SWU's Guild Ranks & Promotion Policy

Guild Ranks

Non-officer Ranks

You can consider your character to have rightfully and legitimately achieved the rank they’ve attained in our guild. As well as it is a step in your character’s path of development, we encourage you to represent them in your TRP profiles and with in-game titles (when applicable)!

The ranks in our guild are now as follows:

Assistant Professor →

Associate Professor →

Professor →

University Professor →

Distinguished Professor

Officer Ranks

Department Head - Members in this rank are responsible for the administrative functioning of the guild, including recruitment, advancement, dismissal, events, and so on.  These members are here to help any guild member and have the Dean’s blessing to do what is in the best interest of the University

Adjunct (Ofc.) - This is the OOC/Alt and RP/Alt  rank for the Dean and Department Heads.

Dean - The head of Stormwind University, responsible for organization of guild policy, ranks, and other administrative functions. Does not act alone, but implements changes with the cooperation and agreement of Department Heads.

Misc. Ranks

OOC/Alt - this rank is for Non-RP alts brought into the guild.

Adjunct - RP alt formally inducted into the university.

Emeritus - This is a rank for members at Assistant Professor rank or above who are taking a break from World of Warcraft, but plan to return to the guild.  Any member that does not sign on for more than 14 days will be removed from the guild, and must reapply upon their return.  If you need to leave us for an extended period but would like to retain your membership, just let us know in the game or on the forums and we'll keep you in our roster in a special “Emeritus” rank for up to 3 months.  Characters at this rank are basically "frozen" and waiting for their players to return.  In-game, we might say they're on "sabbatical".  

Promotion Policy

Promotion and advancement along our tenure track will be achieved solely by IC means, and can be completed at any pace. Note, this is also optional. If you have no desire to be promoted, then you are under absolutely no obligation to use this system.

It works as simply as this:

1. Make some sort of contribution to your field and post it to your personal topic in the Faculty Portfolio Forum.This contribution can be anything: your notes from in-game class, the synopsis of a one-off event related to your field, a research paper, or maybe even a short story describing your character as they perform in their field—let your imagination soar! If you are unsure of whether or not your contribution will make you eligible for promotion, we welcome you to ask myself or any other officer! We’ll be sure to work with your idea and make sure it’s valid! For convenience, we ask that you head all posts containing your contributions with “Contribution to (Your Field)” in large, bold text.

2. Notify myself or any other officer about your contribution via in-game messages or forum PM and we will review it.

3. Pending our approval (which is almost guaranteed), your promotion will be made official! We will contact you and arrange a promotion ceremony, a small in-game event just for you in celebration of the work you’ve put into making Stormwind University so great.

Now, to keep this all organized, there are a couple of other guidelines and restrictions:

• You will NOT be eligible for another promotion within thirty days of your last promotion ceremony. This will be clearly noted with a post to your own personal topic. Any contribution made within those thirty days will not be valid in making you eligible for another promotion. This is to prevent members from progressing too quickly; while we greatly appreciate any work you put into our guild, this system is meant for the long term—something to work on for a very long time! Even so, you are encouraged to plan and prepare your next contribution during this time, and are more than welcome to post it as soon as you are eligible again!

• Any previously-made contributions to your field, that is, any kind of contribution made before this system was implemented, will NOT be valid in making you eligible for promotion. In this way, everyone started with a clean slate and on equal footing.

• Any events you make as a contribution to your field must be one-off and concluded in a single session. There should be no unreasonable cliffhangers or unresolved plotlines. This is not to say that all questions must be answered, but there should be a clear and definite conclusion. No event will be valid in making you eligible for promotion if they occur within thirty days of your last promotion ceremony. A short synopsis of your event should be posted to your personal topic on this forum to be reviewed.

• You are absolutely welcome to host public in-game classes as your contribution to your field. Every individual class is in itself valid in making you eligible for promotion, provided that it occurs more than thirty days after your last promotion ceremony and that you post comprehensive notes from your class to your personal topic on this forum.

• Promotions are considered to be advancements in your field, so while it is by no means required, it’s recommended that your contributions build off of one another, and that each succeeding delve further into your field. Interpret this however you like—again, it’s totally up to you!