Standing for Tenure and Promotion to Full Professor in the Same Year
These guidelines, developed by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs (DOF/VPAA) in consultation with the Appointments and Tenure Committee (ATC) and the Promotions Committee (PC), are intended to assist faculty members hired at the Associate Professor level who are eligible to seek tenure and promotion to Full Professor in the same academic year. Since the Faculty Handbook does not contain specific instructions for handling these processes simultaneously, the following recommendations aim to uphold the distinct roles of ATC and PC while considering the workload of candidates and departmental/program/internal reviewers involved in both processes.
ATC will oversee the tenure review, and PC will oversee the promotion to Full Professor review. Candidates are advised to prepare a single, unified file that will be shared independently with both committees. It is the candidate’s responsibility to assemble a file that is as informative as possible for both committees (see Guidelines on Assembling Materials for Tenure AND Guidelines on Assembling Materials for Promotion). Candidates should note that, for tenure, the Faculty Handbook directs ATC to secure information from “all years and institutions the candidate applies towards tenure” (Part I, Article VIII, Section E, 5. c). For promotion to Full Professor, candidates are expected to include “scholarly, creative, or professional materials produced since the submission of the file supporting the last successful promotion candidacy [promotion to Associate Professor]” (Part I, Article VIII, Section F, 2. a. vii). Candidates must ensure the materials in their file cover the most extended timeline for their particular case and that their file is submitted by the earlier of the deadlines specified by the ATC or PC (refer to the ATC and PC calendars).
Eligible members of the department, program, or personnel committee will review the unified file in line with their internal procedures. Each department letter writer is encouraged to write one comprehensive letter expressing their support (or lack thereof) for each tenure and promotion to Full Professor and provide a rationale for each. In consultation with their chair, the candidate may opt for a single group of external letter writers for both processes or separate groups for each. If one group is chosen, the chair should request that external letter writers include recommendations for each decision and provide a rationale for each recommendation. A single group of internal letter writers is recommended. Chairs have the option to write either separate letters for ATC and PC or one combined letter for both committees; if combined, the letter should clearly state a recommendation for each decision and provide a rationale for each.
Combined letters containing recommendations for both committees should be submitted to the Office of the DOF/VPAA by the earlier deadline specified by the ATC or PC for that type of letter—internal, external, departmental, or the chair’s letter. For exact dates, please refer to the ATC and PC calendars.
The DOF/VPAA and the corresponding Associate Dean of the Faculty (Faculty Affairs) will meet with each committee separately to discuss each process.
Each committee will make its recommendation to the President and the DOF/VPAA independently in accordance with the Faculty Handbook. A recommendation of promotion to Full Professor by the PC is conditional on a recommendation for tenure by the ATC and the DOF/VPAA. In the event that the candidate is recommended for tenure, they can be notified if they will also be considered for promotion. In an instance where a candidate is not recommended for tenure, the consideration for promotion to Full Professor will be discontinued.