Promotion and tenure: sequence of events

Owned by Alan Middleton
Last updated: Aug 01, 2015
3 min read

This is for junior faculty before or during the fifth credited year of service.

Promotion and tenure procedure - junior faculty

This is an outline of Department practice as a guide. For the formal rules, see faculty procedures.

  1. By March 1 during the fifth year of service, firm deadline: The faculty candidate for tenure, an assistant professor, should sign the application for tenure form from the Provost's office. Current link (2/10/15).
  2. March: remind the candidate that they are to give a colloquium before the faculty vote. This rule was instituted by faculty vote. (In 2015, lots of candidates, so have some speak in the spring?).
  3. Late March: Assemble the committee.
    1. For continuity, should stick mostly to last year's evaluation committee.
    2. The candidate is allowed to select one person on the evaluation committee.
  4. April: Gather documents from the candidate: papers, cv, etc. Remind candidate to have Form A prepared by the start of August.
  5. May: prepare and send out letters requesting evaluation of the candidate.
    1. The committee prepares its own list of referees, independently of the candidate, based on their knowledge of the field and the candidate's papers.
    2. The candidate then suggests a list of referees and any potential referee that should be excluded (with reasoning for exclusion).
    3. The committee chooses about 10 referees, with less than 1/2 of the referees suggested solely by the candidate (overlapping choices don't count towards the limit).
    4. The Provost/VCAA requires a minimum of 6 letters.
    5. Handling letters from those in large collaborations is challenging. The size of the collaboration, the reason to pick people within the collaboration, etc., needs to be carefully explained by the evaluation committee.
  6. Late July, August: make sure letters are received, committee starts preparation of their portions of Form B, based on Form A, annual reviews, peer reviews, external letters.
  7. September: Forms A and B (including external letters) are to be made available for faculty review several days before the faculty meeting to vote on whether to approve for promotion & tenure.
  8. End of September: Faculty (P&T) meeting for vote on candidate.
    1. Students, undergraduate and graduate, give a short presentation on the results of their study of the teaching of the candidate.
    2. Any voting member of the faculty but the candidate can attend the presentation of the case.
    3. After the presentation, any detailed discussion of the merits of the case is limited to those who can vote on the case (those who hold at least the rank sought by the candidate). Those who can discuss the merits of the case then vote, including comments.
    4. The Chair gives their view of the case as part of Form B and forwards the result of the faculty vote to the College along with completed A and B forms.
  9. The candidate and voting members of the faculty (tenured associate professors) are informed of the department vote.
  10. Starting in late October, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) reviews the case, including subcommittee visit to department to interview faculty and students, over next few months.
  11. If the College of Arts and Sciences Promotion and Tenure Committee looks like it will disagree with the Department vote or that its decision is possibly negative for the candidate, an appeals process is conducted, with the Chair and up to two advocates for the candidate presenting to the CAS P&T Committee.
  12. Candidate and PHY Chair are informed of College decision.
  13. Late May, approximately: Provost decides on tenure, subject to approval by the Board of Trustees in mid-May.