Office of Faculty Affairs : Policies and Practices

• Q Contracts
• W Agreements
• Joint Courtesy Appointments
• Clinical Faculty Appointment/Tenure Track Lines
• Administrative Appointments

Q Contracts

A Q contract is an initial, non-tenured appointment for faculty who join the University as an associate professor or professor. It is only relevant to the Academic (RT) and Academic (CT) Tracks. It may be desirable to appoint a new faculty member on a Q contract when an individual is at a senior level but has experience or credentials which are not the norm for the College or which make the option of offering immediate tenure inadvisable. Although Q contracts may be written for one, two, or three years, the full three year Q appointment is strongly recommended. During the promotion and tenure cycle of the final year of the Q contract, the faculty member is normally reviewed for tenure. Other options include renewing the Q contract for an additional three years or allowing it to expire without continued employment. The terms of a Q appointment should be included in the letter of offer.

Full details on the process for submitting a Q contract recommendation may be found here.

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W Agreement

W agreements provide a mechanism for faculty to waive their rights to probationary status or tenure. A copy of the form is attached. Currently, W agreements are used in the following types of situations where, because of the special circumstances of the appointment, probationary status or tenure should not occur: 1. Faculty in the Clinical Discipline Track. Because this is a non-tenurable track, a W contract must be used when either level (Associate Professor of Clinical _____________ or Professor of Clinical _____________) or % appointment (51% or greater for Assistant Professor of Clinical_____________) would confer tenure or probationary status. 2. Faculty with primary appointments at affiliated hospitals who receive partial salary support from the University. In practice this involves only faculty at the associate professor or professor levels in the Academic (RT), Academic (CT) and Clinical Discipline Tracks. Faculty with a salary supplement at the assistant professor level will not have appointments at 51% or greater.

The W agreement form is available here.


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Joint Courtesy Appointments

The following abbreviated review process is required in order to give a joint courtesy (0%) appointment to a faculty member from another department in the college or elsewhere in the university.

First, a letter is needed from the appointing department head explaining the reason for the courtesy appointment and briefly outlining what contributions are expected from this individual. Concurrence from the home department executive officer must also be provided, as well as approval by the appointing department's p&t committee. These statements/letters, the candidate's current CV and a completed Information Summary Form (available here) are submitted to the Office of Faculty Affairs, and taken to the College Executive Committee for approval as an FYI item. The specific rights and privileges conferred by a joint appointment are determined at the department level. It should be noted that if a 0% relationship is defined at the time of the faculty's initial appointment at UIC, the steps outlined above are not necessary.

Departmental Affiliate is a status which reflects appointment similar to joint courtesy appointments made for faculty within UIC.

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Clinical Faculty Appointment/Tenure Track Lines

Most clinicians are salaried as a faculty member and a physician surgeon. Some points to remember when structuring the appointment are:

• To be in the tenure track, assistant professors must have their faculty appointment line at greater than 50%. However, newly hired associate professors and professors can be tenured at any amount above 0%.
• Tenure track percent and dollars should not be decreased without written agreement from the faculty member.
• Assistant professor faculty in the Clinical Discipline Track (who by definition are not tenure track) are on N tenure if the faculty appointment line is less than or equal to 50% and W tenure (with a fully executed W agreement required) if greater than 50%.
• Associate professors and professors in the Clinical Discipline Track must have a W contract on file if any of their contractual salary is attributed to the faculty rank line.
• To pay as a physician surgeon, an individual must have a faculty line. The norm for those who are salaried is to have some percent and dollars attributed to the faculty rank.

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Administrative Appointments

It is encouraged that full-time faculty who also hold administrative appointments have a title designated for these responsibilities on their contracts. The line should be on a 0% basis with appropriate dollars attached. When this is done, it is possible to identify a discrete dollar amount for salary reduction should an individual step down from or otherwise end his or her administrative responsibilities. An approved PAPE is not required for an administrative title for tenured or tenure track faculty but is necessary when one is not in the tenure stream.


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If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Faculty Affairs.