Visiting, Voluntary, Joint Appointments

Voluntary Faculty Appointments

Appointment to the voluntary faculty of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California is an honor. It recognizes those who voluntarily donate their time and energies to assist in teaching, patient care, and/or research within our institution. You can find further details in the Voluntary Faculty Guidelines (KSOM)

• Recommendation for Voluntary Faculty Appointment Request Form

Visiting Scholar Appointments

A Visiting Scholar is an individual on a temporary appointment who is: (a) on leave from another university or college; (b) on leave from industry, government, an artistic career, or the professions; or (c) citizens of another country limited by their visas to temporary service, and who also satisfy either clause (a) or clause (b). This appointment is inappropriate for other faculty hired short-term or temporary.

The department’s request to OFAAI for a visiting scholar appointment must include the following:

• a letter of support from the department chair, including dates when the candidate will be visiting and the work they will be performing
• the candidate’s CV

Joint and Dual Appointments

Faculty may receive one or more joint appointments in other school(s) at USC or dual appointments within different departments at the Keck School (or Institutes, as described below). The appointments are usually of identical rank.

Secondary Appointments (Joint and Dual)

Faculty may receive one or more joint appointments in other school(s) at USC or dual appointments within other departments at the Keck School (or Institutes, as described below). The appointments are usually at the same rank. When there is no allocation of resources or support by the secondary unit (school, department, or institute), it is considered a “courtesy” appointment. Courtesy appointments may allow faculty to host graduate students from the secondary unit according to their policies, but the secondary unit still has no financial responsibility for the faculty member.

There are, in addition, joint or dual appointments that are not “courtesy appointments,” which may include dedicated salary or other support from the secondary unit. These are negotiated between the two department chairs and the two Deans of the schools for joint appointments and between the two department chairs with the approval of the Dean for dual appointments. Even if 50% of the support of a faculty member is provided by each of the two schools or departments within the Keck School, one of the two schools or departments must be declared the primary appointment. One must be declared as the secondary appointment to ensure a single unit is ultimately responsible for meeting that faculty member’s needs.

Secondary appointments are usually made for a specified term for faculty who are clinical, research, or tenure-track and are traditionally “continuous” if a faculty member has tenure. Secondary appointments may be made according to department-specific criteria (e.g., the secondary appointee must participate in teaching, graduate training, mentoring, research activities, etc.) and can be withdrawn at the will of the secondary unit if those criteria are no longer being met.

The UCAPT manual and these Keck School AP Guidelines specify that when candidates on any track are considered for promotion and/or tenure, the secondary department (joint or dual) needs to be involved in the decision. Tenure is granted only in the primary school.

Institutes that grant membership rights (such as the Zilkha Neurogenetics Institute or Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine) are treated as secondary appointments, and the Institute Director acts as the secondary “Department Chair” in providing documentation in promotion or appointment dossiers.

Please contact the Keck Office for Faculty Affairs for information about establishing a secondary appointment.