Chair's Message
During this past year the new Conditions of Appointment document for clinical faculty members was approved by the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Western University. The document was entirely reviewed and revised from the last version which was over 10 years old. If you have an appointment with Western University and you are a clinical faculty member this document outlines your relationship with the University. In this brief message I will try to indicate the key points that pertain to your role as clinical faculty members.
The first thing is the definition of clinical academics. A Full – Time Clinical Academic may be appointed to a limited term or continuing appointment, spends 50 per cent or more of their time in an academic role with the University as defined in their Academic Role Category, (ARC). Academic role means functioning as a teacher, researcher and/or administrator and commitment to the academic mission of the University. They may receive remuneration for their academic work and they may be required to participate in a department Practice Plan. A Part – Time Clinical Academic is appointed to an Adjunct appointment and spends less than 50 per cent of their time in an academic role. They generally do not receive academic salary but may receive a stipend for teaching and are not required to participate in a Practice Plan.
Full – Time clinical academics are required over time to seek promotion through the academic ranks of Lecturer, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor and their eligibility for promotion will be judged on the requirements listed in their Academic Role Category. Associate Professor is a career rank but such faculty members may be promoted to full Professor if they can demonstrate exceptional performance on the promotion criteria.
Part – Time clinical academics, (Adjunct Professors), can apply to change status to Full – Time and seek promotion through the academic ranks with the approval of the Department Appointments and Promotion committee. This may be attractive to some adjunct faculty members, who are contributing in a significant way to the academic mission of the University, but many will not want to advance in this way, and there is no requirement to do so.
The full Conditions of Appointment document will be available on the School's Human Resources website, or by request to the Department of Family Medicine for you to gather more information about your status with the University. As always I welcome your feedback at swetmore@uwo.ca or via Twitter @DOCSJW.
