Faculty Credentials Policy

Adopted by Academic Policies and Curriculum Committee 7/31/20 
Adopted by Faculty Senate 7/31/20 
Approved by President 7/31/20 

Part I

Each semester, prior to building the course schedule, the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs (VPASA) will send a packet of information, entitled EGSC Expectations for Teaching Qualifications, to the schedule builders. This packet will contain the following items: 

1. 1. 1. A copy of the SACSCOC Guidelines on Faculty Credentials, 
      2. A copy of the Commission’s Resource Manual’s Rational for compliance with Standard 6.2.a on Faculty Qualifications, and 
      3. A listing of specific potential noncompliance practices at EGSC that should be avoided when making teaching assignments. These include: a. Teaching assignments outside EGSC Faculty Qualifications Profile and Authorized Course Assignment Parameters (attached), 
         1. Teaching assignments in discipline areas where faculty with degrees in education (e.g., MEd and EdD) may not have enough graduate semester hours in the teaching discipline or other offsetting credentials, 
         2. Teaching assignments in a discipline area different from the discipline area of the degree held which cannot be adequately justified, 
         3. Teaching assignments in a discipline/specialty area that might be somewhat related to the faculty member’s discipline/specialty area but are commonly considered substantively different (e.g., sociology and social work, political science and public administration, speech and mass communication, management and marketing, elementary education and educational administration, painting and sculpture, voice performance and piano performance, etc.) and cannot be adequately justified, and 
         4. Teaching assignments where the instructor’s academic credentials are deficient and cannot be offset by other qualifications because those other experiences and accomplishments are not documented with evidence that is extensive, substantive, and compelling. 

Part II

The Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs will manage a recordkeeping procedure in which a form entitled, “Faculty Qualifications Profile and Authorized Course Assignment Parameters” (hereafter referenced as Profile), will be kept for all full-time and part-time faculty members. The Profile will include the following: 

1. 1. 1. 1. All reported earned degrees are identified by specific type (e.g., PhD, EdD, DBA, MA, MBA, MPA, etc.), 
         2. Degree program name, 
         3. Awarding Institution as verified by official transcripts received and on file from the awarding institution, and 
         4. All graduate and undergraduate degrees. 

Based on an analysis of the graduate transcripts and degree programs completed, course assignment parameters are identified for the EGSC discipline listings and levels of instruction in which the faculty member is judged to be qualified to teach according to SACSCOC standards and guidelines. If specific restrictions on course teaching assignments exist for an individual within their discipline or in others, they are identified in the Profile. Faculty who are expected to teach courses under other discipline listings and levels of instruction have those expectations also identified in the Profile along with the appropriate 18+ graduate semester hours of completed coursework (identified by course number, title, and credits in that teaching discipline) and/or citations of substantive and detailed evidence of other related professional experience, scholarship, certifications, and accomplishments justifying their qualifications to teach such courses. 

These Profiles will be available to the schedule builders at the VPASA office. Each faculty member is sent and expected to review and suggest updates and corrections to his/her profile early in the fall semester each year. 

Part III

Every two years, beginning in 2022-2023, internal audits are scheduled to be conducted by the SACSCOC Accreditation Liaison with a 10% sample of all instructors of record to assess the extent to which continuing compliance with Standard 6.2.a is being achieved. Individual faculty who are found to be unqualified for certain teaching assignments in the previous audit will be included in each 2-year follow-up audit to ensure the continuance of corrective action taken previously. Results from the audit will be shared with all academic administrators, some of whom may need to take corrective action. Results will also be used to update the listing of specific potential noncompliance practices at EGSC that should be avoided when making teaching assignments as presented in the packet of information regularly distributed entitled, EGSC Expectations for Teaching Qualifications. 

Faculty Qualifications Profile and Authorized Course Assignment Parameters (PDF)