2.2 Faculty Ranks

2.2.1 Instructor

An instructor holds the Masters degree or equivalent academic and/or professional qualifications and gives promise of excellent teaching. Instructors do not receive probationary appointments; therefore, time spent in this rank is not counted as part of the probationary period for tenure.

2.2.2 Assistant Professor

An assistant professor normally holds the terminal degree in the discipline or field and gives promise of excellent teaching and scholarship.

2.2.3 Associate Professor

An associate professor must have met the University's established criteria for the measurement of excellence in teaching; have made significant contributions to scholarship in ways appropriate to the discipline or field; and have participated actively in the life of the University; or in the case of new appointees, must have demonstrated equivalent qualifications which give reasonable assurance that the aforementioned requirements will be prospectively realized.

2.2.4 Professor

A professor must continue to be an excellent teacher; have achieved a nationally recognized position within the field of specialization or the profession at large, as documented by the quality of publications or by other indices appropriate to the discipline; and continue to participate significantly in the life of the University; or in the case of new appointees, must have demonstrated equivalent qualifications which give reasonable assurance that the aforementioned requirements will be prospectively realized.

2.2.5 University Professors

From time to time the University will encounter opportunities to appoint to its faculty men and women of unusually great stature and eminence from the world of national and international achievement. The rank of university professor is reserved for such eminent individuals.

Since the value of these individuals to the University's academic community transcends the boundaries of departments, colleges, schools, and institutes, university professors are appointed as at-large members of the General Faculty. At the discretion of local or collegiate unit faculties, however, university professors may be invited to accept primary affiliation in one or more departments, colleges, schools, and/or institutes. University professors invariably hold tenured appointments. They are appointed by the President and the Board of Visitors with the advice and consent of an ad hoc faculty committee of the President's own choosing.

2.2.6 Emeritus Status

Upon retirement from George Mason University, tenured associate professors and professors with ten or more years of service may be recommended for the rank of Emeritus. Recommendations for this honor are normally initiated by the individual's peer faculty and forwarded to the Board of Visitors like other faculty personnel matters, i.e., with accompanying recommendations from the local unit administrator, the dean, the Provost and the President.

2.2.7 Affiliate Faculty

Individuals not on the University payroll who assume significant responsibility for research, clinical or field activities or who perform other services for academic programs, can be designated affiliate faculty with an appropriate academic rank. Appointments of affiliate faculty are recommended by the faculty of the local academic unit or program and by the local unit administrator or program director, and must be approved by the Provost.

2.2.8 Administrators Holding Faculty Rank

Academic administrators holding faculty rank normally hold tenured faculty appointments and primary affiliation in one or more local academic units. If hired from outside the University, they will qualify for such appointments in accordance with the criteria and procedures described in Sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2. During the course of their administrative employment they retain their seniority and return rights within the units in which they hold primary affiliation, and they enjoy all rights and responsibilities associated with their faculty status. They are, for example, eligible for promotion, when applicable, subject to the criteria and procedures described in Sections 2.8 and 2.9.