Invitations from international entities for “tutorial” work
FAS faculty are advised to be wary of invitations from international entities for “tutorial” work.
To: All FAS faculty
Cc: FAS Steering; FAS Dean’s Office; FAS Chair’s Assistants, Operations Managers, and Lead Administrators; President’s Office; Provost’s Office
[Summary: FAS faculty are advised to be wary of invitations from international entities for “tutorial” work.]
Dear FAS Faculty,
The FAS Dean’s Office has received a number of queries from FAS faculty who have received invitations from international entities that offer generous remuneration, often for a relatively small time commitment. These invitations sometimes come from organizations that purport to serve as an intermediary between you and an international high school, undergraduate, or graduate student who may or may not be currently in the U.S., and who may be interested generally in your field(s) of research or specifically in your work. These offers are frequently presented as an opportunity to become a short-term instructor in an online, one-on-one, research program or to teach a short, online course.
We have reviewed a number of these offers and have conferred with colleagues at Yale and elsewhere. The guidance provided is that you should be wary of such invitations and, in general, ignore or decline them. While not true in all cases, some entities have been known, subsequent to engaging Yale faculty, to misrepresent their relationship to Yale, or suggest that participation in the sessions they have facilitated with a Yale professor will help a student gain admission to Yale or another leading academic institution. Affiliations with these organizations also can present potential conflicts of interest or commitment. In short, many of these arrangements can lead to complications, some of which we can anticipate and others we cannot. For these reasons, we advise you to avoid them.
Regarding more traditional offers from colleges and universities and other educational institutions to engage in teaching or lecturing while on the full-time faculty at Yale, we remind you of the following passages from the Faculty Handbook:
- III.E. Appointments and terms of employment
“….No member of the faculty at any rank employed full-time at Yale may hold a teaching position, whether full-time or part-time, even a visiting one, at another institution during the academic year without special permission from the Provost, and in such cases additional compensation is not permitted. With prior approval from the Provost, a faculty member may accept a temporary visiting appointment at another institution while on an unpaid leave of absence from Yale.”
- XXII.E.2.b Outside Interests and Employment
Outside teaching activities that do not require disclosure or prior approval by the cognizant provost include:
- delivering individual lectures at other academic institutions, at conferences, or at public gatherings (with or without remuneration);
- teaching summer courses at Yale or elsewhere by faculty not receiving other summer compensation for the period in question; and
- posting non-interactive educational materials on a website.
If you have further questions, please contact Senior Associate Deans Bob Burger (robert.burger@yale.edu) or John Mangan (john.mangan@yale.edu).
With thanks and best wishes,
Tamar
Tamar Szabó Gendler
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science