Adjunct and Visiting Faculty 

(including Dry Faculty Appointments)

Adjunct Faculty titles are granted to those individuals whose primary responsibilities lie outside the University or in another capacity within the University.  Adjunct faculty appointments are made at any rank, but must be consistent with the individual’s professional stature. Appointments as adjunct faculty are on an annual or shorter basis, and are not tenured appointments. 

Adjunct Faculty titles include:

Adjunct Instructional Faculty (adjunct professor, adjunct associate professor, or adjunct assistant professor) to supplement the instructional program at the university. Adjunct Instructional Faculty titles are symbolic and appointments in this title track cannot carry any effort.

Adjunct Clinical Instructional Faculty (adjunct clinical professors, adjunct clinical associate professors, adjunct clinical assistant professors, adjunct clinical instructors, or adjunct clinical lecturers) for professional practitioners in the community or within the university to support the instructional program and/or conduct research.

Adjunct Research Faculty (adjunct research investigator, adjunct assistant research scientist, adjunct associate research scientist, adjunct research scientist, adjunct research assistant professor, adjunct research associate professor, adjunct research professor) for those allocating a portion of his/her work effort on research. 

Visiting Faculty titles are granted to those individuals whose ongoing employment responsibilities lie outside the University at another institution of higher education.  Appointments as visiting faculty are for one year or less and may be extended for a second year only under unusual circumstances. These appointments are without tenure. Visiting faculty appointments are made at any rank but must be consistent with the individual’s professional stature. 

Visiting Faculty titles include:

Visiting Instructional Faculty (visiting professors, visiting associate professors, visiting assistant professors, visiting instructors, visiting lecturers, visiting clinical professors, visiting clinical associate professors, visiting clinical assistant professors, visiting clinical instructors, or visiting clinical lecturers) in order to supplement the instructional program at the university.

Visiting Research Faculty (visiting research investigator, visiting assistant research scientist, visiting associate research scientist, visiting research scientist, visiting research assistant professor, visiting research associate professor, visiting research professor) to conduct research.

Dry Faculty Appointees are faculty members appointed without effort in the HR system as an adjunct, adjunct clinical, adjunct research, visiting, research or other non-tenure-track faculty member. Those who hold no other appointment with effort at the University will undergo a background check, in cases where the faculty member has not already undergone a background check in an existing appointment. This section does not apply to joint appointments or additional appointments for University faculty. See note below for link to joint and additional faculty appointments.

Dry faculty appointments may be terminated at any time at the school/college’s discretion, and the department will provide timely notice (typically no less than two weeks unless the department is ending the appointment for misconduct or performance reasons) to the dry faculty appointee. (SPG 201.34-2)

Appointment Request Process 

Adjunct and Visiting faculty appointments, including dry faculty appointments, require approval by the ADAA prior to the appointment or reappointment. Submit requests for new appointments or extensions (funded or dry) through the CoE HR Request system for “ADAA Visiting/Adjunct” for Department Chair approval before being submitted to ADAA for review and approval. Those seeking extensions will be required to submit evidence of such activities to justify the continuation of this appointment. Request form will require the following information:

1. Requesting faculty member name and with what group/activity will the candidate be associated.
2. Employee information (name, umid (if available), non-UM email, home address, current or most recent job title and institution, highest degree earned, work mode)
3. Position information (business reason and justification for the position, benefit to UM, source of funding if applicable, proposed title, anticipated start date, duration of the appointment, appointment effort if applicable, full time annual rate if applicable, funding shortcode).

ADAA may approve, deny, or request for more information through the CoE HR Request system directly for units’ viewing. 

Hiring and Onboarding:

ADAA approved requests for Adjunct and Visiting, including dry faculty appointments, require appointment letters. Initial appointment and reappointment template letters are available here.

Dry Faculty Appointees, new hires with effort, or rehires with effort after a break in service will undergo a background check, in cases where the faculty member has not already undergone a background check in an existing appointment.

Faculty onboarding process is consistent with new faculty onboarding and required training as outlined in the CoE Faculty Onboarding checklist, in addition to any local onboarding practices. 

Note:  See https://adaa.engin.umich.edu/admin/jointappt/ for Joint Appointments or Additional Appointments for University faculty.

Resources:

The Regents of the University of Michigan

5.C Instructional Faculty: Classifications | U-M Office of the Provost Faculty Handbook

Policies on Appointments and Promotions for Research Scientist Track – U-M Research

Classification and Appointment of Dry Faculty Appointees | Standard Practice Guides – University of Michigan

 

For any questions related to this process, please contact Sherry Hall ([email protected]).