Create and Define Ranks
Ranks in Lifecycle Management (LM) represent an institution’s standard faculty ranks, including information such as workload, rank type, and allowable salary ranges. This feature enables institutions to configure LM to align with their formal professional titles and structures. Common ranks such as Lecturer, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor, may differ in meaning across institutions and can be further specified with modifiers like Adjunct, Emeritus, or Senior. Faculty appointments are classified into ranks and groups by title, each with their own specific benefits, rights, and responsibilities that are customized by the institution. Once a series is created in LM, the corresponding ranks must be defined within that series, as outlined below.
Each rank is independent of others.
Best Practices
- Each rank should start with an Appointment event.
- When putting events in for a rank, all the events should mark the time in that particular rank.
Create and Define Ranks
- Navigate to the Series page and click the Add Rank button
- Complete the Create Rank Form by first selecting a ‘Rank Type’ from the predefined list. Then using the free-text fields to customize the ‘Rank Name’ and ‘Qualifications,’ distinguishing ranks of the same type, but different benefits, responsibilities, or qualifications.
Rank Types are hardcoded in the system to ensure consistency in search and reporting, so they cannot be customized. If your institution's rank type is not listed, select 'Other' and enter the specific rank in the 'Rank Name' field.
Once selected, changing the rank type is not recommended. Modifications to the rank type within a series will not update individual faculty members' records.
- Administrative users can use the Workload Model dropdown to select the associated workload model.
Workload serves as a categorization tool for grouping faculty. However, each faculty member's workload remains unique. You can adjust workloads at the faculty profile level as needed.
- When finished, click Save. Repeat the steps above until all ranks have been added to the series.
FAQs: Use Cases
How should faculty of the same rank but with different contract lengths be handled? For example, Assistant Professors on 3-year vs. 4-year contracts?
Create two series, one for 3-year and one for 4-year Assistant Professors.
How should someone with multiple appointments, such as a Chair who is also an Associate Professor, be treated?
In this case, consider the Chair and Associate Professor roles as separate appointments, each within its own series. You can create a series, such as "Administrative and Leadership Roles," to house administrative roles. This series can include rank names, events, and other elements, though it can also be kept simple with a single rank of "Administration" and a single event like "Appointment." Loading each as separate records will prevent any conflict with the title and start date.
When should I select “Year 0” vs “Year 1” for the first event of a rank?
When should I select “Year 0” vs “Year 1” for the first event of a rank?
When creating a faculty appointment, the system calculates the faculty member’s current year in rank by comparing the appointment’s start year with the current calendar year.
- If the appointment began this year, the timeline starts with the Year 0 event.
- If the appointment began last year, the timeline starts with the Year 1 event, and continues accordingly.
Professional journey events for the main rank are then applied from that point onward, ensuring the timeline reflects the faculty member’s current progression rather than always beginning at Year 0.
Year 0 events should only appear on the faculty member's timeline if the faculty member's hire year falls within the same calendar year as the Year 0 event, regardless of the academic year.
Determine the Correct Year for the First Rank Event
When configuring rank events within the series template you’ll need to specify ‘In which year and month does the event occur?’ You will want to consider when the first event of the rank starts for all faculty that this series will be applied to.
- Enter ‘Year: 0’ if the first event of the rank will start in beginning of the faculty member's first full academic year in the new rank.
- Enter 'Year: 1' if the first event of the rank will start in the spring of the faculty member's first full academic year in the new rank.
Consider when the start date of your appointments will be. For example, an appointment is created in the current calendar year, 2025:
The series template configuration at the top defines the Year 0 event as ‘Appointment’ and the Year 1 event as ‘Appointment, Review.’ When creating appointments, the system applies these template rules based on the appointment's start date.
- First example: Start date is in the current year (2025), so the system assigns the Year 0 event.
- Second example: Start date is in the previous year (2024), so the system recognizes that the appointment is now in Year 1, skips the Year 0 event and assigns the Year 1 event.