04.04.10- Emeritus Faculty Status

01. POLICY STATEMENT

SOHA is committed to honoring the distinguished service of retired faculty members. In alignment with AA/PPS 02.04.10, the School of Health Administration establishes the following procedures to ensure a consistent, fair, and peer-informed review of all eligible retired faculty for Emeritus status. The conferring of these titles is not automatic upon retirement but is based on individual distinction, exceptionally high-quality service, and outstanding contributions to the university.

01.01. AA/PPS No. 02.04.10 (Honorary Faculty Titles and Emeritus Faculty) governs university-level eligibility and conferral authority.

01.02. This PPS supplements university policy by establishing a school-level process for identification, peer nomination, and recommendation.

02. DEFINITIONS

02.01. Professor Emeritus / Associate Professor Emeritus — A title the president is authorized to bestow upon a retired faculty member who, at the time of retirement, held the rank of Professor (with =10 years of distinguished service) or Associate Professor (with =15 years of distinguished service) at Texas State University.

02.02. Distinguished Professor or Associate Professor Emeritus — A higher-tier designation honoring extraordinary retired faculty members for exemplary service to Texas State. No more than three individuals university-wide may be named in any given year, and there may be years in which this title is not conferred. This designation requires meeting criteria for teaching excellence, recognition resulting from scholarly or creative work, and at least three of five additional criteria as outlined in the university's Distinguished Professor Emeritus Nomination Form.

03. EXCEPTIONS – AUTOMATIC EMERITUS STATUS

03.01. Per AA/PPS 02.04.10, the following retired SOHA faculty are exempt from this PPS and will automatically receive emeritus faculty status upon retirement without a PC evaluation:

a. Regents' Professor — Any SOHA faculty member who has received the Regents' Professor title from The Texas State University System Board of Regents will automatically receive emeritus status upon retirement.

b. Regents' Teacher — Any SOHA faculty member who has received the Regents' Teacher award from The Texas State University System Board of Regents will automatically receive emeritus status upon retirement.

03.02. The SOHA Director's office will note the automatic conferral in the retiree's school record and will not convene the PC for these individuals.

04. AUTOMATIC REVIEW OF ELIGIBLE RETIREES

04.01. Upon the confirmed retirement of any SOHA faculty member not subject to the
exceptions in Section 03, the SOHA Director's office will determine whether the departing faculty member meets the eligibility thresholds under AA/PPS 02.04.10:

a. Professor Emeritus: held the rank of Professor at Texas State and served the university with distinction for at least 10 years.

b. Associate Professor Emeritus: held the rank of Associate Professor at Texas State and served the university with distinction for at least 15 years.

04.02. All eligible retired faculty, as determined above, will automatically receive a PC evaluation for Emeritus consideration. No separate nomination is required to trigger the review — eligibility alone initiates the process.

04.03. The review will be conducted after the faculty member's departure, during the academic semester immediately following the effective date of retirement.

05. PEER (PC) EVALUATION PROCESS

05.01. Upon confirmation of a retiree's eligibility, the SOHA Director will convene the Personnel Committee to conduct a formal evaluation.

05.02. The PC will evaluate the retired faculty member's career record using the following criteria:

a. Teaching — sustained record of effective and committed instruction, as evidenced by student evaluations, peer observations, and course contributions during their tenure at SOHA.

b. Scholarship — contributions to the body of knowledge in health administration or a closely related field, including peer-reviewed publications, funded grants, or equivalent scholarly works.

c. Service — meaningful contributions to SOHA, the College, the University, and/or the broader professional community.

d. Collegiality — as defined in Section 02.05 of this PPS; the PC will consider both objective evidence (documented collaboration, mentorship, awards) and the collective professional judgment of current and former peers.

05.03. The PC evaluation does not require the retired faculty member's participation or submission of materials. The PC will draw on existing records (e.g., Faculty Qualifications/Watermark system, annual evaluations, CV).

05.04. A simple majority vote of the PC constitutes a recommendation to the SOHA Director.

05.05. The SOHA Director will forward a positive recommendation, along with supporting documentation, to the Academic Dean, who will then recommend it to the Provost and President for conferral, per AA/PPS 02.04.10.

05.06. If the PC does not recommend Emeritus status, the SOHA Director will document the rationale. No formal appeal process exists at the school level, consistent with AA/PPS 02.04.10's provision that conferral is not automatic.

05.07. Should the PC vote split or be inconclusive, it will be taken as a ‘no’ recommendation for Emeritus status. This process follows the institution’s tenure/promotion voting initiative and remains the standard voting outcome interpretation process.

06. DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR EMERITUS – OPTIONAL TRACK

06.01. Separately from the standard Emeritus review in Sections 04–05, the PC may, at its discretion, nominate a retiree for the higher-tier Distinguished Professor or Associate Professor Emeritus designation.

06.02. This nomination is entirely independent of the standard Emeritus review and may occur concurrently or in a subsequent cycle. A positive standard Emeritus recommendation does not obligate the PC to pursue this designation.

06.03. Eligibility for this designation requires the retiree to have demonstrated:

a. Teaching excellence as evidenced by the career record; and

b. Recognition resulting from scholarly or creative work; and

c. At least three of the five additional criteria specified in the university's Distinguished Professor Emeritus Nomination Form.

06.04. Given the university-wide cap of no more than three individuals named in any year, the PC should reserve this nomination for only the most exceptional cases. There may be years in which no SOHA nomination is submitted.

06.05. A Distinguished Professor Emeritus nomination from SOHA follows the same forwarding chain as Section 05.05, with the completed university nomination form attached.

07. THE “NOT AUTOMATIC” STANDARD

07.01. Consistent with AA/PPS 02.04.10, the triggering of a review (Section 04) is automatic for all eligible retirees; however, the conferral of Emeritus status is not automatic and requires an affirmative recommendation based on merit.

07.02. The distinction is as follows:

a. Automatic: Every eligible retiree receives a PC review — no retiree who meets the eligibility thresholds is overlooked.

b. Not Automatic: A positive outcome is not guaranteed. The PC must affirmatively find that the faculty member served "with distinction" as required by university policy.

07.03. "Distinction," for purposes of SOHA review, means a career record that meaningfully advanced the mission of SOHA, the College, or the University in at least two of the four criteria defined in Section 05.02.

08. REVIEWERS OF THIS PPS

Position                     Review Date

SOHA Director          08/31/2031 E5Y

CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

This PPS has been approved by the following individuals in their official capacities and represents SOHA policy and procedure from the date of this document until superseded.

SOHA Director; senior reviewer of this PPS