Capacity Model Policy
Scope
Full-time tenured Indiana University Kokomo faculty.
Policy Statement
All full-time tenured faculty must demonstrate ongoing productivity in relevant research, scholarship or creative activity. Minimally, tenured faculty must provide a letter of acceptance of one article from the editor or publisher of a reputable peer-reviewed professional journal, one book chapter, or a letter from a publisher indicating a book contract by the end of a three-year period. A faculty member who receives a book contract will have three years from the date of the contract to complete the book; if the book is not in print at the end of the three years, the faculty member must produce a letter from the publisher confirming completion. Faculty engaged in creative activities must provide a letter of acceptance of one juried exhibition, production or recital from the director of a relevant professional venue by the end of a three-year period.
Reason for Policy
The Capacity Model provides IU Kokomo academic administrators with a tool and a process for monitoring and providing support for tenured faculty research, scholarship and creative agendas, while also ensuring that units, programs and students benefit from the sustained efforts and contributions of all who teach and mentor within the campus academic mission.
The customary teaching load for all full-time, pre-tenure and tenured faculty at IU Kokomo is 12 credit hours per semester, with three-credit hours of this teaching load routinely reassigned each semester to provide time for research, scholarship and creative activities.
Pre-tenure faculty must receive this reassigned time to be considered for tenure and promotion. The mechanisms for accountability of this reassigned time are annual reports, evaluations, and reappointment processes, and the overarching promotion and tenure process, which measures productivity using unit, campus and university criteria at the conclusion of a five-year probationary period. While the Capacity Model does not apply to assistant professors, they are reviewed annually for the reappointment process. Research productivity is a component of annual reviews and thus is considered when making reappointment decisions.
Tenured faculty receive this reassigned time when their research, scholarship or creative productivity is consistent with Capacity Model expectations, which measures productivity using uniform campus-level criteria applied in three-year intervals, with the first application of the three-year cycle (“clock”) beginning on the effective date of tenure.
Procedures
Each calendar year tenured faculty must submit via the IU Elements portal details of the research, scholarship or creative activity completed that year; this information serves as the basis for the decision to either continue or discontinue the awarding of reassigned time for that purpose.
Each academic year Deans will recommend to the EVCAA a three-credit hour per semester reassignment to provide time to continue to engage in research, scholarship or creative activity for the following year for tenured faculty in their units who meet Capacity Model expectations.
Capacity Model cycles continue on a rolling basis, with clocks reset for a new three-year cycle each time an article, chapter, book, exhibition, production or recital is produced; resets begin at the conclusion of the semester in which the relevant work is completed.
Each academic year Deans may recommend to the EVCAA discontinuation of a three-credit hour per semester reassignment for research, scholarship or creative activity for the following year for tenured faculty in their units who do not meet Capacity Model expectations.
Alternatively, Deans may recommend continued reassigned time for research, scholarship and creative activity on a probationary basis that specifies measurable productivity benchmarks for the following year for tenured faculty in their units who do not meet Capacity Model expectations.
Acting on these recommendations and in concert with the broader responsibilities and perspectives of the office, the EVCAA will approve or deny reassigned time for research, scholarship or creative activity for each tenured faculty member for the following academic year.
Capacity Model clocks are paused when reassigned time for research, scholarship or creative activity is discontinued for a tenured faculty member, who subsequently will be evaluated annually on teaching and service activities; research, scholarship and creative activities are welcomed and supported to the extent possible but are not a requirement for satisfactory performance. Faculty who have no reassignment for research or creative activities do not receive an evaluative rating for such activities. Note, they should still document any such activities in their annual reports. For example, a faculty member with no reassigned time for research who makes a presentation at a scholarly conference should still note it, and an administrator could commend them for it. What an administrator cannot do is assign an evaluative rating (including a rating of unsatisfactory) to a faculty member who lacks reassigned time for research or creative activities.
Tenured faculty whose reassigned time for research, scholarship or creative activity has been discontinued may petition their academic Dean and the EVCAA to have that reassignment reinstated after one full academic year, or at the completion of each academic year thereafter. If after this decision is made the faculty member subsequently completes an appropriate activity, the dean and EVCAA have the discretion to restore reassigned time in less than a year, as long as there is not a deleterious impact on the schedule of classes.
Three-year Capacity Model clocks restart on the effective date of reinstatement of reassigned time.
Tenured faculty who hold full-time academic administrative positions are not subject to the three-year Capacity Model cycle. Three-year clocks are paused on the effective date of administrative appointment and reset for a three-year period on the effective date an administrative post is vacated.
Capacity Model clocks may be paused for leaves of absence (subject to university policies and guidelines governing such leaves), other interruptions in service, or work on specific and extraordinary projects or duties that advance the mission of the academic unit or institution, subject to approval of the Dean and the EVCAA.
Office of Academic Affairs, Spring 2026
Previous version written in 1996 and amended in 2014, 2018, and 2020
