Part III. College Policies and Procedures
The College Tenure and Promotion Committee shall review the written standards from the candidate's department and make a judgment regarding the candidate's achievement of those standards. The College Committee also shall examine the candidate's credentials relative to the College guidelines and the Faculty Handbook to ensure that the professional expectations of the College and University have been achieved. Finally, this Committee shall review the candidate's potential for future growth and development based on the evidence presented in the candidate's materials as well as the evaluative comments of the Department Tenure and Promotion Committee and Department Chair.
CAS Promotion Committee Selection Process
Each tenure-granting academic unit in the College of Arts and Sciences shall be represented on the College Promotion and Tenure Committee by one faculty member. Representatives normally serve staggered two-year terms beginning in either an odd- or even-numbered year, as identified in the College Promotion and Tenure Committee Rotation Schedule maintained by the Dean's Office.
Academic units with ten or fewer full-time faculty members may, with the approval of the Dean, partner with another unit to elect a single joint representative. A joint representative is expected to be familiar with the promotion and tenure expectations of both participating academic units.
Election Cycle
Each academic unit is assigned to either an odd-year o°ù even-year election cycle. Representatives elected during an odd-year cycle begin their terms in odd-numbered years (e.g., 2025, 2027, 2029). Representatives elected during an even-year cycle begin their terms in even-numbered years (e.g., 2026, 2028, 2030).
The Dean's Office shall maintain the official College Promotion and Tenure Committee Rotation Schedule, which identifies for each academic unit:
- Election cycle (Odd or Even)
- Representative type (Tenured or Teaching Track)
- Current representative
- Term expiration
- Appointment method (Elected or Dean Appointed)
The Rotation Schedule serves as the official administrative record for committee membership and shall be reviewed and updated annually by the Dean's Office prior to the selection of committee representatives.
Representative Type
Each academic unit shall be represented by either a tenured faculty member or a teaching-track (non-tenure-track) faculty member, which will be recorded in the Rotation Schedule.
The Dean's Office shall maintain the Rotation Schedule and monitor committee composition with the goal of maintaining approximately balanced representation of tenured and teaching-track faculty across the committee while ensuring broad representation of the College's academic units. Academic units are encouraged to consider the overall composition of the Committee, including the balance of tenured and teaching-track representation, when selecting their representatives.
Whenever possible, at least one-half of the tenured representatives and one-half of the teaching-track representatives should hold the rank of Professor, with the remaining representatives holding the rank of Associate Professor.
Dean Appointments
The Dean may appoint up to three representatives to the Committee in lieu of election. Dean appointments should be made as necessary to maintain balanced committee representation or to address other institutional needs. The Dean shall seek to rotate appointments among academic units over time.
Following completion of a Dean-appointed representative's two-year term, that academic unit shall return to the normal election process for its next representative.
The College Tenure and Promotion Committee shall be self-governing within the following expectations:
- The dean’s office shall schedule meetings. The Dean shall assemble the Committee for
its initial meeting in late September or early October of each year to provide the committee with its charge.
- The Committee must have a quorum of two-thirds (2/3) members eligible to vote on a
dossier present to review and vote on the dossier.
- Candidate materials, including the recommendation documents of both the Departmental
Tenure & Promotion Committee and the Department Chair, shall be made available to
the committee electronically by the dean’s office.
- Each Committee member shall be expected to review the files of all applicants the
committee member is eligible to discuss and vote on.
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- Promotion of non-tenure-track assistant professor candidates: Tenured representatives and non-tenure-track representatives who contribute to the aspects of the university mission in a non-tenure track candidate’s workload will make recommendations (for example, an associate professor of teaching with no research workload will not participate in the promotion of a research assistant professor).
- Promotion of non-tenure-track associate professor candidates: Tenured representatives with the rank of professor and non-tenure-track representatives with the rank of professor who contribute to the aspects of the university mission in a non-tenure track candidate’s workload will make recommendations.
- Promotion and/or tenure of tenure-track assistant professor candidates: Tenured representatives will make recommendations.
- Promotion of tenured associate professor candidates: Tenured representatives with the rank of professor will make recommendations.
- Note: In 2024, representatives of units in odd-year columns will serve a one-year term to produce staggered terms going forward.
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- All candidates shall be considered individually, without comparison to other candidates.
The vote on all candidates shall be reported to the Dean after all voting is completed.
The dean’s office must retain the ballots for three years.
- Committee members must excuse themselves when candidates from their departments are
discussed and voted upon.
- All members eligible to vote as noted in the description of the committee composition
above shall vote by secret ballot. Each member shall vote yes, no, or abstain. Abstentions
shall not be considered in determining the majority. Tie votes shall be reported simply
as such, not as positive or negative recommendations.
- In all decisions on tenure and/or promotion, the Committee shall include a written
rationale for its vote that accurately reflects both strengths and weaknesses of the
candidate’s performance and how those were balanced into the committee recommendation.
- Committee members shall maintain complete confidentiality regarding deliberations
of the Committee.
- The Committee Chair shall complete and sign the recommendation reports and forward
them to the Dean.
- The Dean shall prepare a recommendation and report based on available material. Subsequently,
the Dean shall forward all appropriate forms and his/her report/recommendation as
well as those of the Department Chair and both the College and Department Tenure and
Promotion Committee to the Office of the Provost.
- When a senior faculty member is hired with the expectation of tenure, the Committee shall convene a special meeting to examine the faculty member's credentials. The Committee's recommendation shall then be sent forward through the Dean, Provost, and President for consideration at the earliest possible Board of Trustees meeting.
Part I. The Dossier for Tenure and Promotion
Part II. Department Policies and Procedures
Part III. College-Level Policy and Procedures for Tenure and Promotion
Part IV. Approvals
Tenure and Promotion Calendar