Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion Guidelines

Guidelines

The chair must observe the statutes on memberships of personnel committees and follow the timing shown on the Schedule of Tenure-Track and Tenured Personnel Decisions, found in the procedures calendar. This supplements policies and procedures in the University Statutes, in particular, §4-05.01-02. Any deviation must be pre-approved by the Dean of A&S Faculty.

Electronic transfer of data:

The Dean of Faculty would like to receive all information for faculty personnel decisions electronically, with the exception of the faculty recommendations. Fordham IT and the Faculty Senate have identified two secure products that may be used: blackboard and myfiles. For those who have not yet used it, the procedure is straightforward:

  • the applicant transfers application materials into a secure file designated by the Chair; with publications etc. this is the largest source of data coming to the Dean and is, therefore, the most important to get electronically.
  • if the department approves the additional use of electronic media, the Chair removes the applicant access to this folder at the statutory cut-off date for materials to be provided to the Chair in the Schedule of Tenure-Track and Tenured Personnel Decisions and grants access to the members of the Personnel Committee. It is most important that the applicant have NO ACCESS to any information after the cut-off date. Further applicant information (student and peer course evaluations, outside letters, personnel committee report, etc.) may be added to this personnel committee folder for review by all personnel committee members
  • when the Chair is ready to send the personnel material to the Dean of Faculty, s/he contacts the Dean’s office for details of the transfer into the Dean’s files.

Faculty Application Materials:

The faculty member supplies the Department Chair with:

  • a completed, signed paper application
  • a current c.v.
  • notification, when appropriate, that s/he is requesting a member of an Interdisciplinary Program to be part of the Personnel Committee
  • documentation of teaching (including student and peer-reviewed evaluations), research and service upon which the decision will be made

The application can be generated from the Faculty Activity Report system:

  • select Manage Your Activities and then choose the tab for RAPID REPORTS at the bottom, on the window frame
  • enter a date range (perhaps 2008-present)
  • make sure Microsoft Word is in the File Format box
  • choose the appropriate form – either the Reappointment Application or the Tenure and Promotion Application – from the list
  • click on Run Report
  • the application form will be pre-filled with courses and as much information from the period selected as was previously entered into the Faculty Activity Report system by the applicant
  • the application form will be presented as a Word document that can be edited, saved and printed; the application must be signed after printing and the applicant should use blue ink when signing

Department Materials:

  • Department Norms
  • any outside letters solicited for this decision
  • any documentation of teaching not already provided by the applicant

Personnel Committee Materials

  • as soon after the Personnel Committee meeting as possible, but within one week, the attendees are required to send their individual recommendations to the Dean of Faculty
  • the Chair of the Personnel Committee writes up the report, makes it available for review by all participants and has everyone sign the report, preferably in blue ink, and sends it to the Dean of Faculty within the deadline shown on the Schedule of Tenure-Track and Tenured Personnel Decisions

Special Note For Faculty Applying For Promotion After Their Tenure Decision:

  • Candidate materials for both tenure and promotion need to be provided to the Department Chair by January 15
  • the candidate needs to fill out and sign two applications – one for tenure and one for promotion
  • the Personnel Committee meeting to evaluate the candidate’s application for tenure must take place first, and follow the timetable for tenure decisions in the Schedule of Tenure-Track and Tenured Personnel Decisions
  • the meeting for a decision on the candidate’s application for promotion must take place after the tenure decision and is contingent on a positive tenure decision
  • if the promotion decision meeting is held before May 15, the Chair will convene the meeting, have the faculty send their recommendations to the Dean of Faculty within one week of the meeting, prepare the Committee report, obtain attendees signatures indicating concurrence with the report and send it on to the Dean of Faculty along with all supporting materials in the usual manner. If the tenure decision announced on May 15 is positive, the Deans will consider the promotion materials and send their recommendations to the Provost; if the tenure decision is negative, the meeting on promotion will be considered to never have occurred and all paperwork received by the Dean of Faculty will be shredded