The MU Faculty Fellowship Program provides guidelines for units that want to recognize outstanding faculty by providing increases in compensation for specified but limited periods of time.

These programs can be offered in any academic discipline, and the criteria for recognition can be established to recognize any or all of the primary missions of teaching, research and service.

Each academic unit (school, college, division and/or department) wanting to establish a faculty fellowship must develop a program description, which must receive approval from the provost and the chancellor before implementation.

The program description must address the following:

1. Term of appointment

• The fellowship and accompanying increase in compensation must be at least one year and no longer than three years.
• Units must determine whether the fellowship (and accompanying increase in compensation) can be renewed and if there will be different criteria for renewals.
• The duration of the initial appointment or renewal appointment must be consistent with the funding available.
• All such appointments will require approval of the provost and chancellor.

2. Eligibility

• The academic unit must establish eligibility criteria, which should include as many objective criteria as possible (e.g. scholarly or creative activity, evaluation of teaching effectiveness, national honors or distinctions, grants submitted or awarded, etc.). Subjective criteria may also be used but must be clearly stated and may only be used in addition to objective criteria. Such criteria must receive prior approval of the provost and chancellor.
• These fellowships and accompanying increases in compensation are available to ranked faculty only (those with the word “professor” in the title), both regular and non-regular. However, fellowships to non-regular faculty can be awarded only if the academic unit has an approved non-regular promotion policy on file in the Office of the Provost.
• Faculty in each academic unit must be involved in the establishment of the criteria, subsequent reviews of the criteria, and in the fellowship selection process. However, final determination of the criteria and the fellowship recipients will be made by the senior administrator of the academic unit.

3. Funding

• The preferred source of funding for faculty fellowships is endowment income or a reliable stream of gift funding.
• It is, however, permissible to use reserve funding from entrepreneurial activities or enterprise-like operations that may exist in the unit as well as unrestricted fund balances such as RIF or salary savings.

4. Payment of Faculty Fellowships

• Faculty fellowships will be considered part of awardees’ annual salary for benefit calculations.
• If the fellowship is awarded for multiple years, this component of annual salary is not eligible for annual merit increases.

5. Approval Process

• Prior to consideration of faculty for fellowship awards, the academic unit will determine criteria for selection and submit to the provost’s office in 110 Jesse Hall. The documentation must include:
  • Name of academic unit
  • Amount of funding per fellowship
  • Number of fellowships and method to establish number of fellowships
  • Source(s) of funding
  • Duration of fellowship(s) and renewal policy
  • Criteria for selection, and a statement regarding faculty involvement in the process
  • Criteria for renewal, if applicable
  • Anticipated date of first award
  • Brief description of selection process including the process used to determine the selection committee.
• Plans approved by the provost and chancellor will remain in place until a request for revision or review is made either by the academic unit or by the provost.
• Plans must be approved prior to the initiation of the selection process.
• The selection process should be completed by June 30 for fellowship appointment for the following academic year. Exceptions must be approved by the provost.