Provost memo mandates terminal degrees for promotions
A row arose when Provost Fotis Sotiropulous issued a memo introducing new requirements for faculty promotions. Photo by Andrew Kerley.
Andrew Kerley, Contributing Writer
A new provost directive will require faculty at VCU to have the highest attainable degree in their field of study to get promoted or receive tenure — a move that has drawn backlash from some faculty who no longer have a path to promotion.
The policy was first announced in a blog post on Jan. 24 by VCU Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos, the university’s top academic administrator. The change is being made to align the standards of other top research universities, or R1 universities, according to the post.
For faculty, the highest attainable, or terminal, degree is often a Doctor of Philosophy. In the medical field, it is a Doctor of Medicine, and in the arts, it is a Master of Fine Arts.
The announcement drew immediate backlash from faculty in departments like forensic science, mass communications and math, many of whom have master’s degrees and years of industry experience rather than terminal degrees and research work.
Leaders from at least the math and mass communications departments sent letters to the provost’s office asking for the decision to be reversed, according to professors in the departments.
The change was made a week before many faculty were set to turn in their applications for promotion — packets professors say can be over 70 pages long and take weeks to complete.
The provost has since said the policy would not apply to faculty currently in the promotion process, though some faculty are still being turned down for promotion due to technicalities with the policy — like Judith Crenshaw, an assistant professor of public relations who does not have a PhD, but worked in her field for decades before teaching.
After the College of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Office initiated the process in late 2024, Crenshaw said she worked over 100 hours on a 70-page pre-promotion packet that she “threw in the trash” after being told she was no longer eligible for promotion.
Faculty need to have their promotion packets reviewed by a committee before they can move on to the next step in the cycle. Crenshaw’s committee had not yet met before being dissolved by the provost’s new policy.
VCU’s Promotion and Tenure Task Forces are made up of professors and are charged with reevaluating the university’s promotion and tenure policies. The provost said in a Jan. 27 blog post that the task forces recommended the terminal degree requirement. However, members of the task forces denied that at the Faculty Senate meeting.
The provost doubled down on the policy and said he supported the idea of establishing career paths for faculty without terminal degrees in a now-deleted Jan. 28 blog post before clarifying in a Jan. 29 blog post that most R1 universities do offer promotion for faculty without terminal degrees, he should have given more consideration to the timing of the policy and announced it would not apply to faculty currently in the application process.
Sotiropoulos said the policy would still go into effect thereafter, but the school should move quickly to create alternative promotion opportunities before April when many faculty will begin the process of applying for promotion.
VCU faculty currently have two paths to promotion, according to university policy. Professors who are on the tenure track but do not yet have tenure are called “assistant professors,” while tenured professors carry the title of “associate professor.”
There is also a pathway with identical titles but for “term faculty,” who are not eligible to receive tenure and typically work on year-long contracts. The main benefit of climbing the ranks for term faculty is receiving a 10% raise at each step.
VCU used to offer three-year contracts for term faculty but stopped in 2023, citing budget constraints, according to a report by Inside Higher Ed. The report also states 60% of VCU professors are term faculty.
In a Jan. 30 interview, Sotiropoulos explained that VCU does not make a distinction between tenure-track and term faculty, but it should.
“We want to be consistent with just about every top research university in this country, that really, to carry the title of ‘professor,’ you have to have a terminal degree,” Sotiropoulos said.
Under the new system, tenure-track faculty may keep the title of “professor,” while term faculty might fall under a new title like “instructor.”
Sotiropoulos said that as chief academic officer, his main priority is ensuring VCU students and parents are getting their tuition money’s worth and are receiving the best career preparation in exchange.
“We want to have the best and the brightest and the most prepared faculty for that,” Sotiropoulos said.
Scott Street, a non-tenured associate professor of mathematics who has been teaching at VCU for 25 years, said he disagrees. He said the main priority of many term faculty who teach 100-level math courses is to ensure that students understand concepts that have been tricky to them in the past. Street worries that VCU will lose those expert faculty if the university requires them to have PhDs.
“You don’t have to have a piece of paper from a school saying you’re an expert,” Street said.
Religious studies professor Mark Wood serves on the steering committee for the VCU United Campus Workers Union. Wood said the situation is a “breakdown of communication” and said if the provost is serious about giving students a good experience, VCU should give faculty more job security.
“I’ve never heard a student ever say ‘I came to VCU because we rank No. 165,’ or even talk about rankings,” Wood said. “But they do talk about the professors they love.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misspelled Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos’ last name.
