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Professional service involves the application of a faculty member’s academic and professional skills and knowledge to the completion of tasks that benefit the University, the community, or the profession. Professional service includes service to the department, school, college, University, profession, and community. The service activity must be related to a person’s status as a faculty member. For example, faculty members might draw on their professional expertise to engage in a wide array of scholarly service to the governance and professionally related service activities of the department, college, or University. Service is a vital part of faculty governance and operation of the University. Evidence of the quality and significance of institutional service can support promotion and tenure. Governance and professionally related service create an environment that supports scholarly excellence and the achievement of the University’s mission. Administrative faculty are encouraged to engage in service activities such as faculty development, fundraising, fiscal management, personnel management, and public relations. Whatever the individual’s relative emphasis in the performance areas, all faculty members are expected to devote at least 10% of their time to professional service activities that are essential to the life of the institution (see KSU Faculty Handbook Section 2.2). That is, the norm for workload effort expected in the area of service for the typical tenure-track/tenured teaching faculty is 10% (120 hours/year).
Scholarly service to communities external to the University is highly valued and frequently enhances teaching, scholarship, and creative activity. Service to the community should be related to the faculty member’s discipline or role at the University. For example, a faculty member might engage in professionally related service to a community agency, support or enhance economic development for the region, provide technical assistance, or facilitate organizational development. Likewise, some scholarly service activities might rely on a faculty member’s academic or professional expertise to serve their discipline or an interdisciplinary field. This type of service might also include developing linkages with partner institutions both locally and globally.
In all types of professional service, documentation and evaluation of scholarly service will focus on quality and significance rather than on a plain recitation of tasks and projects. Documentation of the products or outcomes of professional service should be provided by the faculty member and considered as evidence for the evaluation of accomplishments. Documentation should be sufficient to outline a faculty member’s agreed-upon responsibilities and to support an evaluation of effectiveness.
Faculty will be expected to explain and document the quality and significance of their service roles. The faculty member should provide measures of roles such as:
- an explanation of the scholarly work involved in the service role,
- copies of minutes,
- number of hours met,
- copies of products developed,
- measures of the impact or outcome of the service role, and/or
- an explanation of the unique contribution of leadership roles or recognition by others of contributions.
Those in administrative roles should demonstrate the quality and significance of their leadership and administration, especially how effectively they foster the requisite fiscal, physical, interpersonal, intercultural, international, and intellectual environment (e.g., improving the quality and significance of scholarship or service in their unit). In sum, administrative faculty act as leaders by assisting colleagues in their unit to achieve and surpass University, college, and departmental goals in teaching, scholarship and creative activity, and professional service.
Faculty who have designated professional service as their area of focus for student success should report those student success activities that occur in their professional service.
Examples of Student Success in Professional Service
Student success can occur through a faculty member’s work in professional service. Faculty who direct study abroad programs or other experiential learning activities, who coordinate internships, service-learning, and other community-engaged activities, and who serve on various committees dedicated to student success are examples of those engaged in student success in professional service.
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