Junior faculty review and awards

Dean's Office contacts: Sue Barnhart, Julianna Jones, Divisional Dean 

• Review committees for promotion and tenure
• Junior Faculty Development Program

The Handbook requires that every faculty member below the rank of Professor be considered each year for possible promotion. The chair and/or departmental faculty should examine the list of faculty members below the rank of Professor and should initiate formal promotion evaluations for any promising candidates. Chairs might also send a letter annually to all faculty below the rank of Professor, asking for a response if they are interested in being reviewed for promotion.

If a unit does not have at least three eligible departmental faculty members to make a promotion/tenure review and recommendation, a standing committee should be appointed by the Dean for this purpose (see Standing committees).

When a faculty member asks for a promotion review, the chair and/or departmental faculty should consider the person's documented record of achievement and determine whether a formal promotion evaluation is merited. If the chair or the department’s judgment is that the record does not warrant promotion at this time, the department should clearly communicate that judgment to the faculty member.  The faculty member does nevertheless have the right to insist that the department proceed with a complete promotion review, including the collection of external letters leading to a formal recommendation and vote, even if the recommendation of the senior faculty was not to proceed at this time.  (This does not apply in any mandatory promotion/tenure case.)

A departmental committee may be appointed to review each faculty member who is being considered for promotion and/or tenure. The committee should be composed of at least two members; all members should be senior in rank to the candidate. In small units the entire complement of senior faculty might be members. A unit may prefer to use the same committee for all Assistant Professors and/or Associate Professors. The review committee may have members from other units or disciplines that are closely related to the candidate's areas of interest.

Documentation forwarded to the College for a promotion/tenure recommendation should include a report from the review committee which is separate from the department chair's report.

Sponsored by the College in partnership with the College's departments and schools, this program is available to all tenure-track Assistant Professors. Its goal is to assist junior faculty in their professional development by providing them with time and opportunity to enhance their scholarly and teaching careers.

Each year by May 31, requests for each award should be submitted to the Dean's Office by the department chair on behalf of the eligible faculty member; see Junior faculty development award request form.  Once the award is approved, departments should use the following program tag information to process the appropriate salary/expense information in Workday.  The College no longer transfers funding for Junior Faculty Development Awards to departments.