The IU Board of Trustees has approved a new academic rank for campus lecturers. This came after a recommendation from the University Faculty Council, according to an IU press release.
The new rank will be called teaching professor and will be above lecturer and senior lecturer. This change will parallel the current tenure system for professors.
John Watson, associate professor of biology at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and chair of the University Faculty Council's Non-Tenure-Track Task Force, said he sees this as a way to right a wrong.
"I like to think of this recommendation as correcting a historical mistake," Watson said in the press release. "Lecturers are the only faculty with just two tiers, and it seemed like good thinking to reward and honor hardworking lecturers and senior lecturers with another opportunity for advancement."
Each IU campus will be responsible for implementing the new tier system and creating criteria for it.
The university's goal is to have faculty begin applying for promotion by fall of 2020.
