SUBJECT: PROCEDURES FOR SELECTION OF REGENTS PROFESSORS AND                                            COMPLIANCE WITH TERMS OF AWARD

APPLICABILITY: FACULTY

The purpose of the Regents Professorship award is two-fold:

1. To provide recognition and salary support for individuals currently at the rank of professor who have performed outstanding teaching, research or both.

2. To provide teaching in appropriate introductory courses of the discipline by outstanding faculty.

The award consists of the designation "regents professor," and a continuing salary supplement of not less than $5,500 per year to the nine-month salary base. Up to 10 awards may be made per year with the restriction that no more than 25 percent of those at the rank of professor can hold the designation "regents professor" at any one time.

To be eligible for this award, an individual must:

1. Be a tenured professor.

2. Have a distinguished record of teaching, research or both.

3. Give evidence of the potential for continuation of distinguished service.

4. Be a full-time faculty member not on administrative appointment.

Selection Procedure

Nominations for the regents professor award shall be submitted by departmental or school Personnel Affairs Committees to their school or college dean for approval or disapproval. The nominations should be the result of the committees' annual evaluations of faculty merit. School or college nominations shall be forwarded by the school or college dean to the provost and vice president for academic affairs for consideration. Final nominations for the awards shall be submitted to the Regents by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, acting on the recommendation of a Regents Professor Selection and Review Committee consisting of six tenured faculty members serving staggered three year terms. Three committee members shall be selected by the Faculty Senate and three by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. At least one half of the committee members shall be currently active regents professors. The Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs (or an official designant) shall serve as chair of the Regents Professor Selection and Review Committee.

Teaching Duties

All regents professors shall teach at least one course or the equivalent in individual instruction each semester. Furthermore, they shall devote at least half of each biennium's teaching workload to appropriate introductory level courses as determined by the teaching needs of their academic units. The remainder of the regents professors' workloads shall be adjusted to best utilize the recipient's expertise.

A regents professor on full-time paid leave is exempt from the workload requirements for the duration of the leave. If partial faculty responsibilities continue, the workload requirement shall apply. A newly selected regents professor, due to existing scheduling commitments, may defer compliance with the workload requirements for the first year of the appointment. If a regents professor is named to an administrative position, the designation of regents professor and accompanying salary supplement shall be suspended for the duration of the administrative appointment.

Review of Performance of Teaching Duties

Regents professorships are awarded on a continuing basis. Holders of the awards will be reviewed annually by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs to ensure that they are performing the teaching duties of the designation. If for some reason a regents professor cannot meet the teaching load requirements of the award, the award and its accompanying salary supplement will be terminated.

Review of Continued Eligibility

The Regents Professors Selection and Review Committee shall conduct reviews of the continued eligibility of currently active regents professors for the awards. These reviews shall occur in the seventh year following the year of a regents professor's appointment or reappointment to the designation. The reviews shall examine the extent to which each regents professor continues to demonstrate a distinguished record of teaching, research or both, and to give evidence of the potential for continuation of distinguished service. Procedures for the conduct of the reviews shall be adopted and published by the Regents Professor Selection and Review Committee. They shall be consistent with the requirements of appropriate evaluation of faculty merit and of due process. The review will lead to a recommendation that a regents professor should or should not continue to enjoy the designation. In the event the Committee determines that a faculty member should not continue to be a regents professor, the salary supplement accompanying the designation shall no longer be a part of that faculty member's salary. Should a faculty member at a later time be reappointed to the regents professor designation after having the regents professor salary supplement subtracted from his/her salary, the reappointment will be accompanied by a salary supplement.