The designation of a named distinguished professorship is the process by which an existing tenured faculty member is awarded an honorary title with additional salary and research funds either to retirement or for a fixed period of time depending on the funding source.
The University now has a substantive number of named endowed professorships. This number includes professorships established by donors and supplemented with state funds from the Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund which was established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1985 to provide grants for endowed professorships. In many cases, the funds provide for more than one professorship, as with the various Kenan Professorships. The exact number that may be awarded in any year varies depending upon the current value of the individual endowment funds.
Conferral of this honor requires approval by the University’s Appointment, Promotion and Tenure (APT) Committee and Board of Trustees. Upon approval of the Board of Trustees, the Office of the Chancellor issues the appointment or reappointment letter for Distinguished Professorships and Distinguished Term Professorships.
The standard order documents required for APT and BOT review are:
- AP-2
- Curriculum Vitae
- Letter of Justification from Department Chair/Dean
- Committee Report (if applicable)
Implementing a Permanent Distinguished Professorship in ConnectCarolina
A Distinguished Professorship title, awarded to an active tenured faculty member, becomes the faculty member’s primary rank and is conferred for the duration of the tenured appointment. This is distinguished from a “term” Distinguished Professorship title, which is awarded for a specified period of time with an assigned end date.
To implement a Distinguished Professor title, use a ConnectCarolina Edit Existing Job ePAR to change the Job Code with an effective date equal to the date the title becomes effective. The UNC Long Title may also be changed to reflect the specific name of the Distinguished Professorship and the faculty member’s base salary may be modified to reflect additional pay associated with the distinguished appointment. No other changes in ConnectCarolina are necessary. Their Academic Rank will continue to be the date their original Faculty rank was granted and commensurate with the permanent tenure status. No Expected Job End Date is applicable and this field remains blank.
Implementing a Term Distinguished Professorship in ConnectCarolina
Distinguished Term Professorships are awarded for a specific period of time and should be reflected on the faculty member’s record as a secondary rank during the term of that appointment.
The Distinguished Term Professorship rank will have a beginning and ending date equal to the term of the appointment. To implement this appointment, a ConnectCarolina Hire ePAR should be used to create a secondary appointment using the HIR/EAD codes, changing the faculty member’s existing Job Code, and to reflect the distinguished term professorship beginning and ending date in this rank’s Effective Date and Expected Job End Date fields respectively. Their Academic Rank will continue to be the date their original Faculty rank was granted. The UNC Long Title may also be changed to reflect the specific name of the Distinguished Professorship. Any additional salary awarded as part of the term distinguished rank should be added as a salary supplement on the Hire ePar and not included in the base salary amount since this salary is temporary and will be removed at the end of the distinguished rank term.
Named Professorship Job Codes
The following are the named professorship Job Codes in ConnectCarolina for tenured/tenure track faculty:
- 600004 – Distinguished Professor – a faculty member at the Professor rank who receives a named professorship that is not subject to a specific number of years that it can be held
- 600025 – Distinguished Term Professor – a faculty member at the Professor rank who receives a named professorship that is subject to a specific number of years that it can be held
- 600005 – Scholar – a faculty member at the Associate Professor rank who receives a named professorship that is not subject to a specific number of years that it can be held
- 600026 – Term Scholar – a faculty member at the Associate Professor rank who receives a named professorship that is subject to a specific number of years that it can be held
- 600006 – Fellow – a faculty member at the Assistant Professor rank who receives a named professorship that is not subject to a specific number of years that it can be held
- 600028 – Term Fellow – a faculty member at the Assistant Professor rank who receives a named professorship that is subject to a specific number of years that it can be held
In addition, there is Job Code 600048 – Distinguished Term Associate Professor which the College of Arts & Sciences distinguishes from 600026 – Term Scholar (they use both Job Codes) as follows: “Distinguished Term Associate Professors are selected through an internal competitive process. All must be tenured. Scholars are allocated to tenured or non-tenured Associate Professors and are not awarded through an internal competitive process.” Other schools (besides the College of Arts & Sciences) may elect to use either the 600048 – Distinguished Term Associate Professor Job Code or the 600026 – Term Scholar Job Code for an Associate Professor who receives a named professorship subject to a specific number of years that it can be held if no such distinction is made between tenure status and/or award process.
Fixed term faculty eligible to receive named professorships have a different set of Job Codes for use – contact the EHRA Personnel Administration unit in the Office of Human Resources for assistance if needed in selecting the appropriate Job Code.