Appointment types are tenure, tenure track, consecutive term, or limited term. See Section 3.2 of the OUHSC Faculty Handbook as well as the College of Medicine Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Criteria document for additional information and guidance on appointment types.
TENURED
Faculty in a Tenured appointment have earned the award of tenure granted by the Board of Regents. Tenured faculty are expected to maintain the level of performance by which they initially earned tenure.
TENURE TRACK
The tenure track is appropriate for faculty who make contributions to the research mission of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. Typically, faculty who spend a large amount of time on patient care are not appointed to the tenure track. Scholarship is a main focus of faculty on the tenure track.
CONSECUTIVE TERM
Consecutive term appointments are not tenure track and are automatically renewed for the next fiscal year unless notification of non-renewal or termination is given. The College of Medicine has designated a subset of the Consecutive Term appointment type referred to as the Flex Period.
The Flex Period involves an initial Consecutive Term appointment with the option of switching to the Tenure Track within three years. Thus, upon appointment of a faculty member to the College of Medicine, the decision regarding tenure-earning eligibility may be deferred for up to three years. With the approval of the department chair, Executive Dean, and Senior Vice President and Provost, up to three years of academic service in a consecutive term appointment may be credited toward the pre-tenure period. All personnel policies related to Consecutive Term appointments contained in the Faculty Handbook will apply during the Flex Period.
LIMITED TERM
Limited term appointments may be for full- or part-time faculty who hold academic titles such as instructor, lecturer, or associate, or titles modified by prefixes such as visiting, adjunct, or clinical. In the instance of limited term research appointments, the suffix “of Research” shall be used. Any faculty member employed less than 1.0 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), is assigned a modified title.