Nine professors received tenure at the start of the 2017-18 academic year.
Tenure is a common designation for universities, which means a continuous contract rather than a year-to-year contract. At the end of five years with the university, faculty can apply for tenure by submitting their portfolio for review. The tenure review process starts with department requirements, college requirements, university requirements, and finally the application reaches the desk of R0bert Rhodes, the university provost. Around five to eight professors are granted tenure each year.
Faculty can also apply for promotion, moving from assistant professor to associate professor, or associate professor to full professor.
“It really is one of the most important decisions we make,” Rhodes said. “The great thing about the tenure process is you’ve had enough time for the person to know the university and the university to know the person and what were really extending is that offer for long term commitment to the institution, which if you look around ACU has been really successful.”
Rhodes said tenure is a way of cultivating faculty because the university cannot fire a professor without presenting evidence that they are incompetent or behave unprofessionally.
The tenured professors include –
- Dr. Cherisse Flanagan, psychology associate professor
- Dr. Cliff Barbarick, bible, missions and ministry associate professor
- Dr. Jennifer Huddleston, biology associate professor
- Dr. Jill Scott, teacher education associate professor
- Dr. Kilnam Cha, bible missions and ministry assistant professor
- Rachel Slaymaker, social work associate professor
- Dr. Rachel Team, psychology associate professor
- Dr. Ryan Jessup, management sciences associate professor
- Dr. Sarah Lee, chemistry and biochemistry associate professor
- Dr. Suzie Macaluso, sociology associate professor
The university also added 23 new faculty members to the Abilene and Dallas campuses combined including 12 instructors, 8 assistant professors and 3 associate professors.
