In accordance with Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) requirements for presumptive renewal covered under Articles 17.1.3, 17.1.5 and 17.1.6., the University has accepted the Union’s understanding that presumptive renewal only applies to those faculty members who have held previous full-time (FT) faculty appointments at the University of Pittsburgh. Consequently, a faculty member who transferred from one full-time faculty position to another full-time faculty position at a different rank would still be subject to presumptive renewal during their initial appointment in the new rank. For example, a full-time visitor transferring to a full-time teaching faculty position (e.g., from Visiting Lecturer to Teaching Assistant Professor) would fall under presumptive renewal.
For renewal and reappointment of non-bargaining-unit faculty members in the appointment stream, our office will follow the same procedures and policies as for bargaining-unit faculty. For these purposes, no distinction is made between the two groups of faculty (including presumptive renewal).
Presumptive renewal for FT AS faculty does not apply to:
- Faculty on their initial appointment at the University
- Faculty who have been subject to disciplinary action in excess of a written warning within 12 months prior to their renewal date
- Faculty who are on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) and not making significant progress
- Faculty who are retired from Pitt
- Faculty holding a visiting appointment
- Faculty under investigation for specified misconduct
The Dietrich School is implementing the following guidelines.
For faculty not covered by presumptive renewal (including visiting faculty who are being considered for renewal):
A vote will need to be taken by all T/TS faculty members in the unit and any appointment stream faculty members of higher rank. Note: the vote can be taken electronically (a meeting to vote is not required).
In order to take a vote, voting faculty will be required to review at least the following documentation:
- OMETs (for each course taught), including summary pages
- Peer evaluations (a minimum of one (1) per academic year is required; two (2) is recommended within the first year of appointment, one in the fall and one in the spring)
- Annual evaluations (if available)
- Materials provided by the faculty member (listed below)
Unit heads may choose to request feedback from program directors, faculty supervisors, faculty mentors, or other appropriate individuals in support of the renewal or non-renewal of the faculty member.
For a vote, the faculty member will need to provide the following materials:
- The faculty member’s updated CV.
- A brief personal statement concerning the faculty member's goals, accomplishments, and approaches in teaching. For research faculty without teaching duties, statement should focus on research and/or other assigned duties.
- For teaching faculty, candidate’s response to peer evaluation of teaching or OMETs (may be in personal statement).
- For teaching faculty, course materials (syllabi and other materials supporting instructional activities). Sample student work may also be included.
- A brief statement of service contributions (may be in personal statement).
Although the following are not required, faculty members may choose to provide the following as supplementary materials (or include these in the personal statement):
- A history of teaching assignments that records the course numbers, course names, and enrollments for each course taught during the evaluation period. If any course is team-taught, this can be noted.
- Evidence of participation in national, regional, and/or local pedagogical organizations or workshops.
- Statement of related non-classroom activity, such as student mentoring, undergraduate research projects supervised, papers and presentations, software development, or teaching seminars developed or presented.
- Statement of activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) within the areas of teaching or service.
- Statement of activities related to community engagement within the areas of teaching or service.
For faculty covered by presumptive renewal:
This process is meant to shift focus to continuous performance management throughout the year so that renewal is automatic unless there is a performance concern.
Faculty should not submit any materials for review, and a vote for renewal should not be taken at the unit level. Unit heads should have a process in place that confirms that there are no performance concerns and may want to review the following materials which are readily available at the department or program level:
- OMETs (for each course taught)
- peer evaluations
- annual evaluations (if available)
Submission process:
To initiate the renewal, units will upload the following materials into Perceptive Content and assign to the Faculty Actions Manager (Abbott) for formal processing:
For faculty not covered under presumptive renewal,
- The unit head's letter of support, with tally of faculty vote and brief rationale for renewal
- The draft reappointment letter
- The faculty member’s updated CV
For faculty covered under presumptive renewal,
- The unit head’s letter of support which includes a brief acknowledgment that there are no performance concerns* (no more than one page, and could be as few as one to two sentences)
- The draft reappointment letter
- The faculty member’s updated CV
Any questions regarding this process should be directed to dsfacultyaffairs@pitt.edu.
*If there are performance concerns, unit heads should reach out to Associate Dean Reeser via email (reeser@pitt.edu) with the faculty member’s name and a summary of the situation as early as possible. Please note: Newly identified performance concerns will not stop the presumptive renewal process but will serve as an alert to our office for continued discussions and possible future action.
Updated November 7, 2024