About the Office of Faculty Affairs

Faculty Advancement & Recognition

Faculty Affairs oversees the processes through which faculty advance through their career life-cycle. These include:

• Faculty Hiring Cycle: facilitates and supports a streamlined faculty hiring cycle
• Promotion & Tenure and Sabbatical Leave: oversees and monitors compliance with the university policies for faculty promotion and tenure and sabbatical leaves; leads the UCPT and UCSL processes
• Distinguished Professor selection and recognition: leads the UCDP process and hosts the Distinguished Professor lecture series
• University Teaching Awards: facilitates the faculty awards and recognition process, including the nomination process and selection committees
• Scholarly, research, service and collaborative awards: facilitates university teaching and service awards, professorships and fellowships; and supports nominations for external research awards

Faculty Relations & Policy

Faculty Affairs is responsible for developing policy and administering approval processes to ensure compliance with work expectations and conditions. These include:

• Approvals: provides final approvals in various processes that include external activity reporting, workplace leave, differential allocations, and additional pay
• Policy: oversees the integration of policy with the faculty role, engaging with policy development, review, interpretation, education, implementation, and adherence.
• Governance: collaborates with governance on topics that intersect with the faculty role; serves in an ex-officio status on designated committees
• Academic labor relations: provides strategic oversight and responsibility for ensuring academic labor relations align with institutional goals and support faculty success. The VPFA and OFA have responsibility for campus education and training about academic labor relations, contract-related policy tracking and revisions, ensuring alignment of faculty-related processes with the contract, collective bargaining, and maintaining productive relationships with union representatives.

Faculty Development & Growth

Faculty Affairs provides faculty and academic staff with the tools and opportunities needed to succeed and flourish at all stages in their careers. This includes:

• New Faculty Orientation: welcomes new faculty to KU, providing an introduction to offices, resources, and contacts integral to jumpstarting their career at KU
• Early Career Foundation Series: workshops and "how-tos" that connect early-career faculty to campus resources and enriches their professional development as they navigate early-career milestones 
• Faculty Learning Circles: small group, interactive learning experiences that foster connections and collective wisdom on specific topics; designed and facilitated by faculty members with a passion for and knowledge on the topic
• Senior Administrative Fellows: a 9-month leadership development program for faculty (competitively selected) in which they explore the landscape of higher education, learn more about KU and university leadership, and develop personal leadership skills
• Associate Deans, Chairs and Directors Programming: comprehensive KU leadership programming which includes a two-day orientation for those new to leadership roles and day-long workshops plus monthly programming focused on topics such as policy, mentorship, university updates, crucial communication skill development, and more
• KU Faculty Development Academies Week: taking place the week after finals every spring, delivering one-day workshops to provide professional development “deep dives” from KU experts