By the College of Arts & Sciences Promotion and Tenure Committee
This document is a list of advice based on the committee’s experience in recent years. It should NOT be misconstrued as a new list of requirements for promotion and tenure, nor as a substitute for the stated requirements in the Faculty handbook, but, rather, should serve as guidance to those striving to put together a successful file.
Beginning with the 2018 applications, the documentation will be submitted to the dean’s office will be in digital format on a flash drive, not paper in a three ring binder. The new protocol specifies transmission of two PDF files:
• A main file containing in proper order the information specified in the Faculty Handbook, I.5. This main file cannot exceed 40 MB.
• A second file that compiles any student evaluations of teaching that the candidate is submitting.
Letters of recommendation solicited by the candidate’s department chair are to be forwarded to the dean separately in hard copy. The dean’s office will convert these letters into a third PDF file and will transmit all three PDF files to the P&T Committee as the complete credential file.
Guidance in preparing a digital file can be found in the P&T Candidates File Preparation Guide. It is the candidate’s responsibility to certify the accuracy and completeness of the PDF file delivered to the Dean’s office. There must be no hyperlinks embedded in this document.
I. General
• Support assertions with evidence and documentation, (e.g., an email or letter supporting the claim that an article has been accepted for publication).
• Take care to properly and consistently categorize activity as described in the Faculty Handbook. For example, participation in teaching workshops on campus belongs under teaching not professional activity.
• Candidates are responsible for making sure all required documents are in the file. If an APR is missing, the candidate should request a letter explaining its absence from the Chair or Dean.
• The committee reminds candidates that their creative, professional, and scholarly activity should be directed toward professional peers beyond their department and discipline. Be explicit in identifying why a given activity has significant value – do not assume that committee knows your discipline’s professional norms.
• The committee reminds candidates that they must meet the criteria for tenure and/or promotion in all three categories. A particularly strong performance in any one category does not absolve the candidate of the need to meet the criteria in the other two areas.
• The committee cannot consider materials not included in the file itself. This prohibition applies even to material to which the candidate’s file refers (e.g., an online portfolio or a book or article manuscript). If a candidate wants the committee to consider something, make sure it is included in the file.
• The committee values student-faculty research collaboration. As with any collaborative effort, however, candidates should clearly specify their own scholarly contribution to the project.
II. Promotion to Senior Lecturer
• Candidates should provide specific examples of teaching effectiveness.
• Candidates with unusual teaching loads and/or service responsibilities should document and explain them.
• Candidates should document participation in professional, scholarly, or creative activities.
• Candidates should demonstrate engagement in service to their department, college, and the University.
III. Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
• Candidates with unusual teaching loads and/or service responsibilities should document and explain them.
• Successful candidates provide multiple sources of evidence of effective teaching.
• Successful candidates generally document at least one creative, scholarly, or professional activity per year.
• The candidate should help the committee understand discipline norms.
• Successful candidates engaging in a major multi-year project (e.g., a book) during the probationary period should have a consistent record of documented professional activity–either external documentation of progress on the major project (e.g., a book contract) or smaller, perhaps related activities such as conference presentations or book reviews.
• Successful candidates with a reduced probationary period are consistently active in all three areas from the moment their probationary period began (with the exception, of course, of the category of service in their first year) through the moment they submitted their credentials files.
IV. Promotion to Professor
• In assessing the candidate’s recognition in the discipline, the committee looks carefully at external letters. Successful candidate’s external letters explicitly reference the candidate’s recognition in the discipline, are written by those with the expertise to make such a judgment, and are ideally written by those with minimal personal ties to the candidate.
• The candidate should help the committee understand discipline norms.
• While three or more external letters are required (see I.1.3.3), successful candidates provide in their credentials file as much evidence as possible of recognition in the discipline to support external letters. A non-exhaustive list of relevant evidence includes: juried art shows, citations of the candidate’s work, invitations to lecture, attend and/or publish work in select venues, and reviews of the candidate’s scholarly or creative work. Successful candidates frame such evidence, making a case for why it indicates recognition in the discipline.
• The committee reminds candidates that they must continue to teach effectively, maintain a consistent record of creative, scholarly, and professional activity, and maintain a consistent record of departmental and college/university service during the evaluation period.