Promotion with Tenure

Learn what you have to do during tenure review; this page does not just refer to candidates up for tenure. The Program Chair, Unit Chair, Dean of the College, Personnel Council, Chancellor and Provost also have responsibilites during the process.

While the criteria for tenure are common across units within the university, articulation of the standards that are used to determine whether the criteria have been met are the responsibility of the budgetary unit. Standards establish and specify the level of quality or performance necessary for the work of the candidate to be considered of high quality. It is the responsibility of recommending bodies beyond the Executive Committee to assess whether the standards have been appropriately applied in the candidate’s case and whether the evidence in the file supports the claim that the criteria for tenure have been met.

SOFAS Sends Candidate List to Deans
Unit Chair Informs Candidates
Candidate Creates Tenure Document
Program Review Occurs
Unit Review Occurs
Dean Recommends Candidate to Personnel Council
Personnel Council Review Occurs
Dean of College Recommends Candidate to Provost
Chancellor & Provost Recommend Candidate to Board of Regents
Board of Regents Approves Tenure

1 SOFAS Sends Candidate List to Deans

In April, Mike Draney, current SOFAS, sends a letter to the Deans listing Assistant Professors who will be entering their sixth year as a probationary faculty member and must go up for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. The email will also cc all Unit Chairs and Program Chairs.

2 Unit Chair Informs Candidates

Before the Spring semester contract period ends, the Unit Chair informs candidates that they must be reviewed the following academic year for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.

This step is currently muddied due to Administration’s decision to allow Assistant Professors to delay their tenure decision by up to two years due to COVID.

If seeking an early tenure decision, the Tenure Candidate requests in writing consideration for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. This request goes to their Unit Chair, with a cc to the SOFAS and respective Dean. An Assistant Professor may make this request once in any of the first six years of their appointment; this request is to be honored.

3 Candidate Creates Tenure Document

Tenure Candidates create their tenure document that serves as evidence for their promotion. The SOFAS will create a separate TEAMS Channel for every candidate, and the candidate will upload electronic copies of their documents. The channel is available to the Program's Executive Committee (if applicable), the Unit's Executive Committee, the candidate's Dean and Dean Assistant(s), the members of the Personnel Council, the Provost and the Chancellor. The tenure document consists of the following components:

Current Curriculum Vitae

Materials should be easy to locate. It's particularly important that the scholarship section clearly distinguish work that is already published versus works that are accepted for publication, versus works that are in progress. Articles and abstracts should also be clearly distinguished from one another, and presentations at conferences should not be intermixed with publications.

Most Recent Professional Activities Report (PAR)

This report is your opportunity to discuss accomplishment in teaching, research and service. Be sure to highlight accomplishments that may not be obvious on your CV.

Personal Statement (part of the Professional Narrative)

An effective personal statement includes an overview of teaching, scholarship and service that is your chance to show how these connect to your professional goals. There is no need to reproduce lists of courses, publications or committee assignments in the personal statement. These are generally available elsewhere in the file.

Professional Narrative

See specifics in the Faculty Handbook (docx) under the section entitled "UWGB Document on Tenure" (located under "Faculty Policies: Personnel Policies." You can ask a member from your Unit who has recently received tenure if you may examine their narrative.

External Review Letters

The Personnel Council requests a minimum of one and not more than five external letter(s) from (an) expert(s) in the tenure candidate’s field which evaluates the candidate’s scholarship and/or creative activity.

Notice to Tenure Candidate and Unit Chair: it is the responsibility of each respective Unit to decide how the external letter or letters are solicited, as well as the Unit's policy regarding the candidate's relationship to the letter writer. The Personnel Committee recommends that each Unit provide clear written guidelines regarding these two requirements. Letters solicited from external reviewers shall be placed into the Tenure Candidate's evidentiary file.

Evidentiary File

Materials from the Tenure Candidate’s time as a probationary faculty member at UWGB that support their case for tenure. Divide these materials into four categories: teaching, scholarly activity, service (institutional development and community outreach) and external review letters.

4 Program Review Occurs

If the tenure candidate is part of the program, the Program Chair sends the notice of Program review to the Tenure Candidate setting the date of the review (cc: SOFAS). A minimum of 20-day notice prior to the review is required. If a 20-day notice is not given, the Tenure Candidate must formally waive their right to a 20-day notice via an email to the Program Chair (cc: SOFAS).

Notice of Review: Program Chair to Tenure Candidate Template (docx)

Program Chair asks the Academic Department Associate (ADA) to send a request to SOFAS, making sure the Program's Executive Committee has access to the Tenure Candidate's TEAMS Channel two weeks prior to the scheduled Program Review. Note: After the Tenure Candidate's review by their Program Executive Committee and/or Unit Executive Committee, the candidate may revise their documents up to the point when the Dean of the College requests a recommendation from the Personnel Council. If you revise any of these documents, cc SOFAS.

Following the Program tenure review, the Program Chair submits a letter to the Unit Chair summarizing the comments of the Program's Executive Committee, and expresses the Program's recommendation on promotion to Associate Professor with tenure (see page 7 of this document) (cc: SOFAS and the respective Dean)

Materials Prepared by Program Chair

In assistance with the unit chair and the respective Executive Committee, the program chair will need to prepare the following details to support your recommendation:

Statement of Criteria

The criteria for high quality in the categories of teaching, scholarship and university and community service are elaborated in each interdisciplinary unit’s personnel policies. Those criteria should be referenced and applied in the recommendation on tenure.

Judgment of the Executive Committee

The memorandum of recommendation should contain an explicit statement that the Executive Committee found (or did not find) that the candidate met all of the criteria for tenure - in accordance with its standards. There should be a record of the vote of the Executive Committee.

Explicit Statement of Reasons for the Recommendation

This includes review of reappointment history that summarizes advice given to the candidate in reappointment letters. Did the candidate respond to the advice? Also includes discussion of executive committee's judgement regarding four areas:

Teaching
- Contribution to program(s) curriculum: how well does the candidate’s array of courses contribute to program curricula and its student learning outcomes?
- Course development and pedagogy: how well has the candidate approached the challenge of improving teaching?
- Effectiveness at facilitating the teaching/learning process: what evidence is available to support the Executive Committee’s judgment that the candidate is an effective teacher who can help students learn?
Scholarship: high quality work in the area of scholarship is work that contributes to knowledge in the candidate's areas of research or creative expression, is acknowledged and regarded by peers and shows evidence of continuing productivity. Scholars with expertise in the candidate's areas should judge the quality. These scholars can be external reviewers selected by the Executive Committee. It's relatively common for candidates to submit work that has been produced collaboratively, and the executive committee should understand the candidate’s contribution to the work.
Service: the executive committee is responsible to make distinct judgments regarding the candidate’s contributions to institutional development and community outreach. It's the quality of service, not only the quantity, that is under review. Service to external constituencies, the communities to which the university is related, should be grounded in the candidate’s expertise as a professional in one or more fields of study and as a faculty member. Also remember that all faculty members are expected to participate in the shared governance of the university both within their units and within the broader committee structure.
Institutional Need: program needs and institutional priorities provide the context for assessment of the candidate’s performance in teaching, scholarly or creative activity, institutional development and community outreach. The executive committee is responsible for assessing the "programmatic significance" of the candidate’s qualifications. This is most easily accomplished by reference to campus and program mission, the existing curricula to which the candidate contributes and to program development plans related to candidate contribution.

5 Unit Review Occurs

Unit Chair sends the notice of Unit review to the Tenure Candidate in September or October setting the date of the review (cc: SOFAS). A minimum of 20- day notice prior to the review is required. If a 20-day notice is not given, the Tenure Candidate must formally waive their right to a 20-day notice via an email to the Unit Chair (cc: SOFAS).

Notice of Review: Unit Chair to Candidate Template (docx)

Unit Chair submits a letter to the Dean summarizing Unit’s Executive Committee review, and expresses the Unit’s recommendation on promotion to Associate Professor with tenure (see page 7 of this document) (cc: SOFAS)

Materials Prepared by Unit Chair

In general, it's better if the case put forward by the unit explains the processes by which evidence was gathered and evaluated, like how letters of recommendation were solicited and how decisions to include or exclude materials from the file were made.

Evaluations from all Units in which the candidate teaches

It is the responsibility of the Executive Committee of the reviewing unit to assemble all of the relevant evaluations and to make reference to them in conjunction with its own assessment of the candidate.

Letters of evaluation

Be clear how letters of evaluation were solicited and used. This might be most easily addressed by having a statement in the file concerning the solicitation of letters. Letters should demonstrate their expertise in the following areas:

Teaching: Were the letters solicited by the candidate or the unit? If the unit, what method was used to identify names of students
Scholarship: By what process were external reviewers selected? What are the reviewer’s qualifications to provide an assessment of the candidate’s work? What relationship, if any, does the reviewer have to the candidate?
Service: What is the source of the reviewer’s knowledge of the quality of the candidate’s work? Committee chair? Co-participant? Service Beneficiary?, etc.

6 Dean Recommends Candidate to Personnel Council

The Dean of the College sends a letter to the Personnel Council Chair (cc: SOFAS) in mid-November asking the Council for their recommendation on the candidate seeking tenure.

Recommendation Request: Dean to Personnel Council Template (docx)

Once the Dean of the College requests a recommendation on tenure from the Personnel Council, the Tenure Candidate may no longer make any changes to their Tenure Document.

7 Personnel Council Review Occurs

Around late November or early December, the Personnel Council Chair sends the Notice of Tenure Review letter to the Tenure Candidate setting the date for the tenure review (cc: SOFAS). A minimum of 20-day notice prior to the review is required. If a 20-day notice is not given, the Tenure Candidate must formally waive their right to a 20-day notice via an email to the Personnel Council Chair (cc: SOFAS).

Notice of Review: Personnel Council to Candidate Template (docx)

The Personnel Council Chair submits a letter to the Dean (cc: SOFAS) summarizing the comments, and expresses the Council’s decision on promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.

Personnel Council Chair's Recommendation to Dean Template (docx)

The SOFAS Office will ensure the Dean and all Personnel Council members have access to the Tenure Candidate’s materials stored on their TEAMS Channel.

8 Dean of College Recommends Candidate to Provost

The Dean of the College submits their tenure recommendation to the Provost (cc: SOFAS).

Dean's Recommendation to Provost Template Letter (docx)

SOFAS Office will ensure the Provost has access to the Tenure Candidate’s materials stored on their TEAMS Channel

9 Chancellor & Provost Recommend to Board of Regents

In late April, the Chancellor in consultation with the Provost submits their tenure recommendation to the Board of Regents (cc: SOFAS and the tenure candidate).

10 Board of Regents Approves Tenure

Board of Regents approve tenure in early June, which becomes effective in August of the new academic year when faculty are back under contract.