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Research faculty represent a key resource of the USC Computer Science Department. They are (in general) full-time USC employees (prior to being appointed) that then receive research faculty appointments in the CS Department, who thus advise students, teach courses, and participate in the department, but whose teaching is limited to one class a year and whose salary is supported primarily by external research funding.

Please Note: This position is for full-time USC employees only. This appointment changes the status of an existing full-time employee from staff to faculty, may affect benefits eligibility thresholds, but does not affect salary directly.

USC CS Research Faculty status provides a unique opportunity to participate fully in the Computer Science Department, with most of the rights and privileges of full-time tenure-track faculty. These rights are enumerated below.

About the Position:

Definition:

From the USC Faculty Handbook:

"designates an individual conducting research, principally on external funding, usually associated with a center, institute, or laboratory rather than a degree-granting department. May engage only in limited teaching and only as an ancillary responsibility. The term is used to modify the titles: Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor (such as "Research Assistant Professor")."

More informally, in the CS department:

Most of the rights of being faculty, except:

• no tenure (i.e., supported on soft funding)
• no votes on tenure-track positions
• limited to teaching one class per academic year

Purpose:

There are several purposes to being a research faculty:

• to be the advisor of record of a student
• to be able to unilaterally sign directed research credits
• to more formally (e.g., including votes) participate in the CS faculty
• to be a PI on certain research grants and contracts (a rule more general across some USC schools, though this is not the primary purpose of being research faculty)

Rights and Responsibilities

Rights

• Faculty status (may join the Faculty Club, etc. - listed as faculty)
• May teach (up to one class per academic year only)
• Chair Ph.D. committees
• Member Ph.D. qualifying and Ph.D. thesis committees
• Advise M.S. and Ph.D. students
• PI on research grants and contracts
• Vote on all non-tenure-track decisions and other department issues (including appointments of research faculty at or below the individual's level).

Note: A non-faculty may also teach courses, but all other above functions must be supervised by a faculty member.

Responsibilities

• Encouraged to attend at faculty meetings (not required)
• Should participate in the department in a substantive way (teach, advise, develop curricula, assist admissions, etc.)

Application and Retention

Research faculty must be full-time employees of USC; exceptions are approved by the CS Chair and Dean of Engineering. Most current exceptions are former full-time employees who retain their research faculty appointments after leaving USC, to continue to advise students (typically those they already advise).

Evaluations are performed on the same criteria used for tenure-track faculty, excepting considerations of salary financing and full-time teaching load.

Application Procedure:

All questions about the application procedure or about the status of pending applications should be directed to cschair@usc.edu.

Research Assistant Professor:

Candidate forwards the following to the department (cschair@usc.edu):

• Resume
• List of references - at least 3, including (for recent graduates, within 5 years) the candidate's primary Ph.D. advisor, most recent work supervisor, current work supervisor, etc. At least 2 of the letters should be from references with academic appointments if possible, and all three letters should come from outside USC. Additional letters from within USC are not encouraged, except for the applicant's immediate supervisor(s).
• Statement of interest, describing the reasons for desiring an appointment. This letter should address specific interest in participation in the department in developing curricula, advising students, participating in department procedures (reviewing applications, etc.), etc.

Candidate solicits letters of recommendation from the references. These letters should be addressed to the CS Dept. Chair, "ATTN: (name) research faculty appointment". These letters are expected to explicitly address the candidate's background, research potential, and interest in participating in the department as faculty. Letters may be sent on paper or via email.

Candidate gives a technical presentation on campus, and spends the day meeting with faculty and students.

Research Associate Professor / Research Professor:

The instructions below apply only to those who are not yet research faculty. For questions about promotion to research associate professor, or research professor, please contact cschair@usc.edu.

Candidate forwards the following to the department (cschair@usc.edu):

• Resume
• List of references - at least 10, including notable researchers and faculty in the candidate's field. This list should include contact information (at least email addresses). Candidates may want to contact these individuals for permission to include them in the list before submission.
• Statement of interest, describing the reasons for desiring an appointment. This letter should address specific interest in participation in the department in developing curricula, advising students, participating in department procedures (reviewing applications, etc.), etc.

The candidate does NOT solicit letters of recommendation. Instead, the committee solicits letters from a subset of the references provided, as well as other notable researchers not listed as references.

Requirements to Retain:

Research faculty are expected to continue to contribute to the CS Department in any of the following ways:

• Participate in faculty meetings (invited but not required)
• Publication in the scientific literature
• Supervise graduate students
• Perform other activities visible in the scientific community (officerships, chairships, etc.)

These criteria are evaluated yearly, on examination of an Annual Faculty Record submitted by individual research faculty on their own behalf.

Appointment will normally be for 3 years for Research Assistant Professors; 5 years for Research Associate Professors and Research Professors. In the Fall of the last year of the Appointment, the faculty member will submit an updated CV plus a personal statement listing past and planned involvement with the department. In those cases where the Chair is concerned that the level of involvement may be inadequate to justify reappointment, the Chair will establish a three member faculty committee (containing at least one tenure-track and at least one research member) to recommend reappointment or non-reappointment. Reappointments are voted on by all eligible faculty.