At IUSB, part-time faculty who have taught at least 12 semesters on campus are eligible to apply for Merit Status in recognition of a record of excellent teaching. This is optional, but does give some benefits:

first consideration in assignment to classes in their area of expertise up to 50% FTE
increase in base salary of 10% per course. (IUSB full-time employees who also teach part-time are not eligible for the pay increase.)

Once Merit Status has been granted, the faculty member must submit an annual report of their activities to their supervisors.

The process

Contact your department chair and/or UCET about the process. Collect relevant materials and create a dossier. The UCET Faculty Career Mentor will help in this process.
Prior to Dec. 1, contact the Office of Academic Affairs to (520-4298) to confirm eligibility.
Submit dossier to chair by early January.
Chair sends dossier and letter of recommendation to Office of Academic Affairs by mid-January.
Associate Faculty Advisory Committee reviews and recommends Merit Status by early March.

For exact dates for the current year, contact Academic Affairs.

The Criteria

Through your dossier materials, you must demonstrate excellent performance in teaching. You must demonstrate satisfactory performance in either scholarship or service. Discuss these criteria with your dept. chair, because they vary by discipline.

The Dossier

(This is slightly different than prior published instructions but has been approved by Academic Affairs.) The Merit Status dossier is still a physical binder with dividers. Samples are on hand at the UCET library. Wait to purchase the binder until you have accumulated materials and know the size you need. (You do NOT need to keep to the previous 30 page limit, but a 1-3" binder should be ample.) Keep original materials in a binder for yourself, and turn in a copy. You will find many resources in this Careers section of the One Stop, but they were designed for full-time faculty and may be more complex that what you will need.

I. Table of Contents

II. Resume, with a focus on teaching experience. Include relevant scholarship or creative activity, or service to the university or relevant community service. See more on the Academic vita on that page in the One Stop.

III. Recommendations (just have this divider and the chair will put in letters)

a. Letter from chair

b. Letters from colleagues. (If you have received some, put here. Give chair a list of names of people that she/he will ask for letters)

c. Other letters of support from students or to support scholarship or service. (Either ones that you have received, or a list of names to give the chair.)

IV. Teaching

(This is the most important section! See the One Stop page on "Documenting Teaching" here for lots of ideas. You do NOT have to document all of those ways--but there are some good ideas.)

a. Statement on Teaching. See the "Statements" page in the One Stop for suggestions and samples.

b. Courses taught at IUSB in a table, listed by semester and year.

c. Student evaluations of teaching. Make a table of the numerical data (here is a template that you can edit). Put the actual evaluations including the comments after the table.

d. Course and curriculum development. Include recent syllabi, samples of assignments and exams focusing on innovative and particularly effective teaching strategies. Lists of presentations and publications about teaching. (If long, put materials in Appendix)

e. List of grants received in support of teaching

f. Peer review of teaching: Letters from peers, list of peers you have reviewed, any training to do peer review.

V. Research, scholarship, creative activities (if applicable)

a. Statement about scholarship (not about teaching)

b. Copies of publications, presentations, titles and contents page of books. Longer items may go into appendix.

b. List of grants received in support of research, scholarship, creative activity

VI. Service (if applicable)

a. University service: list member ship on departmental, school, and university committees. Briefly describe your role and contribution.

b. Community service (Note--this counts if it is using your area of expertise, not just general service) List membership and offices held in organizations, boards, and committees, summarizing your role and contribution.

VII. Appendix (if needed)

Longer materials or extra materials can be noted in the main body and placed in the appendix.