The University encourages full-time faculty to participate in professional activities administered or sponsored by external entities when these activities provide opportunities for professional growth and development related to their discipline; support positive contributions to instructional programs and the University; and do not conflict or interfere with the faculty member’s obligations to the University.
Examples of acceptable outside professional and employment activities include:
- Practicing a profession on a part-time basis;
- Testifying as an expert in administrative, judicial, or legislative hearings;
- Serving on a corporate or non-profit board;
- Participating in or accepting a commission for a musical, dramatic, dance or other artistic performance or event sponsored by an external entity;
- Providing professional, managerial, or technical consulting services to an external entity; and
- Other professional activities not considered part of service or scholarship activities that are expected of full-time faculty
Before engaging in outside professional and/or employment activities, the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost must be apprised of such activities in writing so that they may be duly recognized and documented by the University. All full-time faculty must complete and submit the Permission to Accept Outside Employment form to their Academic Program Administrator at least once per year, on or before the Thursday after Commencement Week in May. New full-time faculty must complete and submit the Permission to Accept Outside Employment form on or before the start of their first semester. If an additional opportunity for outside professional and/or employment activity arises during a faculty member’s contract period, the Permission to Accept Outside Employment form must be completed and approved prior to the faculty member accepting.
All outside professional and employment activities must be clearly subordinate to the faculty member’s teaching, advising, scholarship, and service responsibilities. Significant outside professional activities and/or employment that suggest a conflict with the faculty member’s obligations to the University, such as teaching at another institution, may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The following University facilities may be used by faculty members in connection with approved outside professional activities:
- Personal office space, excluding personal client interaction;
- Office phone (for local telephone calls);
- Email account; and
- Personal computer, if available.
The individual faculty member’s contract shall take precedence over anything contained in this policy.
Revised November, 25 2025