Review by the Dean of Departmental Recommendation for Appointment or Promotion to Associate Professor

Amended March 27, 2015; Amended April 14, 2025

1. The tenure-stream faculty of each department with fewer than 20 faculty members in the tenure stream shall elect a tenured member and one alternate to serve as representatives to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Tenure Council (Tenure Council). The tenure-stream faculty of each department with 20 or more faculty members in the tenure stream shall elect two tenured members and one alternate to Tenure Council. Each department in the Natural Sciences will elect one additional member to Tenure Council, to meet the demand for technical and quantitative expertise on tenure and promotion committees. 

2. Members of the Tenure Council shall serve for two years, with half the members elected each year. 

3. The Tenure Council shall elect a Secretary. 

4. The Tenure Council shall each year elect from among its members a Selection Committee, composed of six members, including two each from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The purpose of the Selection Committee shall be to choose faculty members from among the members of the Tenure Council to serve on Review Committees (“ad hoc committees”) in cases of appointment or promotion to tenured rank. 

5. Members of the Selection Committee shall serve for one year and may be re- elected once.  

6. Whenever a recommendation for appointment or promotion to tenured rank is submitted by a department to the Dean, the Dean shall seek the advice of an ad hoc committee composed in the following manner: 

1. The Dean shall meet with the Selection Committee of the Tenure Council, to choose members of the ad hoc committee. 

2. Each ad hoc committee shall consist of six members, including three members from among the members Tenure Council, and three members named from the tenured faculty. 

3. One or more of the faculty members may be from schools or faculties of the University other than the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences or from other academic institutions. 

4. No one whose primary appointment is in the candidate's department may serve on an ad hoc committee for that candidate. 

5. An ad hoc committee chair shall be selected at random, unless one member volunteers. Their duty is to chair the meeting and to draft the report of the committee, which must be approved by all members of the committee. 

6. The report of each ad hoc committee shall be kept confidential and not shared with department faculty. A numerical vote of the ad hoc committee shall be included in the report. 

7. The Dean shall review every department's recommendation against the granting of tenure, for evidence of any substantive or procedural inadequacy or impropriety. The Dean, at their discretion, may ask the department to review a negative recommendation or may choose to seek the advice of an ad hoc committee. 

8. The Dean will seek the advice of an ad hoc committee when a department recommends a first appointment, without tenure, at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor. 

9. The Dean or their representative (generally, the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs) will attend all ad hoc committee meetings as a non-voting member and will supervise the committee vote at the end of the meeting. A committee member’s vote is not revealed to other committee members but is made known to the Dean’s Office. 

10. The chair of the candidate's department or the chair's representative shall appear before the committee, to discuss in detail the candidate's dossier and the department's recommendation, and to answer any questions from committee members. 

11. In reviewing a recommendation for appointment or promotion to tenured rank, the ad hoc committee shall seek, on the basis of the materials provided by the Dean, the department, and the candidate, and such other evidence as the committee finds necessary, to assess the candidate's level of achievement and promise of growth both as a teacher and as a scholar. In arriving at a recommendation, the ad hoc committee shall be governed so far as possible by uniform standards of excellence as established from time to time by the University as a whole and by the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Application of these standards shall take account of the special characteristics of the academic disciplines, and the peculiar needs of the individual departments. 

12. If the materials that have been provided to the ad hoc committee suffer from lacunae or other deficiencies such that the committee cannot proceed in a reasonable way, the committee shall return these materials to the Dean and postpone further discussion on the case until the deficiencies in the candidate's dossier have been remedied. 

13. The chair of the ad hoc committee shall report in writing the results of the committee's deliberations to the Dean. The report shall include the results of a vote on the question of whether to recommend appointment or promotion to tenured rank. 

14. The Dean shall report on their action in each case to the ad hoc committee, the chair of the candidate's department, and the candidate. The Dean shall at that time also inform the candidate at the candidate's request of the names of the members of the ad hoc committee. 

15. The Secretary of the Tenure Council shall report annually to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. The report shall include a statistical summary and analysis of the year's tenure cases and their disposition and be published in The Gazette.