Protocol for Faculty Exchanges

This protocol for short-term exchanges of faculty among the universities has been approved by the Council of Presidents and the Council on Academic Affairs of the New England Land-Grant Universities. Its purpose is to facilitate the process of arranging for such exchanges by setting out a common process agreed to by all the universities. Participating institutions include the University of Connecticut, the University of Maine, the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Vermont.

Rationale
Successful faculty careers extend over many years, and even the best graduate or professional school training cannot be expected to be sufficient to span an entire career. Disciplines, institutions, students, and the interests of faculty members all change over time. Many strategies are necessary to facilitate and ensure long-term professional growth, renewal, and vitality.

Sabbatical leaves are the most common programs for faculty renewal in academia, but faculty exchanges present an additional opportunity. Exchanges provide a potentially richer set of activities than traditional sabbaticals, and they can be arranged with little or no added cost to the sponsoring universities.

Faculty exchanges benefit not only the people who participate in them, they also benefit in significant ways the participating departments and universities. Benefits to faculty come from the opportunity to develop and offer a new course, to collaborate on research and scholarship with new colleagues, or to learn or teach new research techniques. One of the most important benefits may be the opportunity to get away for a time from one's own campus routines to practice one's profession in a new context.

We expect that faculty who participate in this exchange program will return to their own campuses refreshed, and with renewed enthusiasm for their professional activities. As a result, their students, their departments, and their colleges will share in the benefits of this program. The university and department hosting the exchange faculty member also will benefit -- from the expertise, and from the different perspectives and enthusiasm he or she brings to that program.

Procedures and Requirements
The following principles and procedures governing exchanges of faculty members among the New England land-grant universities have been adopted.

1. This program is open to faculty from the Universities of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts - Amherst, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

2. Faculty members are encouraged to initiate and explore exchange possibilities with prospective exchange partners and host departments. Concurrent conversations should be held with their own department chairs, and with their deans, if appropriate. These conversations should begin well in advance of the proposed exchange start date.

3. The easiest exchanges to arrange are probably direct exchanges of person for person. However, as long as the departments and deans agree on appropriate financial and personnel arrangements, exchanges need not be person for person in the same specialty area, or even in the same department.

4. The normal length of an exchange for a faculty member will be either one semester or one year. Exchanges may be concurrent or successive; exchange faculty may be at each other's institutions at the same time; alternatively, one half of the exchange may follow the other by a semester or a year.

5. Faculty members participating in an exchange should be treated as if on remote assignment from their own institutions, with the home institutions continuing to pay salaries and benefits.

6. An agreement in writing, detailing the scope of work and responsibility for the visiting exchange professor, must be agreed upon in advance of the exchange. It must be approved by the department chairs and deans of the sending and receiving institutions.

7. The scope of work and responsibility for the visiting exchange professor should not normally include committee service or academic advising. However, he or she should have the same faculty privileges for the library, computer services, etc., as faculty members at the institution being visited.

8. Each exchange faculty member should be invited to make at least one public presentation at the university being visited, and one public presentation upon returning home.

9. Faculty members participating in an exchange will be responsible for their own travel and living arrangements. Exchanges of houses or apartments may be possible in some cases. Receiving institutions should do whatever they can to facilitate locating satisfactory housing.

10. There is no special application form or set of forms for this program. Keeping appropriate records and evaluating the success of the exchange is the responsibility of the exchange faculty members, their department chairs, and their deans.

11. As a supplement to individual contacts between faculty members interested in exchanging positions, the office of the Council of Presidents will serve as a central information point to receive, collate, and disseminate information about departmental needs for courses or research expertise. Such information will be requested annually, and will be available upon request to deans, department chairs, and individual faculty members at all six institutions.

12. Faculty exchanges do not result in any net loss of personnel for either institution involved in the exchange. Faculty remain on their own institution's personnel rosters for salary and fringe benefits, and have their work reviewed by their own departments and deans according to their own institution's personnel policies and standards. Therefore, to the extent permitted by state laws and institutional personnel policies, faculty on exchanges with faculty from the other New England land-grant universities should not lose eligibility for a sabbatical leave by virtue of their being exchange participants. Faculty should determine the effect that being an exchange participant will have on sabbatical eligibility before agreeing to an exchange.

13. Academic vice presidents, vice chancellors, and provosts support this program and may be consulted to help resolve local issues that present impediments to exchange participation.