Colleagues,
The following message will be sent to tenure track faculty later today.
Revisions to Provost Communication 9: Promotion and Tenure will be published on March 28, 2022. These guidelines will be in effect for next year’s promotion cycle. Candidates up for promotion in Fall 2022 should refer to these guidelines when preparing their dossiers.
The new features of Communication 9 recognize a wider range of contributions to the excellence of our University. The new guidelines provide opportunities for candidates who pursue multidisciplinary and team research to provide additional information about their roles and to supplement their research narrative with a letter from a research partner. The guidelines include updated recommended language for external reviewers, emphasizing that the University values such collaborative research.
The updated Communication 9 also provides more opportunity to recognize community and public engagement activities in each of the domains of research, teaching, and service. For candidates whose primary activities involve community and public engagement, units may request up to two letters of evaluation from relevant non-academic leaders who are in a position to speak to the impact of the activities, in addition to letters of evaluation from academic experts.
Two additional changes in the new Communication 9 will be phased in over the next few years. First, the candidate statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion activities will be optional for the next three years, after which the Provost will move to make it a requirement. This phase-in provides evaluating units with an opportunity to create and communicate expectations in this area and allows candidates to build a record of activities. Over the next three years, candidates who have already established a record of activities in DEI may prepare the section to highlight their contributions and units may consider those activities as part of their evaluations. During this period, a candidate who chooses not to prepare the statement faces no penalty or negative inference.
Second, the new processes for teaching evaluation, including improved student evaluations, consideration of novel criteria for excellence in teaching, and support for regular peer evaluations, will take time to develop. Therefore, the Communication 9 guidelines provide flexibility for candidates and units when preparing teaching statements and evaluations. As new processes for teaching evaluation are implemented over the next several years, there will be further guidance about how to incorporate this additional information into dossiers. In anticipation of full implementation of the new guidelines, units should implement annual peer evaluations of teaching for untenured faculty in AY 22-23.
Even with these changes, the overriding criterion for promotion and tenure remains whether the promotion is “in the best interests of the institution.” The fundamental basis of that determination involves “… a holistic evaluation of candidates’ past performance along with the likelihood of their continued excellence … For most faculty members, the primary basis for promotion and tenure will be the record of research and teaching, with consideration also being given to service, public engagement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion activities.”
We are grateful for the leadership of Professor Eva Pomerantz (LAS) and Professor Amy Ando (ACES) who have guided the process of reconsidering our promotion and tenure processes. We appreciate the input of so many stakeholders across campus—your involvement has resulted in new processes that better recognize and reflect the many exciting contributions that our colleagues make to the excellence of our institution.
Sincerely,
Bill Bernhard
Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs