DOC I-06-07

PROPOSAL TO THE ACADEMIC SENATE

 

 

TITLE:                        Sense of the Senate Document-- UNIVERSITY

PROMOTION & TENURE COMMITTEE

 

SUBMITTED BY:     Executive Committee of the Academic Senate

 

DATE:                                    April 21, 2006

 

ACTION:                    Sense of the Senate Discussion

 

 

 

DRAFT

4/19/06

UNIVERSITY

PROMOTION & TENURE COMMITTEE

 

A University Promotion & Tenure Committee will be created for the following purposes.

 

1.                  The Committee will have responsibility for reviewing the guidelines for promotion and tenure (P&T) for all academic units (schools, libraries and college). It will approve those guidelines that define clear substantive and procedural criteria and are consistent with other University policies on P&T.  Academic unit P&T documents shall be reviewed by the University P&T Committee whenever any changes occur in P&T guidelines.

2.                  The Committee will have responsibility for hearing appeals. Appeals, when they occur, will be considered solely on the grounds that (a) approved academic unit and/or University procedures or policies were not followed or (b) impermissible criteria were used making a P&T decision about a candidate’s application.

 

Candidates must submit applications and documentation for promotion and tenure to the respective academic unit dean or P&T committee chair no later than September 1st.  Submitted candidate materials for promotion and tenure will contain a document on which the candidate, appropriate unit review committees, and academic unit dean verify that the established P&T review procedures of an academic unit have been followed.

 

Each academic unit P&T committee must make P&T recommendations to the appropriate academic dean by November 1st of each calendar year.  Each academic unit dean must inform candidates regarding a recommendation by November 15th. Candidates receiving a negative recommendation have until December 1st to submit a rebuttal.  The dean sends a recommendation to the provost and informs the candidate about P&T decisions no later than December 16th.  Candidates then have until January 15th to file an appeal in writing to the provost.  The provost will forward all appeals to the University P&T Committee, which will review the appeals and make recommendations to the provost by March 1st.  Once the appeals process is completed, the Provost, using the information received from both the academic dean and the University P&T Committee, will then make a recommendation for all eligible candidates to the President, no later than March 10th.   The Provost will present the recommendations to the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees at its spring meeting.  Final administrative authority rests with the President. 

 

The University P&T Committee shall consist of eleven members with three from the College (with one from the Humanities and Arts, the Social Sciences, and the Natural Sciences), two respectively from Education, Engineering, and Business and one each from the Law School and the Libraries. All members are to be elected by their respective academic unit faculties. The Committee shall elect a chair from those duly elected. Members shall serve three-year terms (maximum of two consecutive terms, with staggered terms within and across units); all members must be tenured with rank of associate or full professor and cannot be in a full time administrative appointment..

 

Note:  The Provost, as a point of information, shares with the Board of Trustees through its Academic Affairs Committee, the disposition of each candidate’s application as well as overall trends (e.g., percentage of faculty at each rank, percentage of faculty hired who receive tenure, overall percentage of tenured faculty, etc.), reviews policies and practices, and answers any questions proffered by the Board of Trustees.