This document serves as a supplement to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Standards of Competence and Performance to provide additional expectations appropriate to the department’s discipline. It serves to clarify how the collegiate standards can be applied and evaluated within the department.

Department values statement

The Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology (HSHP) is bound by the following values that drive our departmental mission on a daily basis to advance knowledge of health, human physiology, sport, and recreation through teaching, practice, research, and service to impact the health and well-being of people of the State of Iowa and beyond:

  • Student growth: HSHP will promote students’ growth by empowering students with critical thinking, problem-solving, and professional skills.
  • Excellence: HSHP aspires to be a national leader in the fields of health, physiology, sport and recreation management, therapeutic recreation, and child life.
  • Impact: HSHP is committed to having a positive, sustained, and wide-reaching impact through all scholarship, education, and service initiatives.
  • Collaboration: HSHP is committed to establishing a collaborative culture that supports innovative ideas and initiatives.
  • Discovery: HSHP is dedicated to advancing knowledge through research and the dissemination of ideas based on evidence-based findings related to core areas of study in the department.
  • Community: HSHP is committed to engaging and serving the community through our scholarship, education, and service initiatives.
  • Culture: HSHP is committed to creating a culture in which all individuals have equal access to opportunities and resources and can contribute fully to our departmental mission.
  • Environment: HSHP strives to provide an inclusive environment that welcomes all people in its educational programs, scholarship, and community service.

In accordance with their track and rank, faculty in the Department of HSHP are expected to make significant and sustained contributions to knowledge, mentor undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees, deliver rigorous classroom instruction, and provide meaningful service to the department, college, university, and profession. In each of these endeavors, we embrace a growth model that encourages and rewards efforts on the part of faculty at all levels to continuously improve their knowledge and skills and contribute to a positive departmental culture that includes mutual respect and professionalism in our daily interactions. Our collective goal is to continually improve the quality of our contributions in order to raise the national reputation and visibility of the department and help our undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees achieve their professional goals.

Basic expectations for all faculty

All tracks and ranks

Teaching

  • Develop new undergraduate, graduate, and experiential learning courses as needed to support curriculum demands and as requested by the Department Executive Officer (DEO), Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), and Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).

Service

  • Maintain professional and/or community service at a level that does not impede the ability to complete departmental service, unless negotiated with the DEO in situations of major professional service (e.g., editor-in-chief or associate editor of a research journal; chair of NIH study section; president of national/international professional society, etc.).

Tenure-track faculty expectations

All tenure-track ranks

Teaching

  • Effectively mentor graduate students, and when appropriate, effectively mentor postdoctoral trainees.

Research

  • The department does not specify a particular rate of publications or set of journals, but a general expectation is that each research-active faculty member will maintain a laboratory that produces publications in reputable, peer-reviewed journals each year. This takes into consideration within-department subdiscipline differences and the impact of the scientific journals. The department acknowledges that subdisciplines differ widely with regard to the time and effort required to produce a significant, empirical, or theoretical original publication. Accordingly, it is anticipated that even the most accomplished faculty members may have very different rates of productivity.
  • A reputable scientific journal is characterized by a commitment to rigorous peer review, high-quality production standards, and transparent editorial policies, and is not listed as a “predatory” journal based on Beall’s List. Other characteristics may include, but are not limited to, impact factor, low acceptance rate within the discipline, an active and distinguished editorial board, inclusion in reputable indexing databases (e.g., Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus), and a history of publishing credible research in the discipline.
  • The department recognizes a variety of metrics for increasing national or international reputation. For example, invitations to give seminars/lectures at other institutions and at conferences are a sign of the visibility of a scholar’s research program and are also beneficial to the faculty member’s trainees and the department. Other metrics include, but are not limited to, awards from prestigious societies, invitations to write scholarly reviews, editorials, and book chapters, editing special issues for reputable journals, organizing scientific conferences, workshops, and symposia, and receipt of an endowed position.
  • Direct costs from external grants enable faculty to sustain and expand their research programs while supporting the development of their trainees. They also strengthen the department’s reputation both internally and externally and generate indirect cost funds that help address critical departmental research needs. Research-active faculty without funding are expected to submit grants (e.g., to Federal agencies, foundations, or industry) on a regular basis (e.g., for associate professors and full professors, at least 1-2 submissions per year).
  • Note: The department acknowledges that extraordinary circumstances may arise that severely limit opportunities for external funding, particularly federal agencies. When such circumstances arise, other metrics of likely future success (e.g., strong scores on submitted grants; submissions to other non-federal external sources) may be considered in annual or promotional reviews.

Assistant professor

Teaching

  • Effectively mentor graduate students and guide them toward the MS or PhD degree in a timely manner.
    • Note that the department does not expect assistant professors to graduate a doctoral student before the promotion-and-tenure year.

Research

  • Develop an increasingly active and visible research program and a steadily increasing rate of significant first or senior-authored publications that are authored independently of former mentors.
  • Continue to seek to secure major external funding to support research beyond the promotion-and-tenure year.

Associate professor

Teaching

  • Effectively mentor graduate students and guide them to the MS or PhD degree in a timely manner.

Research

  • It is expected that associate professors will accumulate evidence of sustained national reputation related to their scholarship and begin to develop an international reputation.
  • Continue to seek major external funding to support research and trainees.

Service

  • Expand the range of service contributions within the department.
  • Tenured faculty are generally expected to mentor and support junior tenure-track and/or instructional-track faculty, particularly as requested by the DEO as part of an assigned mentoring committee consistent with a departmental faculty mentoring system.

Full professor

Teaching

  • Continue to effectively mentor graduate students and guide them to the MS or PhD degree in a timely manner.

Research

  • It is expected that full professors will possess a national and international reputation and maintain a research program that further enhances that reputation.
  • Continue to seek major external funding to support research and trainees.

Service

  • Expand the range of service contributions within the department by, for example, serving as chair of a search committee or promotion committee.
  • Tenured faculty are generally expected to mentor and support junior tenure-track and/or instructional-track faculty, particularly as requested by the DEO as part of an assigned mentoring committee consistent with a departmental faculty mentoring system

Instructional-track faculty expectations

Assistant professor of instruction/practice

No additional unique expectations beyond the basic expectations for all faculty.

Associate professor of instruction/practice

Teaching

  • Participate in institutional professional development opportunities to further grow as an instructor and stay informed about current instructional practices.

Service

  • Expand the range of service contributions within the department, for example, chair of a promotion committee for instructional-track faculty, serving as chair of a search committee, serving as DUS or DGS, serving as Program Director, etc.
  • Senior instructional-track faculty are generally expected to mentor and support junior tenure-track and instructional-track faculty, particularly as requested by the DEO as part of an assigned mentoring committee consistent with a departmental faculty mentoring system.

Full professor of instruction/practice

Teaching

  • Continue to participate in institutional professional development opportunities to further grow as an instructor and stay informed about current instructional practices.

Service

  • Expand the range of service contributions within the department by, for example, serving as chair of a promotion committee for instructional-track faculty, serving as chair of a search committee, serving as Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) or Graduate Studies (DGS), serving as Program Director, etc.
  • Contribute to discussions on effective teaching practices in the department, college, and broader professional community.
  • Senior instructional-track faculty are generally expected to mentor and support junior tenure-track and/or instructional-track faculty, particularly as requested by the DEO as part of an assigned mentoring committee consistent with a departmental faculty mentoring system.