Essential Job Functions

For Full-Time Faculty – May 2026

Full-time faculty at Syracuse University have some combination of three primary core responsibilities: (1) research/creative work/professional engagement, (2) teaching, and (3) service.

  • Teaching professors have two core responsibilities: teaching and service.
  • Tenure-track and tenured professors have three core responsibilities: research/creative work, teaching, and service.
  • Professors of practice have three core responsibilities: maintaining connections to their professional field, teaching, and service.
  • Research professors have one core responsibility: research.

 

Essential job functions for all full-time faculty:

  • Ability to engage in complex thinking, analysis, and decision-making as required by the role.
  • Ability to enable active engagement and participation in the functions associated with each core responsibility described below
  • Being present with and for students and colleagues in a variety of settings on campus
  • Monitoring, preparing for, and/or responding to important dates and deadlines
  • Scheduling and attending meetings with colleagues, students, and the academic community
  • Prioritizing tasks and information
  • Gathering, organizing, and/or interpreting data and information, sometimes about complex concepts
  • Communicating, potentially about complex concepts, in writing and/or speech (in person and through electronic means)
  • Understanding rules, policies, and directives and applying the same to novel situations and specific contexts

 

Teaching Essential Functions:

Some combination of these functions will be relevant to every faculty member for whom teaching is a core responsibility.

  • Engaging with complex topics and negotiating challenging interpersonal relationships through skillful oral and/or written communication and the use of technologies appropriate to the faculty member’s discipline
  • Contributing to the development of curricula or programs in their academic units that reflect current disciplinary content and theory
  • Maintaining the highest standards in course design and implementation
  • Ensuring that their courses reflect the most current disciplinary research or developments in a given field
  • Planning rich and engaging classroom experiences
  • Assessing student progress using appropriate methods
  • Keeping and posting regular office hours and making additional time available for special appointments
  • Promptly reporting all student grades
  • Supervising independent study projects
  • Advising students
  • Arranging and supervising internships, clinical placements, or student research
  • Serving on graduate examination committees and thesis, dissertation, dossier, and portfolio review committees
  • Supervising and providing professional development for teaching assistants
  • Involving students in community engagement projects
  • Instructing non-SU students or community members in a variety of venues

In addition to functions above, many of which require in-person interactions, the following forms of teaching must normally be delivered in person:

  • Laboratory courses requiring hands-on supervision
  • Performance-based courses (music, theatre, studio arts)
  • Clinical instruction and supervision
  • Studio sessions, clinical rotations, or field work
  • Exam proctoring
  • Many oral examinations and the adjudication of performances

 

Research/creative work essential functions:

Some combination of these functions will be relevant to every faculty member for whom research or maintaining connections with a profession, industry, or field is a core responsibility.

  • Reading and effectively synthesizing the relevant literatures and bodies of work associated with a given discipline or field
  • Designing and executing basic or applied research in the laboratory or in the field
  • Creating original knowledge or creative work in a given discipline or field
  • Engaging, through presentations, publications, exhibitions, performances, and scholarly findings, with a wider scholarly community and the general public
  • Presenting papers at organized scholarly meetings, usually at the national or international level
  • Seeking and securing external support or competitive fellowships and awards appropriate to the faculty member’s field(s) of study or relevant disciplines
  • Developing materials that make information more accessible to researchers, other scholars, practitioners, and the public
  • Lecturing in professional and other public forums
  • Presenting creative work to a range of potential audiences
  • Engaging with various communities—disciplinary or creative communities, the community of scholars on campus and across higher education more broadly, local groups, municipal, regional, and national communities and international communities

 

Service essential functions:

Some combination of these functions will be relevant to every faculty member for whom service is a core responsibility.

  • Serving on or leading committees at the program, department, school/college, or University levels as appropriate to the faculty member’s rank
  • Taking on administrative or other leadership roles at the program, department, school, college, or University level
  • Recruiting and mentoring students, faculty, and staff
  • Contributing to professional societies, governmental and academic institutions, and the community at large
  • Attending departmental meetings and school/college faculty meetings regularly
  • Participating in activities appropriate to the academic field or profession, such as conferences, workshops, symposia, and other events
  • Attending Convocation, Commencement, and other all-University functions

 

Appendix: Relevant Sections of Faculty Manual

Teaching

Faculty Manual, 2.24; 2.34: “Syracuse University recognizes success in teaching among its faculty to be of vital importance and values innovation and intellectual pursuit embedded within teaching. Teaching involves the art and skill required for the diffusion of knowledge and guidance toward its effective and independent use. The successful teacher, among other things, instructs in consonance with the school/college mission, has knowledge of subject matter, skillfully communicates and contributes to student learning and development, acts professionally and ethically, and strives continuously to improve. Quality teaching includes providing substantive feedback to students, revising curriculum to reflect developments in the field, and mastering appropriate pedagogical approaches. In addition to the instruction of individual courses, activities under the heading of teaching may include supervising independent study projects; advising; arranging and supervising internships, clinical placements or student research; serving on graduate examination committees and thesis, dissertation, dossier, and portfolio review committees; providing professional development for teaching assistants; involving students in community engagement projects; and instructing non-SU students or community members in a variety of venues.”

Faculty Manual, 3.1: “Teaching encompasses not only classroom or online instruction but also advising and mentoring, supervising of students in field placements, internships, and practica, and supporting and supervising graduate study, writing, and research.”

Faculty Manual 3.11: “All faculty members are expected to perform their teaching duties fully and conscientiously. Faculty are responsible for contributing to the development of curricula or programs in their academic units that reflect current disciplinary content and theory and for maintaining the highest standards in course design and implementation. Their courses should reflect the most current disciplinary research—both their own and that of others in the field.”

Faculty Manual 3.12: “In addition to classroom instruction, faculty are responsible for providing appropriate student support such as:

  • Advising students at the department, school/college, and University level
  • Mentoring graduate students at all levels
  • Supervising Independent Study
  • Supporting internship or practicum experiences
  • Sitting on masters and dissertation committees

Faculty with responsibility for supervising Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) should meet regularly with their TAs and provide counsel and feedback, ensuring that their TAs are performing their roles as instructors, graders, or mentors consistent with academic and professional standards.”

Research

Faculty Manual, 2.24 and 2.34: “Scholarship means in-depth study, learning, inquiry, or experimentation designed to make contributions to knowledge as appropriate in or across specific fields or relevant disciplines. Scholarship, as measured by peer recognition of its originality, impact on, and importance to the development of the field(s) or relevant disciplines, is demonstrated most typically by refereed publications—in journals, high-quality books, or other influential venues. It also can be demonstrated by placement of work in high-quality venues, as judged by peers. Scholarship and research accomplishments are also demonstrated by the design and execution of basic or applied research in the laboratory or in the field; through the presentation of papers at organized scholarly meetings, usually at the national or international level; through the attraction of external support or competitive fellowships and awards appropriate to the faculty member’s field(s) of study or relevant disciplines; through such activities as editing, translation, the acquisition of significant patents, the compilation of information, and the development of materials that make information more accessible to researchers, other scholars, practitioners, and the public; and lecturing in professional and other public forums.”

Faculty Manual 3.2: “Faculty are expected to develop and maintain excellence as scholars, researchers, or artists and to engage with various communities—disciplinary or creative communities, the community of scholars on campus and across higher education more broadly, local publics including municipal, regional, and national communities and international communities, as appropriate. The generation or creation of new knowledge is important because it serves the mission of the research university, supports on-going teaching excellence, and contributes to the development of the academic disciplines.”

Service

Faculty Manual, 2.24 and 2.34: “Service includes membership or leadership on committees at the program, department, school/college, or University levels as appropriate to the faculty member’s rank, as well as administrative functions or other leadership roles. In addition to formal assignments of duties, faculty individually can prove valuable in efforts such as recruiting and mentoring students, faculty, and staff. Service also includes contributions to professional societies, governmental and academic institutions, and the community at large when these contributions reflect faculty members’ professional expertise or standing.”

Faculty Manual, 3.3: “Faculty members are expected to:

  • Participate on departmental, school/college, and University committees;
  • Attend departmental meetings and school/college faculty meetings regularly;
  • Participate in activities appropriate to the academic field or profession;
  • Attend Convocation, Commencement, and other all-University functions.”