Michigan State University
ER-19: Interdisciplinary Research in Tenure and Promotion

"At MSU, faculty are expected to be both active scholars and student-focused, demonstrating substantial scholarship and ability to promote learning through our on-campus and off-campus education and research programs. The essence of scholarship is the thoughtful discovery, transmission, and application of knowledge, including creative activities, that is based in the ideas and methods of recognized disciplines, professions, and interdisciplinary fields. What qualifies an activity as scholarship is that it be deeply informed by the most recent knowledge in the field, that the knowledge is skillfully interpreted and deployed, and that the activity is carried out with intelligent openness to new information, debate, and criticism."

From: "Appointment, Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion Recommendations" in the MSU Faculty Handbook, at
http://www.hr.msu.edu/documents/facacadhandbooks/facultyhandbook/recommendations.htm

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"Approximately one third of tenure system faculty have a joint appointment, with a trend toward an increasing proportion of joint appointments among new hires. Recent data show that faculty who are jointly appointed 100% of the time (all of their appointments are joint appointments) have the shortest average time prior to a promotion and/or tenure action."

From "Responses to Questions Raised at the Tenure System New Faculty Orientation 2008" at
http://fod.msu.edu/orientation/Responses_to_Questions%20Raised_at_the_Tenure_System_New_Faculty_Orientation_2008.pdf