General Principles
Definitions
CLAS Timeline for Promotion and Tenure Process
The Promotion Record
Special Cases
Timing of Reviews
Other Considerations
General Principles
The Procedures for Promotion and Tenure Decision Making establish a uniform system of procedures to be used in all academic units of the University.
The University has allowed the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to establish additional procedures governing its tenure and promotion decision-making, to guide its departments on points where the University's guidelines require or permit flexibility or variation.
These are procedures only. For University policies regarding criteria for tenure and promotion, refer to section III.10.2 of the Operations Manual. Review the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences criteria for faculty rank. The substantive standards contained therein must be satisfied and are not affected by these procedures.
These Procedures rely upon several principles:
- Decisions granting or denying tenure or promotion should be based on a written record of achievement.
- The content of the record that will be relied upon should be known by the candidate and the decision-makers.
- Except for variation related to the nature of the candidate’s academic activity, the content of the record should be the same for all candidates in the same academic unit.
- The governing procedures should be the same for all candidates across the University except where conditions or academic cultures justify variation among colleges or among departments within a college.
- University and College procedures should be applied consistently to all candidates.
- Each faculty member participating in the tenure and promotion decision-making process may do so at only one level of the process: departmental, collegiate, or provostial. Faculty with collegiate or provostial administrative appointments of 50% or greater shall participate in their administrative office, except in rare and special circumstances at the discretion of the Provost.
The Promotion Record
The qualifications of a candidate for promotion will be determined on the basis of the Promotion Record.
The items below are a general University-wide list of materials suggested by the office of the Provost. But CLAS departments must use the Table of Contents.
i. the Recommendation for Faculty Promotion cover sheet;
ii. the collegiate Dean's letter making a recommendation to the Provost;
iii. the vote (and discussion summary, if any) of the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure;
iv. the Departmental Executive Officer's letter making a recommendation to the Dean;
v. the recommendation, vote, and report of the Departmental Consulting Group;
vi. any letters submitted by the candidate at specified stages of the process to correct errors in the internal peer evaluations of the candidate's teaching, scholarship, and service or in the Departmental Consulting Group report, or to respond to a letter or report of the Departmental Executive Officer, the Dean, or the Collegiate Committee on Faculty Promotion and Tenure;
vii. the candidate's Curriculum Vitae (CLAS Standard CV), which is accessible via the Academic & Professional Record (APR) on Self-Service;
viii. a section on the candidate's teaching, including
1. the candidate's personal statement on teaching,
2. documentation of peer evaluation of the candidate's teaching, and
3. other materials related to the candidate's teaching;
ix. a section on the candidate's scholarship, including
1. the candidate's personal statement on scholarship,
2. letters from external reviewers;
3. documentation of internal peer evaluation of the candidate's scholarship, and
4. other materials related to the candidate's scholarship;
x. a section on the candidate's service, including
1. the candidate's personal statement on service,
2. documentation of peer evaluation of the candidate's service, and
3. other materials related to the candidate's service;
xi. in reviews for tenure, the following materials from the candidate's third-year probationary review for contract renewal: the DEO’s letter, the Dean’s letter, and the candidate’s response(s) to the DEO’s and/or Dean’s letter
Special Cases
If the department does not have at least four faculty members eligible and available to participate in the P&T Committee and the DCG, during the Spring semester the DEO consults with the Dean prior to inviting appropriate eligible faculty from outside the department to participate in the promotion and tenure process.
If the DEO is seeking promotion or is ineligible to participate in a promotion or tenure decision, the Dean in consultation with the eligible faculty designates an eligible faculty member to perform the promotion and/or tenure related duties assigned to the DEO.
For reviews of jointly appointed faculty, see Appendix E.
Timing of Reviews
Review of not-yet-tenured faculty
The date of the tenure review is established in the letter of initial appointment (although this deadline may be extended for specific reasons with the approval of the Dean and the Provost). If a candidate wishes to undergo tenure review before the year required, he or she must request the review in a letter to the DEO by April 1 of the calendar year in which the review will be initiated. If a candidate requests an early review for tenure, the DEO must submit the written request and an updated copy of the candidate's CV to the Dean by April 15. In those cases of required review for tenure in which an important aspect of the scholarly record is the publication of a book not yet in print, the dossier must include the completed manuscript and the letter from the publisher making the final commitment to publish the book, with a copy of the final contract. In cases in which a candidate seeks early review for tenure and in which an important aspect of the scholarly record is the publication of a book, the candidate is normally ready to be considered for promotion only if the book is in print.
Review for promotion to professor
A tenured faculty member who wishes to be reviewed for promotion to full professor must also request the review by April 1 of the calendar year in which the review will be initiated. The College deems it inappropriate for a tenured faculty who has been denied promotion to full professor to be reviewed again until the promotion record has changed substantially. Therefore, a faculty member must ordinarily wait at least a year after being denied promotion to full professor before requesting another review. In those cases of review for promotion to professor in which an important aspect of the scholarly record is the publication of a book, the candidate is normally ready to be considered for promotion only if the book is in print. The dossier should also include any published reviews of the book (see I.B.3.d.iii and vii).
Notification to the Dean's Office
By April 15, the DEO forwards to their area Associate Dean a list of all departmental faculty undergoing review for promotion and/or tenure in the upcoming academic year. The DEO includes the CV of a faculty member requesting an early review for tenure or requesting review for promotion to full professor.
Other Considerations
A candidate has the right to withdraw his or her dossier from further consideration at any point before the Provost has made his/her final decision regarding tenure and/or promotion. In the case of a mandatory tenure review, withdrawal of the dossier must be accompanied by a letter of resignation effective no later than one year past the end of the current appointment. If a candidate withdraws his or her dossier from further consideration, the original dossier, including appendices and any supplemental materials added by the candidate, shall be returned to the candidate. All other materials in the Promotion Record at the time of withdrawal shall be returned to the candidate's department, which shall retain them following the normal departmental or collegiate schedule for retention of promotion and tenure materials. The candidate shall not have access to these materials.
A college, or department with the concurrence of its college, may apply in individual cases to the Provost for an exemption from any of these Procedures for a legitimate and valid reason. The college or department has the burden of convincing the Provost that the exemption adds value, fairness and weight to the evaluation.
These Procedures apply to tenure-track faculty only.