Criteria and Procedures

The quality of a university depends chiefly upon the merited reputations of its faculty members. Thus, decisions to grant tenure and promotion are among the most critical in the university life. They require careful, deliberate planning by each faculty member who expects to be considered for such action, and responsible, objective and informed consideration by all who are involved in review and recommendations. For this reason, clear and consistent tenure and promotion criteria must be applied. The College of Arts and Sciences evaluates candidates for tenure and/or promotion based on their performance in teaching, research, and service. The following criteria establish minimum college-wide standards that are consistent with the University Guidelines for Tenure and Promotion and the Collective Bargaining Agreement. While the College standards allow for exceptions in compelling circumstances, the burden of proof in such a case rests on the candidate in the first instance and on those who review and judge the application favorably at successive levels of review.

Each department and program in the College of Arts and Sciences must also have written criteria for tenure and promotion that are consistent with both University and College standards. The criteria of each department or program should stipulate the relative importance and significance of teaching, research, and service in accordance with its particular mission. Departments or programs may establish criteria that assign higher priority to any one or combination of categories of teaching, research, and service . Whenever a department or program revises its criteria, it must submit revisions to the Dean for review to ensure compliance with College criteria.

In the tenure and promotion process, the reviewers at both the department and college levels should be thoroughly familiar with the documents offered to support the applications. The candidates and the responsible departmental representative should supply the College reviewers and the Dean with complete, clear, and accurate information.
CRITERIA
TENURE:
The minimum criteria for tenure in the College of Arts and Sciences are an outstanding record in either teaching or research and/or creative activity, at least a strong record in the other, plus at least a satisfactory record of service.

1. Teaching. To qualify for tenure, faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences must have a consistent pattern of positive evaluation in teaching and have achieved a level of performance that is strong or outstanding.
2. Research. The granting of tenure is a judgment based on past performance and potential for future contributions to research and/or creative activity. For a recommendation of tenure in the College, candidates must document that they have made a substantial contribution to research and/or creative activity in their discipline and have established a record of achievement that is strong or outstanding.
3. Service. To qualify for tenure, candidates must display evidence of some appropriate service to the University and/or the profession and/or the civic community. Community service must relate to the basic mission of the University and to the faculty member's professional expertise.
   Each recommendation for tenure should be accompanied by a statement of the mission, goals, and educational needs of the department, college, and/or regional campus, and the importance of the contributions the candidate has made and is expected to make in the future toward achieving the goals and meeting the needs. Consideration should be given to the candidate's ability and willingness to work cooperatively within the department, college, and/or campus.
   
   

PROMOTION TO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR: The minimum criteria for promotion to associate professor are the same as those for tenure. In cases where a candidate for tenure holds the rank of assistant professor, the recommendation for tenure should entail a recommendation for promotion to the rank of associate professor.
PROMOTION TO PROFESSOR: For promotion to the rank of professor, the candidate must offer conclusive evidence of a reputation beyond the University, among peers on a national or international level, for outstanding contributions in either research and creative activity or teaching. The candidate must also have at least a strong record of service. In summary, the minimum criteria for promotion to professor in the College of Arts and Sciences are an outstanding record in either teaching or research and/or creative activity and at least a strong record in the other two categories.


PROCEDURES
REVIEW OF PROGRESS TOWARD TENURE: It is the responsibility of the department peer committee and department chair or other appropriate administrator to include a progress toward tenure review as part of the annual evaluation for all faculty in the probationary period for tenure. For those faculty appointed with the full probationary term a more extensive pre-tenure review will be conducted during the third year. If an individual is credited with tenure-earning service at the time of initial appointment, the review will be conducted at the approximated mid-point of the probationary period. The mid-point review will be conducted by the department's tenure and promotion committee, the department chairperson or other appropriate administrator, the college or college/campus tenure and promotion committee, and the college/campus dean. Upon the request of the faculty member the review of progress toward tenure will include the Provost.

All mid-point reviews shall address the performance of annual assignments including teaching, research/creative activity, and service occurring during the preceding tenure-earning years of employment. In addition, all reviews should critically assess overall performance and contributions in light of mid-point expectations. The mid-point review will not be as extensive as the formal tenure review that occurs later but should be based on a set of documents which would include: a current vita; annual evaluations; student/peer evaluation of teaching; selected examples of teaching materials and scholarship; and a brief self-evaluation by the faculty member.
The mid-point review is intended to be informative, and to be encouraging to faculty who are making solid progress toward tenure, instructional to faculty who may need to improve in selected areas of performance, and cautionary to faculty where progress is significantly lacking.

The following procedures are intended to ensure uniform application of tenure and promotion guidelines within the College of Arts and Sciences. Individual departments and programs may include additional steps in accordance with their specific functions and disciplines, but all departments and programs must meet the deadlines set by the Dean.

1. Potential candidates for Tenure and Promotion should begin preparation during the Spring preceding the Tenure and Promotion process that occurs the following Fall. Chairs should ensure that candidates have received current Department, College, and University Guidelines and the BOR-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement. Chairs should also inform candidates of the materials they will be expected to provide in support of their applications.
2. External reviewers. Candidates' scholarship and creative works are to be evaluated by external reviewers whose professional reputations are exceptional. The reviewers are expected to be familiar with the work of the candidate, to comment on the value of the candidate's work and to place it in relation to the work of others in the field. External reviewers should be selected so as to minimize the possibility of conflicts of interest - actual, potential, or apparent. Reviewers should be highly regarded and recognized scholars in the candidate's field and able to evaluate the quality, productivity, and significance of the candidate's research and creative activities.

A candidate for tenure and promotion to associate professor should submit a list of at least six suggested reviewers to his/her Department Chair or equivalent academic officer. A candidate for promotion to professor should submit a list of at least eight suggested reviewers to his/her Department Chair or equivalent academic officer. Each list must be accompanied by brief statements, including biographical sketches, to support the choices. If any reviewer is recommended who has had significant previous contact with the candidate, reasons for the choice should be presented in sufficient detail to allay concerns about conflicts of interest.
In the event that the candidate's Department Chair believes additional names are desirable or necessary, then (1) the candidate should make supplementary recommendations, and (2) the Chair may suggest additional reviewers to the candidate. In choosing reviewers it is recommended that the Chair seek the counsel of the department tenure and promotion committee. Ordinarily, this process will result in a list of reviewers acceptable to the candidate and to the Chair.
Should agreement not be reached, the candidate and his/her Department Chair will develop a list of external reviewers in consultation with the Dean. The final list of reviewers, however it is developed, will be submitted to the Dean for approval and should be accompanied by brief statements, including biographical sketches, to support the choices.

The candidate's Chair, in consultation with the candidate, will solicit from the approved list at least three letters of evaluation from reviewers for candidates applying for tenure and/or promotion to associate professor and at least five letters for applying for promotion to professor. In either case, no more than six may be submitted. Although departments may contact the selected reviewers informally, an official request for an evaluation shall be in the form of a letter from the candidate's Chair composed in accordance with the model letter drafted by the Dean's Office. It is inappropriate for candidates to contact the reviewers regarding promotion and/or tenure consideration.

After ascertaining a reviewer's willingness to serve as an evaluator, the candidate's Chair will forward to the reviewer materials provided by the candidate, including a current vita and other materials the candidate chooses as appropriate. The process should be scheduled to ensure adequate time for the reviews to be returned and considered by the department and college committees. When the external reviews are added to the candidate's application, the materials, including biographical sketches, used to support the selection of these reviewers should be included.

3. Departmental recommendation for or against tenure is the prerogative of the tenured faculty. Typically, three distinct recommendations for or against tenure should be made by each department. The first will be by a vote of all the tenured members of a department, the second by the department's tenure and promotion committee, and the third by the Chair of the department. For all cases of tenure and/or promotion, the recommendation of the Department Committee and the Chair will be forwarded to the College Tenure and Promotion Committee and must be accompanied a clear, substantive summary of reasons for both positive and negative votes. A copy of the department's criteria for tenure and promotion should also be included.
4. After a candidate's file has been submitted for review by the College Tenure and Promotion Committee, materials may not be added or removed without consultation with the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair. Any proposed deletions (e.g., an incorrect document) must be justified in writing to the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair, who must approve the deletion. Any additions must be submitted to the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair and must be accompanied by a written request to add the material , explaining the reason for their late addition. If materials are deleted or added to a candidate's file after it has been submitted to the Tenure and Promotion Committee, the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair will be responsible for deleting or adding the materials and informing the candidate, the candidate's Department Chair, all members of the Tenure and Promotion Committee, and the Dean, of the action.

After each member of the College's Tenure and Promotion Committee has reviewed the candidate's credentials, the Committee will meet to prepare its recommendations to the Dean. The Committee's deliberations will focus exclusively on how well a candidate meets college, university and department criteria for Tenure and Promotion. The Committee must not apply standards that are lower than those specified in the department's criteria.
If a College Tenure and Promotion Committee member is from the same department as a candidate for tenure and/or promotion, or if a member has special personal and/or professional associations with a candidate, that committee member will leave the room during all deliberations concerning that candidate and will abstain from making a recommendation concerning that candidate.

Tenure and Promotion Committee members shall confine themselves to making decisions solely upon the information provided in each candidate's official tenure and promotion file. No committee member shall solicit or consider any additional information conveyed privately, through personal contact, by phone, letter, or any other means. The entire committee may vote by a two-thirds majority to authorize the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair to solicit additional information if necessary. All requests for additional information must be in writing by the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair, who will provide the candidate and the Chair of the candidate's department with copies of the request.

Voting on a candidate by the College Tenure and Promotion Committee will be by secret ballot. These ballots shall be preserved in the Office of the Dean for a reasonable time. The committee's vote and clear, substantive summary of reasons for both positive and negative votes must be included in the candidate's file. All members of the Tenure and Promotion Committee must sign the recommendation forms for each candidate.
Once the Tenure and Promotion Committee has made its decision, it will identify those cases in which its recommendation differs from that of a candidate's Department Chair and/or the Department Committee, and the Tenure and Promotion Committee Chair will inform the candidate and the Chair of the candidate's department, in writing. The candidate's Department Chair, the candidate or, at the candidate's discretion, a faculty advocate chosen by the candidate will then be given an opportunity to respond to the Tenure and Promotion Committee in writing.

Once the recommendations of the Tenure and Promotion Committee are final, they will be forwarded to the Dean. In any case where the recommendation of the Dean differs from that of a candidate's Department Chair and/or Department Committee, the Dean will inform the candidate and the Chair of the candidate's department, in writing. The Department Chair, the candidate or, at the candidate's discretion, a faculty advocate chosen by the candidate, will then be given an opportunity respond to the Dean in writing. In the case of every application for tenure and/or promotion, the recommendations of the Department Committee, Department Chair, College Tenure and Promotion Committee, and the Dean will be forwarded to the Provost.