A faculty appointment designation is termed a track. Tracks are used internally for appointments and promotion decisions. Each track defines the responsibilities of the role and the corresponding promotion criteria. Each track has service time and general academic requirements that apply to all faculty, along with track-specific academic and professional standards.
For each of the stated tracks, the primary focus area is as per the listed expectations for that track. E.g., for the Educator track, educational excellence and contributions to teaching are the major contributors to the initial appointment and to promotion to the ranks within that track.
For all tracks, there is a secondary expectation of contributions to other fields commensurate with full participation in the scholarly community that is the School of Medicine and St. George’s university. This includes scholarly activity, administration and service to the university community, as appropriate to the faculty members’ seniority, and as defined by the associated promotions criteria for the track. The distribution of activities for each individual faculty member within a defined track will be determined in consultation with their Chair of Department.
The sequence of the overall position description, for the purposes of appointments and promotions is:
- Descriptor: adjunct, part-time, visiting, affiliate, full time, clinical Instructor, emeritus
- In some cases, this is the full rank descriptor, e.g., for clinical Instructor and other non-track positions.
- Rank, as shown below
- Tracks: Education, Clinical, Research
Examples of the composite position descriptions:
- Full-time Associate Professor (Educator track)
- Part-time Instructor (Research track)
- Affiliate Professor (Clinician track)
- Full-time Demonstrator (Rank only, non-track)
In some cases, certain positions have a rank-only designation that does not specify a track, e.g., full-time Demonstrator (Rank only, non-track), Full time clinical instructor (Rank only, non-track). That means that this is a single fixed rank position and that there is no associated promotions route.
When describing their title in an every-day context, the parenthetical designations indicating the track, should not be mentioned, e.g., on an email signature line or when signing a letter. However, they remain associated with a faculty member’s documents such as appointment, re-appointment and promotions letters, CVs and administrative records. For new faculty, it will be stated in their letter of appointment. For faculty who were already appointed to an SGU position prior to the implementation of this policy, they will be re-issued a letter of appointment.