DePaul University
ER-19: Interdisciplinary Research in Tenure and Promotion

The University Faculty handbook has two mentions of interdisciplinary in the section on Evaluation of Faculty. “The determination that an individual meets these criteria is made primarily on the basis of guidelines promulgated by the candidate’s department or – in the absence of departmental structures – by the college or school, which state what is to be expected of faculty with regard to the above areas. These guidelines are to be informed by criteria specific to that unit’s professional discipline, field or interdisciplinary area. The academic unit employs these guidelines only after they have been approved as being consistent with the general university criteria stated in this Faculty Handbook.” “The faculty of a department, college or school will determine which forms of scholarship particularly advance and communicate knowledge within a disciplinary or interdisciplinary field and how the products of scholarship will be weighed.”

The current Faculty Handbook has language that allows for guidelines in interdisciplinary fields, but there is no requirement that gives positive recognition to it. In particular, the language would only apply to faculty in an interdisciplinary unit.