6.1 Promotion Procedures

Governing Policies

Section 8, Faculty Handbook – Promotion and Tenure

Considerations

As required by the Faculty Handbook, deadlines and format of the promotion/tenure application process for the upcoming academic year will be announced by Academic Affairs by the end of spring break. The current calendar is available on the Academic Affairs website. Faculty are strongly encouraged to let their Department Heads know in April about their intent to go forward for promotion so that the Department Head can start determining letter writers for tenure-line faculty before summer. Departments should forward their list of anticipated candidates to Academic Affairs by the last day of the spring semester.

The Faculty Handbook provides detailed process specifics for promotion and tenure of tenure/tenure-track faculty, and promotion of teaching, research and library faculty. Additional policies regarding the handling of specifics related to these processes are provided below:

  1. Faculty Eligibility on Departmental Promotion and Tenure Committee: Participation in the tenure/review process is a required service activity for all eligible committee members that are not on sabbatical or extended leave. Faculty members who are otherwise eligible to participate in a Departmental Promotion and Tenure (DPT) Committee, but who are on sabbatical or leave may – at their discretion – choose to not participate in DPT Committee activities. If faculty on sabbatical or leave choose to participate in the promotion and tenure process, they are expected do so as full members of the DPT Committee and have identical expectations and obligations to the DPT process as faculty members not on sabbatical/leave. If faculty on sabbatical choose to not participate, they are not considered an “eligible” member of the Committee as defined in item 4 below.  Associate Deans participating in the Promotion and Process in the Dean's office do not participate in the DPT Committee. Faculty serving on the University Promotion and Tenure (UPT) Committee can still participate in their DPT Committee since they will recuse themselves from those cases at the UPT level.
  2. Letter Requests: As provided by the Faculty Handbook, the Department Head is required to solicit external evaluations of tenure-line candidates' credentials. All letters received from this solicitation must be added to the candidate’s application package, following the procedure and expectations identified in Section 6.3 of this Procedures Manual. 
  3. Confidentiality of Letters: All external letters are kept confidential and are not made available to promotion/tenure applicants before, during, or after the promotion/tenure process. Should the DPT Committee and/or the Department Head, in their recommendations, refer by name to a person who has submitted a reference and cited that person’s specific opinions, these names and any identifying comments should be redacted before the recommendations are provided to the applicant at the conclusion of the process.
  4. Departmental Promotion and Tenure Committee Process: The DPT Committee shall examine the dossier, prepare a written tenure report containing a recommendation, and forward the dossier and report to the Department Head. In preparing this recommendation, the DPT Committee must consider the criteria for tenure and or promotion listed in the Faculty Handbook. Guidelines for various paths to success are also provided in Section 6.6 of this Procedures Manual. Before the deadline for submission, DPT may also review dossiers to ensure they are meeting University guidelines and are well organized; dossiers that do not meet these criteria should be returned to the faculty member for improvements in organization or clarity prior to submission. As part of its recommendation, the DPT Committee shall hold a vote. The committee’s report should communicate the vote tally and number of faculty who were recused from the deliberations. Votes should only be 'yea' or 'nay', with details in the main text. In the case of a split vote, an additional letter or section summarizing the dissenting view also must be submitted and shared with subsequent parties to the review process. Committee members should not abstain from voting in difficult and/or contentious cases. Committee members should, however, disclose conflicts of interest to other members of the committee. In the event of serious conflicts of interest (e.g., a family relative or a previously formal academic advisor) a committee member may, in consultation with the committee chair, recuse themselves from deliberations about that specific case. Throughout and following the process, the content of the deliberations and the individual recommendations and votes of committee members must be kept in the strictest confidence. The committee letter(s) shall be so written as to protect confidentiality. The DPT's letter(s) should be added to the application package before submission of the package to the Department Head. At least ¾ of the eligible members of the Committee must participate in the vote.  
  5. Department Head Process: The Department Head reviews the application package and the DPT Committee recommendation and makes their own written recommendation, which is added to the application package.  In preparing this recommendation, the Department Head must consider the criteria for tenure and/or promotion listed in the Faculty Handbook and should contextualize success in the candidate's discipline. Guidelines for various paths to success are also provided in Section 6.6 of this Procedures Manual. Department Heads are also responsible for review of dossiers to ensure they are meeting University guidelines and are well organized; dossiers that do not meet these criteria should be returned to the faculty member for improvements in organization or clarity prior to moving forward to Academic Affairs. For jointly appointed faculty, formal inclusion of contributions to split appointments or interdisciplinary programs must be considered in promotion and tenure dossiers. The complete application package is forwarded to the Provost in the format directed by the Office of Academic Affairs. The written recommendation produced by the Department Head should be added to the application package before submission of the package to the Provost.
  6. University Promotion and Tenure Committee Process: The Office of Academic Affairs shall make complete application packages available to the UPT Committee for their review. The UPT Committee shall conduct a thorough and independent review of all tenure applications received during the relevant time period. The Committee will consider the criteria for tenure and or promotion listed in the Faculty Handbook. Guidelines for various paths to success are also provided in Section 6.6 of this Procedures Manual. The UPT Committee shall hold an open vote denoting the number of members for and against the candidate’s tenure and/or promotion. Committee members should not abstain from voting in difficult and/or contentious cases. Committee members from the candidate’s department must recuse themselves from deliberations about that candidate’s case. In addition, committee members must disclose conflicts of interest to other members of the committee. In the event of serious conflicts of interest (e.g., a family relative or a previously formal academic advisor) a committee member may, in consultation with the committee chair, recuse themself from deliberations about that specific case. Throughout and following the process, the content of the deliberations and the individual recommendations and votes of committee members must be kept in the strictest confidence. Following this review, the UPT Committee shall submit a written recommendation, including the vote tally and the number of faculty who recused themselves from the deliberations, to the Provost. The UPT letter, with any names redacted, can be requested by the candidate from the Provost.
  7. Dean and Provost Roles in Promotion and Tenure Process: As directed by the Faculty Handbook, the Deans shall review each candidate dossier, and provide the Provost a formal written recommendation of each candidate being considered from their portfolio. The Dean's letter, with any names redacted, can be requested by the candidate from the Provost at the conclusion of the promotion and tenure process. The Provost then reviews all candidate dossiers and all recommendations, decides on final action and seeks Board approval in support of this action in time for faculty promotion and tenure decisions to be announced at the April Faculty Forum.
  8. Corrections and Clarifications: If a need for clarification arises at any stage of the process, any of the parties reviewing the package (Department Head, DPT Chair, UPT Chair, etc.) may contact the candidate to request additional information. In addition, a reviewing party may request clarification from any previous reviewer who has evaluated the package. The request, and the additional information provided, should be included as an addendum to the appropriate letter of recommendation produced by the Department Head, DPT, UPT, etc. and copied to all parties in the chain below. 

Last Revision:

September 24, 2024