Tenure and Promotion Criteria

Tenure and Promotion Criteria

Candidates will be evaluated with regard to their performance in the areas of teaching, research, and service as stipulated in the Academic Handbook. It is expected that the candidate should normally excel in at least one of the above categories and be satisfactory in the others. In some cases the candidate may present evidence of a balance of strengths. In all cases, the candidate’s total record should be assessed by comprehensive and rigorous peer review. Specifically, the Promotion and Tenure Committee and the Dean of Liberal Arts will use the following criteria in evaluating the relevant categories:

1. If research or other creative activity or public and applied scholarship, including collaborative work, is the primary criterion for tenure, the candidate must have achieved a major body of work in a substantial field, and must provide evidence of scholarly work for the future. The quality of this work must be demonstrated by evidence of letters, both internal and external, and by other pertinent documentation.
2. If the primary criterion for tenure is teaching, the candidate must have demonstrated a superior ability and interest in stimulating in students a genuine desire for study and creative work. Candidates should also provide evidence of a significant educational impact on their particular discipline or across disciplines, both inside and outside the School of Liberal Arts. Evidence of outstanding teaching might include indications of the success of students, student and peer evaluations, publication of textbooks or teaching materials, active participation in organizations and initiatives devoted to teaching, and other pertinent documentation.
3. If the primary criterion for tenure or promotion is service, the service should be exceptional and the documentation should demonstrate the impact of this service on the candidate’s profession as well as contributions to the institution and the community.
4. In a balanced case, the candidate’s overall contribution to the School of Liberal Arts, the University or one of its constituent units must be shown to be comparable in excellence to that of a candidate with a single primary area. In research, this requires evidence of significant contribution to a substantial field. In teaching, it requires evidence of an important contribution to teaching inside the School of Liberal Arts, and, where possible, outside it. And in service, it requires evidence of significant impact on the School of Liberal Arts and/or discipline.
5. There should be strong indications in the dossier that the candidate will maintain and enhance the level of performance on which the awarding of tenure is to be based.

The tenure and promotion process should take into account the population within which candidates are to be evaluated. Evaluation of the quality of the teaching, research and creative activity, and service of candidates for tenure and promotion is to be comparable to that of individuals who have recently received tenure or who have recently been promoted at other major universities.