Will’s Teaching Professor FAQ

Updated in November 2024

I’m an Associate Teaching Professor here at UCSD. Lots of people aren’t sure what that means, and how we differ from other faculty or lecturers on campus, so here are some answers to common questions:

What is a teaching professor?

‘Teaching series’ professors are academic senate faculty, just like any other UCSD Faculty member, and have the same rules, regulations, and possibilities of tenure and advancement as any other assistant professor. We’re just hired specifically to focus on teaching and pedagogy, expanding the undergraduate course offerings of a department.

Can you get tenure?

Well, I did! Teaching professors have the ability to gain ‘security of employment’ (which, although titled differently for our series, is functionally equivalent to tenure), contingent on excellence in teaching, research, and service. At UCSD, ‘Security of Employment’/Tenure for teaching professors happens generally in the 6th year, and is the difference between the Assistant (LPSOE) and Associate (LSOE) ranks.

How are you different from the rest of the ‘ladder-rank’ professors?

The main differences are…

Teaching professors’ main priority is teaching, so we generally carry a higher course load and focus our efforts there
Teaching professors’ tenure and advancement criteria are very different, with holistic evidence of great teaching and innovative pedagogical work weighted more heavily than research and service
Teaching professors generally don’t take on graduate students, although they’re still encouraged to serve on dissertation committees and potentially co-advise students.
- I’ve chosen to take graduate students, though, so this isn’t a ‘law’
Teaching professors don’t generally start ‘labs’, and don’t have as many resources for funding students.

Is ‘Teaching professor’ like an adjunct, visiting professor, or lecturer?

No, at UCSD, teaching series faculty are full members of the academic senate, teaching a similar load every quarter, and have the possibility of advancement, tenure and sabbatical. Note that the ‘Lecturer with (possible) security of employment’ title confuses this matter, but we’re different from conventional ‘lecturers’

Are teaching professors treated equally?

Sadly, this varies from department to department. In my department, teaching professors are equal in all meaningful regards, differing only in our advancement criteria and expected teaching load. Similarly, at the UCSD campus level, we are voting senate faculty like any others, with very few differences. However, this isn’t universally the case, and there are some campuses and departments at UCSD where teaching professors are treated as second class citizens.

To get a sense of how you’ll be treated as you’re evaluating an offer on the Teaching Professor track, it’s worth asking whether teaching professors in your school and department can…

Vote on general department matters in faculty meetings?
- There are, shockingly, departments in which teaching professors have no ability to vote at all
- A UC-level attempt to ensure that teaching professors vote in every academic unit failed in 2024, so alas, this should not be taken for granted
Vote on reviews, tenure cases, and advancement? For whom?
- Note that some departments only allow teaching professors to vote on files for other teaching professors, where ladder-rank people can vote on all files, teaching and otherwise
Serve on dissertation committees?
- As a committee member?
- As a co-chair?
- As a chair?
Serve as PIs on grants?
- There can be some complexities to being sole PI at the UCSD campus level, but Co-PI and Co-I are easy
Serve in service roles in the department?
- Which ones?
Serve as department chair?
- I’m a Program Director, so there’s no problem with academic units being led by teaching professors at the campus level, but some departments may not

Do you get to teach graduate classes too?

Absolutely! Although our main focus is great undergraduate education, I do teach graduate classes as well, just a bit less frequently.

Can you supervise an Undergraduate Honors thesis or LIGN 199 Independent Study?

Absolutely! In this way, I’m no different from any other faculty member, and I’m happy to talk with you about your projects.

Can you serve on dissertation committees?

Absolutely. Just reach out to me and we’ll figure out if I’m a good fit.

Do you take on and advise graduate students? Do you chair dissertation committees?

I’m always happy to meet with any student in the department, providing advice, guidance, or help with specialized tools, and if we feel it would be a good fit, I would happily co-chair a dissertation committee with another faculty member.

That said, I will only in exceptional circumstances take on students ‘of my own’, and to take on a student directly and serve as an advisor is something I don’t generally do. Given my teaching load and my more limited opportunities to support you (as I don’t have a ‘lab’ to employ you as an RA), it’s likely better to have me as a co-chair or contributing member of your committee alongside one of my many excellent colleagues, rather than being your advisor directly.

This does mean that if you’re applying to UCSD specifically to work with me, you’ll want to reach out ahead of time to discuss your application, to see if I’m able to take on students, and to make sure it’d be an exceptionally good fit.

Do teaching professors take on university level service or work in the administration?

Absolutely, and I have. At UCSD, we have or have had teaching professors as department chairs, program directors, associate vice chancellors, provosts, and more. Although there are more research professors in these positions (which makes statistical sense!), there are few (if any) positions which a suitably qualified teaching professor cannot hold.

Will you ‘become’ a conventional, ladder-rank professor later in your career?

Teaching has always been one of my biggest passions, so the teaching track at UCSD is perfect for me, as it lets me focus on what I enjoy most. So, although it is possible to switch tracks, it’s extremely rare, and I don’t think I’d want to anyways!

What is an ‘LPSOE’? ‘LSOE’? ‘Associate Professor of Teaching’? Is that you?

Below are the official, working, and newly proposed titles for folks in the teaching track:

‘LPSOE’ (Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment) = ‘Assistant Teaching Professor’ = ‘Assistant Professor of Teaching’
‘LSOE’ (Lecturer with Security of Employment) = ‘Associate Teaching Professor’ = ‘Associate Professor of Teaching’
‘SLSOE’ (Senior Lecturer with Security of Employment) = ‘Teaching Professor’ = ‘Professor of Teaching’
‘DSLSOE’ (Distinguished Senior Lecturer with Security of Employment) = ‘Distinguished Teaching Professor’ = ‘Distinguished Professor of Teaching’

The ‘LSOE’ names have historically been the official University of California system title for the Teaching Professor series, but there is a proposed shift in 2024 away from the ‘LSOE’ titles and towards a new set of official titles in the ‘Associate Professor of Teaching’ format (with ‘Associate Teaching Professor’ as working titles). A rose by any other name.

So, on paper, I’m an ‘LSOE’, but those official names are quite misleading and silly, and the preferred, working titles for most teaching professors at UCSD are the “Associate Teaching Professor” style titles.

As in the general academic system, ‘LPSOE’ or Assistant Teaching Professors are pre-tenure, and ‘LSOE’ or Associate Teaching Professors (and beyond) have tenure (technically ‘security of employment’, but closely analogous).