other relevant information and gain perspective on the priorities and procedures of those committees.
- Assist the Chair on current departmental priority issues related to faculty affairs.
The ACF fulfils mentoring and faculty support roles and so should not perform evaluative functions in regard to annual reviews, third year reviews and promotion cases. In particular, the ACF should not serve on the Executive Committee or Promotion and Tenure Committee, but may serve on hiring search committees.