Faculty Appointments & Review — College-level Procedures

A. Additions to Promotion Record
B. Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure
C. Candidate's Right to Respond to the Recommendation of the Collegiate Committee
D. Dean's Recommendation
E. Candidate's Right to Respond to a Negative Recommendation of the Dean

A. Additions to Promotion Record

If the candidate submits a letter of response to the Departmental Executive Officer’s letter to the Dean, the Dean will place the candidate’s letter in the Promotion Record. No unsolicited correspondence evaluating the candidate's record, whether signed or anonymous, will be entered into the Promotion Record at the Collegiate level.

B. Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure

The Collegiate Consulting Group (see definition) shall participate in the promotion decision-making process as follows:

The Dean adds the Collegiate Committee's letter to the Promotion Record before transmitting the Promotion Record to the Provost.

  1. Each year the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in consultation with the College's elected Executive Committee, appoints a Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure. The Committee consists of nine tenured full professors and two Professors of Instruction who represent the various disciplines of the College; members are appointed for one to three years and will serve no more than 3 years consecutively. Professors of Instruction serving on the committee only review instructional track promotion cases. A member of the Collegiate Committee participates in the promotion decision for a candidate from their department at the departmental level and may not participate in the Collegiate Committee's deliberations or voting in regard to that candidate.
  2. The Dean and the Associate Deans participate in the meetings of the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure. Neither the Dean nor the Associate Deans vote with the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure nor do they contribute to the written report summarizing the Collegiate Committee's discussion.
    The Dean of the College and those associate deans with appointments of 50% or greater in the Dean's Office are not part of the Departmental Consulting Group in the departments in which they hold faculty appointments. (See the definition of Departmental Consulting Group in these procedures.)
  3. The Promotion Record available to the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure will consist of the Promotion Record available to the Departmental Executive Officer, with the same sample of the candidate's scholarly or creative work that was sent to external evaluators.
    The Promotion Record available to the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure will also include the Departmental Executive Officer's letter and the candidate's letter(s) of response (if any) following receipt of the Departmental Consulting Group's recorded vote and discussion summary and the recommendation of the Departmental Executive Officer. For the information on student evaluations of teaching that is sent forward to the Dean's Office, see section I.D.6.
  4. If necessary, the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure may submit to the Departmental Consulting Group and/or the Departmental Executive Officer a written request for additional information or clarification of the Promotion Record.
  5. The Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure meets with the Dean and the Associate Deans:
    1. to discuss the candidate's qualifications,
    2. to vote and make a recommendation for or against the granting of promotion, with a 60% majority of those present for the discussion defining a positive recommendation for promotion, and
    3. to assign one or more of its members
      1. to prepare a summary report of the discussion, if its recommendation to the Dean is negative and contrary to that of the DCG or DEO;
      2. to document the final vote, and
      3. to enter that information into the Promotion Record.
  6. The Dean adds the Collegiate Committee's letter to the Promotion Record before transmitting the Promotion Record to the Provost.

C. Candidate's Right to Respond to the Recommendations of the Collegiate Committee

The candidate will be given the opportunity to respond to the Collegiate Committee’s recommendation under the following conditions:

  1. If the Collegiate Committee’s recommendation is negative and contrary to that of the DCG or DEO, the candidate shall be provided with a copy of the Collegiate Committee’s vote and summary report, and will have three days to request access to the Promotion Record, with the following provisions:
    a. the external reviews of the candidate’s scholarship must be redacted as appropriate to protect the confidentiality of reviewers; and
    b. any comments in the Promotion Record referring to external reviews of the candidate’s scholarship must be redacted as appropriate to protect the confidentiality of reviewers.
  2. The candidate will have 5 working days after receiving access to the Promotion Record to submit a written response to the Collegiate Committee’s negative recommendation.

D. Dean's Recommendation

In making the promotion recommendation, the Dean may, at the Dean’s discretion, consult with the College’s Associate Deans. The Dean shall participate in the promotion decision-making process as follows:

  1. If the candidate submits a written response to the Collegiate Committee’s negative recommendation, the Dean will place the response in the Promotion Record before making a recommendation to the Provost.
  2. When any materials that were not available at the time of the departmental action are forwarded by the Departmental Executive Officer to the Dean, the Dean, in consultation with the DEO, will make a determination whether it is likely that the new material would have substantially altered the departmental evaluation of the candidate’s record by the Departmental Consulting Group and/or the Departmental Executive Officer. If, in the Dean’s judgment, a substantial change in the departmental evaluation is likely, the Dean will return the case to the Departmental Executive Officer for reconsideration of the Promotion Record, as appropriate, so that the Dean will be able to act in the light of an accurate indication of departmental judgments.
    If the Dean does not return the case to the department, the Dean will annotate the new material when it is entered into the Promotion Record, for the Provost's information, stating that it was not reviewed by the Departmental Consulting Group or the DEO.
  3. Based on the Promotion Record, including the response of the candidate, if any, to the report of the Collegiate Committee, the Dean will recommend that promotion be granted or denied in a separate letter to the Provost for each candidate.
  4. The Dean’s letter to the Provost will explain the Dean’s reasons for recommending for or against promotion. As with previous steps in this process, the Dean’s letter to the Provost shall not reiterate the details of material that already is in the dossier; rather, it shall identify those aspects of the dossier that formed the basis of the Dean’s recommendation.
  5. When the Dean’s recommendation is contrary to the vote of the Departmental Consulting Group, the recommendation of the Departmental Executive Officer, and/or the vote of the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure, the Dean’s letter will explain why the contrary recommendation is being made.
  6. The Dean’s letter will be transmitted to the Provost as part of the candidate’s Promotion Record.
  7. At the same time that the Dean’s letter is submitted to the Provost, the Dean will inform the Departmental Executive Officer of the recommendation that has been forwarded to the Provost. The DEO, in turn, will inform the members of the DCG of the Dean’s recommendation and also will inform the candidate if the Dean’s recommendation is positive.
  8. The Dean will transmit to the Provost one copy of the Promotion Record for each candidate in the College, and a single copy of these CLAS Procedures governing promotion decision making.

E. Candidate's Right to Respond to a Negative Recommendation of Dean

The candidate will be given the opportunity to respond to a negative recommendation by the Dean as follows:

  1. At the same time that the Promotion Record is submitted to the Provost, if the Dean’s recommendation is against promotion, the Dean will provide the candidate with a copy of the Dean’s letter to the Provost.
  2. In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the candidate will be allowed 3 working days after receiving the Dean's letter containing a negative recommendation to submit a request to the Provost for access to the Promotion Record, with the following provisions:
    a. the external reviews of the candidate’s scholarship must be redacted as appropriate to protect the confidentiality of reviewers; and
    b. any comments in the Promotion Record referring to external reviews of the candidate’s scholarship must be redacted as appropriate to protect the confidentiality of reviewers.
  3. In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the candidate will be allowed 5 working days after receiving access to the Promotion Record, to submit
    a. a written response to the Dean’s recommendation and
    b. any additional information to be included in the Promotion Record.
  4. If the candidate submits a letter of response to the Provost for inclusion in the Promotion Record, the candidate shall also give the Dean a copy of the response.