Babson College Modernizes Faculty Title Conventions

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The Babson College community— including faculty, administrative leadership, and the Board of Trustees—worked together recently to modernize the College’s faculty title convention for the first time in more than a decade, creating a new path for more robust career progression for full-time faculty members who are not on the tenure track.

Rather than traditional titles of “Lecturer” and “Senior Lecturer,” the changes create titles of “Professor of Practice” or “Teaching Professor” with ranks of assistant and associate (as well as a newly developed designation of “full”). The modifications to the College’s Polices & Procedures was approved recently by a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees.

The approved changes more accurately and more fully reflect the contributions of these valued members of the faculty, and they create an opportunity to showcase Babson’s competitive advantage and leadership in field experience, connections with industry, and scholarly engagement in liberal arts.

The significant amendment more clearly signals status, roles, and contributions of professional colleagues on the non-tenure track to external audiences in settings such as academic and industry conferences and for purposes such as experiential education, industry engagement, and fundraising. It also shifts the paradigm on how the College thinks about “practice” to a broader understanding that encompasses meaningful engagement with all forms of knowledge and expertise, both within and beyond business and economic settings.

Posted in Babson Briefs

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