Review by the Dean of Departmental Recommendations for Appointment or Promotion to Tenured Rank

Amended March 27, 2015

  1. The tenure-stream faculty of each department with fewer than 20 faculty members in the tenure stream shall elect a tenured member to serve as a representative to the Arts and Sciences Tenure Council. The tenure-stream faculty of each department with 20 or more faculty members in the tenure stream shall elect two tenured members to the Arts and Sciences Tenure Council.

  2. Members of the Tenure Council shall serve for two years, with half the members elected each year.

  3. The Tenure Council shall elect a Secretary.

  4. The Tenure Council shall each year elect from among its members a Selection Committee, composed of six members, including two each from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The purpose of the Selection Committee shall be to choose faculty members from among the members of the Tenure Council to serve on Review Committees in cases of appointment or promotion to tenured rank.

  5. Members of the Selection Committee shall serve for one year and may be re-elected once.

  6. Whenever a recommendation for appointment or promotion to tenured rank is submitted by a department to the Dean, the Dean shall seek the advice of a Review Committee composed in the following manner:

    1. The Dean shall meet with the Selection Committee of the Arts and Sciences Tenure Council, to choose members of the Review Committee.

    2. Each Review Committee shall consist of six members, including three members named by the Selection Committee from among the members of the Arts and Sciences Tenure Council, and three members named by the Dean.

    3. One or more of the faculty members named by the Dean may be from schools or faculties of the University other than Arts and Sciences or from other academic institutions.

    4. No one whose primary appointment is in the candidate's department may serve on a Review Committee for that candidate.

    5. The Review Committee shall elect a Chairperson whose duty it shall be to Chair meetings and to prepare the report of the Committee.

    6. The report of each Review Committee shall be distributed to the Chairperson of the recommending department, with deletion of attributions of views to individual members of the Review Committee. A numerical vote of the Review Committee shall be included in the report that is sent to the Chairperson.

  7. The Dean shall review every department's recommendation against the granting of tenure, for evidence of any substantive or procedural inadequacy or impropriety. The Dean, at his or her discretion, may ask the department to review a negative recommendation or may choose to seek the advice of a Review Committee.

  8. The Dean may seek the advice of a Review Committee when a department recommends a first appointment, without tenure, at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor.

  9. The Chairperson of the Review Committee shall invite the Dean, the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies to attend all meetings as non-voting participants.

  10. The Chairperson of the candidate's department or the Chairperson's representative shall appear before the Committee, to discuss in detail the candidate's dossier and the department's recommendation, and to answer any questions from Committee members.

  11. In reviewing a recommendation for appointment or promotion to tenured rank, the Review Committee shall seek, on the basis of the materials provided by the Dean, the department, and the candidate, and such other evidence as the Committee finds necessary, to assess the candidate's level of achievement and promise of growth both as a teacher and as a scholar. In arriving at a recommendation the Review Committee shall be governed so far as possible by uniform standards of excellence as established from time to time by the University as a whole and by the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Application of these standards shall take account of the special characteristics of the several academic disciplines, and the peculiar needs of the individual departments.

  12. If the materials that have been provided to the Review Committee suffer from lacunae or other deficiencies such that the Committee cannot proceed in a reasonable way, the Committee shall return these materials to the Dean and postpone further discussion on the case until the deficiencies in the candidate's dossier have been remedied.

  13. The Chairperson of the Review Committee shall report in writing the results of the Committee's deliberations to the Dean. The report shall include the results of a vote on the question of whether to recommend appointment or promotion to tenured rank.

  14. The Dean shall report on his or her action in each case to the Review Committee, the Chairperson of the candidate's department, and the candidate. The Dean shall at that time also inform the candidate at the candidate's request of the names of the members of the Review Committee.

  15. The Secretary of the Tenure Council shall report annually to the School of Arts and Sciences. The report shall include a statistical summary and analysis of the year's tenure cases and their disposition.