Modificaciones en las leyes y regulaciones de las empresas públicas

At Meadville Lombard, we have a highly qualified team of faculty who operate as a collaborative learning community in the design of the curriculum, in teaching the core Signature Courses, in faculty governance, and in support of each other’s individual research projects.

6.1.1 Faculty are classified as adjunct faculty, affiliated faculty, and faculty. We have seven faculty

members, five of whom also hold administrative positions. Of these seven faculty, four have research doctorates: two in theology, one in philosophy of education, and one in American religious history. Three have Doctor of Ministry degrees from Meadville Lombard Theological School, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the University of St. Mary of the Lake. Four are also ordained, and have significant ministerial experience. The three faculty who are not ordained are active lay leaders in ecclesial life, publishing curricula for use in congregations and serving on task forces for the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

We also have four affiliate faculty: three with renewable three-year contracts, and one, at her request, with a renewable annual contract. All are ordained and have substantial leadership experience in Unitarian Universalism. Of these four affiliate faculty, one has a research doctorate from New York University, and two have DMin degrees from Meadville Lombard Theological School. Three are published authors with work that has significance within Unitarian Universalism and the human rights community.

In addition to affiliate faculty with multiyear teaching responsibilities, we have adjunct faculty who teach primarily elective courses. We also count as adjunct faculty those ministers who do not teach courses but serve as Teaching Pastors through the three year integrated internship sequence. These ministers are highly qualified leaders of congregational life.

We teach an average of 30 courses per year. Twenty-one of those are taught by faculty with earned doctorates. The others are taught by faculty with ministerial experience and MDiv and DMin degrees.

6.1.2 Faculty members at ML are involved in sharing their research in Unitarian Universalist

circles, in the wider world of theological education, and with a broad academic and professional audience (R6.1).

6.1.3 Faculty are chosen based on teaching ability and area of expertise, scholarly excellence,

congregational commitment, and experience and ability to work as creative, constructive, and disciplined members of a collaborative learning community. The school has a policy to ensure diversity among faculty as well as administration and staff (A6.1). Of the school’s 10 faculty, core and affiliate, 30% are persons of color, 30% are gay, and 30% are female.

Current affiliate and core faculty have doctorates from seven different institutions of higher

education: Columbia University, New York University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Vanderbilt Divinity School, the University of Chicago, and the University of St. Mary of the Lake.

6.1.4 The faculty who teach in the program on a continuing basis exercise responsibility for the

planning, design, and oversight of the curriculum. The affiliate and regular faculty meet regularly to design, evaluate, and teach the Signature Courses, and to design, conduct, and evaluate the Fall and January Learning Convocations. In addition to weekly meetings of each teaching team, comprised of affiliate and core faculty, all faculty who teach the Signature Courses meet in person four times a year in Chicago to provide coordination and oversight of the theological curriculum and the Signature Courses. The regular faculty meets weekly from August through May to provide oversight for the rest of the curriculum and to establish and monitor requirements for recruitment, matriculation, and graduation.

6.1.5 The faculty handbook articulates the rights and responsibilities of faculty, freedom of inquiry,

procedures for recruitment, appointment, retention, promotion, and dismissal, criteria for faculty evaluation, faculty compensation, research leaves, and other conditions of employment (A6.2). In 2009, we clarified the criteria for promotion to specify the level of scholarly work required for promotion from associate to full professor.

In 1998, the Board abolished tenure and replaced it with a system of definite (usual) and indefinite (extraordinary) contracts. In the fourteen years after the switch to a contract system, four faculty have been dismissed: two for reasons of financial exigency, one for failure to meet the standards of performance in teaching, research, and service required for contract renewal, and a fourth for reasons of change of institutional purpose. In each case the procedures outlined in the faculty handbook were followed and monitored carefully by the Executive Committee and the Academic Committee of the Board of Trustees. In the same time period we have promoted one assistant professor to associate professor of Theology, promoted two associate professors to full professor, appointed a professor of Religious Education with a contract of indefinite duration, and appointed an assistant professor of Unitarian Universalist history. All appointments and promotions have been made in accordance with the provisions specified in the faculty handbook.

6.1.6 Meadville Lombard expresses its commitment to the support and retention of a qualified

community of scholars through the following procedures: 1.) faculty meet weekly with other faculty and monthly with staff and administration to participate in shaping the overall life of the school; 2.) faculty are recognized for their excellence in teaching, research, and service through compensation that is above average for theological schools of our size; 3.) faculty are given ample opportunity for research, for publication, and for the integration of that research into the curriculum of the school; 4.) faculty meet regularly with the provost to plan future research projects and to examine how to integrate their ongoing research into the ML curriculum; and 5.) faculty may take either a one semester sabbatical at full pay after three years of service, or a year sabbatical with full pay after six years of service. While we do not have tenure, faculty receive annual reviews and are eligible for regular promotion: after four years, assistant professors may be promoted to associate professor, and receive a four-year renewable contract; after three years associate professors may be promoted to full professor with a six-year renewable contract; and in the case of exemplary

achievement in all areas of scholarship, teaching, and contributions to church and community, faculty may be given a contract of indefinite duration.

6.1.7 Meadville Lombard provides above average financial compensation (salaries, sabbatical

policy, retirement and health benefits) to regular faculty. We provide support for teaching and research through the library, through technological support and through the provision of

professional expenses. In the past few years, with the support of a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, we have also provided regular and affiliate faculty with support and training in the form of consultations with academic and ministerial leaders in cross-cultural ministry and cross- cultural theological education. We have had two consultations with ministers with expertise in cross-cultural ministry, one with leaders in cross-cultural education, and will have three further trainings in cross-cultural ministry, digital literacy, and generational learning within the next two years.

6.1.8 The faculty work load reflects an integration of research, teaching and service, all woven

together in the interest of student formation, service to Unitarian Universalism, to the academy, and to the broader human community. The regular faculty teach five courses per year. The professor of Religious Education has a one course reduction for serving as the Director of the Fahs

Collaborative: a Laboratory for Leaders in Faith and Learning. One affiliate faculty member teaches one class a year, one teaches two full classes and one half credit class, one teaches three classes, and another teaches four classes per year. Faculty find that their research interests are reflected and enhanced in both required and elective courses. We also provide support for faculty in their advising of students and their service to the UUA, to the academy, and to the broader public. As a result, all of our faculty are accomplished in multiple areas of service and engagement with the academy, with Unitarian Universalism, and with Meadville Lombard (R6.1).