0.6 Understanding the promotion & Tenure process

Goals

• Institution
  • Tenure is a life-long commitment by the university to you
  • Successful faculty – innovators, leaders, producers
  • Research objectives in line with institutional directions
• You
  • Faculty position that meets your own research and career objectives
  • Member of functional, innovative and forward-looking department and institution
  • Security offered by tenure

What can i do now?

• Think about your steps all along the way
  • Consistently evaluate your own progress
    • Goals
    • Mechanisms to get there
    • Ways to learn from others and engage them
  • Keep data on all your activities
  • Ask for feedback
    • Grant writing
    • Papers
    • Teaching
    • Research program organization and development

This process is the accumulation of years of effort
THINK AHEAD!!

Understand the general process

• Learn about the promotion and tenure process at your institution
  • Ask about the process at every stage if you have questions
• Request a copy of the policy
  • Be sure when you are interviewing that the policy is consistent with your personal goals
• Understand the balance of teaching, research, and service that the institution AND the department will expect
• Understand the audience(s) for the materials

General process — the dossier

• Dossier
  • Summary of your independent career at institution
  • Information on all aspects of your career
    • Research summary (publications, grants, citations, awards)
    • Teaching summary (courses, evaluations, awards)
    • Service summary (activities, awards)
  • Inside reviews/letters
  • Outside letters****
    • Writers identified by department
    • Also usually writers identified by individual

Dossier components

• Summary of career
  • Education
  • Honors
  • Teaching/advising/mentoring
  • Citations
  • Grants
  • Publications
  • Research/teaching summary written by candidate
• Outside letters

What happens after dossier is prepared?

• Department review
  • Tenured faculty generally involved in decision to recommend or deny tenure
  • Department chair writes letter
    • Some schools have subcommittee
• School review
  • Often school-level committee reviews and makes recommendation to dean
  • Dean makes recommendation
• Promotion/Tenure Committee (Provost)
  • Makes recommendation to President
• President sometimes makes final decision

What happens after dossier is prepared?

• Department review
• School review
• Promotion/Tenure Committee (Provost)
• President may make final decision
• Multiple levels of review — no one person makes the decision! Many voices are part of the process.

General process

• Understand the timing of preparing the dossier, what you should submit and when
  • Think carefully about names for Outside Letters
• Understand the process completely
• Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare your materials
  • Think about your research/teaching summary
  • Ensure that your papers are submitted in a timely way
• Ask QUESTIONS if you do not understand

General process

• Outside letters
  • Highly influential in decision process
  • May have opportunity to suggest names
    • Develop relationships - create a network MARKET yourself!
  • Post-decision: Ask about possibility for feedback from the letters (can be useful)