The Heller School for Social Policy and Management is currently implementing a policy to have faculty from the Undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences affiliate with the Heller School, according to Dean of the Heller School Lisa Lynch in an interview with the Justice.These affiliates, according to Lynch, would be able to teach or co-teach courses, give guest lectures, serve as resources to students in doctoral programs at Heller or collaborate in research at any of the centers or institutes.

According to an Aug. 9, 2010 proposal titled "Policy on Affiliated Faculty" outlining the details of the policy, nominees must hold a primary position in one of the University's other schools and be sponsored by a member of the Heller faculty. Nominations would be due by April 1, before the April Heller School faculty meeting.

Sponsors for the nominees-scientists, fellows or other faculty members-will complete and submit a rationale, along with specific activities during the affiliate's term.

The nominee would then have to be approved by Heller faculty, Lynch and the chair of the department with which the nominee would be affiliated.

The nominee would then serve a 3-year term as an affiliate, which could be renewed.

During his or her term, an affiliate is listed as Heller faculty but is ineligible to vote in Heller faculty meetings.

According to the proposal, the goal of affiliation is to "recognize and facilitate the involvement in The Heller School of faculty from other parts of the University."

Lynch said that faculty from the Heller School have been affiliated with Arts and Sciences in the past, such as Prof. Anita Hill (Heller), who is affiliated with the Women's and Gender Studies program; Prof. Tom Shapiro (Heller), who is affiliated with the Sociology department; and Senior Lecturer Joan Kaufman (Heller), who is affiliated with the East Asian Studies Program.

"We've had the affiliations happening, and they're becoming more robust," said Lynch.

The goal, says Lynch, is to have a concrete process for appointing affiliates to Heller. Lynch said that the affiliation policy was based off of a model proposed by Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe last fall.

The model Jaffe proposed was designed for faculty who would be affiliated with Arts and Sciences.

The model was adjusted to accommodate for the lower number of courses taught at Heller and the increased demand of theses by students at Heller than at Arts and Sciences.

Lynch said that Jaffe and Arts and Sciences department chairs approved nine new faculty members to Heller.

Eight are from Arts and Sciences and one is from the International Business School. The affiliates were approved last month. The proposal itself was approved by the Heller faculty last fall. Lynch said that the department chairs were all very enthusiastic about the affiliation program.

"This is a wonderful way of integrating the University and sharing resources," said Lynch.

"This is an intellectual community that is coming together," she later continued. "Barriers are coming down, and we're trying to promote vibrant exchange of ideas to the benefit of our students and to the benefit of our faculty and researchers."

According to Lynch, having affiliates among the schools would provide students with a larger amount of resources and creates more possibilities for organizing a course as well as more opportunities for student research.

Lynch said that there is no fixed number of affiliates that Heller aims to approve, but each nominee for affiliation will be reviewed by faculty to examine if the affiliation will be beneficial for the department or the school.

According to Lynch, the biggest obstacle with appointing affiliates is personal time constraints of faculty.

"There are so many other competing demands for [one's] time," said Lynch. "All parties are agreeing to set aside their scarce time to really make an investment to get to know this particular department or school or group of faculty members better [to work with them].