Senate
(Amends Senate
(As approved, click here)
TO: Fort Wayne Senate
FROM: Faculty Affairs Committee
Craig Hill, Chair
SUBJECT: Proposed revision of SD 88-13 (Procedures for Promotion and Tenure)
DATE: October 22, 2007
DISPOSITION: To the Presiding Officer for implementation
Whereas, for the past two years the Campus Promotion and Tenure Subcommittee has “strongly recommended” that departments implement an official third year review process; and
Whereas, many departments have done so or are planning to do so; and
Whereas, the Faculty Affairs Committee recommends that a mandatory and standardized third-year review will serve the campus and probationary faculty;
Be It Resolved, That the Senate approve the proposed revisions to SD 88-13; and
Be It Further Resolved, that the Senate also approve editorial changes to SD 88-13, reflecting the changes of some schools to colleges.
Approving Not Approving Absent
Christine Erickson Charles Champion
Craig Hill Susan Hannah
Michael Nusbaumer Kimberly McDonald
Nash Younis
Senate
(Amends Senate
Senate
(Last amended, 1/12/2004)
PROCEDURES FOR PROMOTION AND TENURE
IPFW and its autonomous academic units shall establish, within the timeframes and by means of criteria established in other documents, procedures for the evaluation of faculty for promotion and tenure according to the following guidelines and procedures. Autonomous academic units shall consist of those units subject to the powers of the Faculty detailed in Section VI of the Constitution of the Faculty; other units may, at their option, adhere to these guidelines and procedures.
1.0 Decision Levels: Nominations for promotion and/or tenure shall be considered at several levels. The preponderance of the evaluation of a candidate shall occur at the first level.
1.1 The department/program committee, whose composition and functions shall be established according to a procedure adopted by the faculty of the department/program and approved by the faculty of the school/division. The Senate Faculty Affairs Committee shall be consulted about any newly established committee composition and functions procedures, and any changes to an established procedure. The Senate shall have the right of review of this procedure. The department/program committee shall follow procedures established by the faculty of the school/division or, in the absence of such procedures, by the Senate.
All full-time, tenure-track members of the department shall have the opportunity to review and comment on each case for promotion and tenure. Where possible, it is recommended that those persons possessing the same or higher rank or the status to which a candidate aspires should have major responsibility in formulating the department’s recommendations.
The appointment letter of a faculty member to more than one academic unit shall identify that department/program whose tenure/promotion process shall apply to the appointee.
1.2 The chief academic officer of the department/program
1.3 The college/school/division committee(s), established by the college/school/division faculty, incorporated into the documents which define the procedures of faculty governance within the college/school/division, and approved by the Senate. This procedure shall be periodically published, simultaneously with the Bylaws of the Senate, as and when the Bylaws of the Senate are distributed.
Nothing in this document shall be construed as requiring a college/school or division without departments to perform a second review and make a second recommendation on promotion and tenure cases; however, when such a review and recommendation are made
by a committee, the committee shall be constituted in such a way that a majority of its voting members will not have served on the first committee.
1.4 The chief academic officer of the college/school/division
1.5 The campus committee, consisting of the Chief Academic Officer of IPFW as nonvoting chair and seven tenured members of the Fort Wayne Faculty, a majority of whom hold the rank of Professor or Librarian, selected so as to provide balanced representation of the disciplinary areas. Voting members of this committee shall be elected to three-year terms, staggered in the first instance, by the Chief Administrative Officer of IPFW and the two Speakers of the Faculty. The committee members will be elected from a panel of nominees composed of at least two representatives from the faculty of each college/school/division selected according to procedures adopted by the college/school/division Faculty and incorporated into the documents which define the protocols of Faculty governance within the college/school/division. Voting members of this committee shall recuse themselves from considering cases of candidates with whom they share significant credit for research or creative endeavor or other work which is a major part of the candidate’s case. Faculty members shall not serve on this committee in a year when their own cases are pending. The purposes of this committee are to review the actions of the earlier decision levels to assure that the candidate is afforded basic fairness and due process in accordance with established university policies and procedures and to assess the adequacy and sufficiency of the evidence. The direct submission to members of materials which are not part of the promotion and/or tenure case dossier is prohibited.
1.6 The chief academic officer of IPFW
1.7 The chief administrative officer of IPFW, to forward recommendations to the President of Indiana University and to the President of Purdue University
2.0 Case Process
2.1 All cases for promotion and/or tenure shall pass sequentially through the decision levels above.
2.2 The administrator or committee chair at each level shall inform the candidate in writing of the vote or recommendation on the nomination, with a clear and complete statement of the reasons therefor, at the time the case is sent forward to the next level. When the vote is not unanimous, a written statement stipulating the majority opinion and the minority opinion must be included. The candidate may submit a written response to the statement to the administrator or the committee chair to be included with the case when it is sent forward to the next level. At the same time that the case is sent forward to the next level, the administrator or committee chair shall also send a copy of the recommendation and statements of reasons, and the candidate’s response, if any, to administrators and committee chairs at the previous level(s). Committee chairs shall distribute copies to committee members.
2.3 The deliberations of committees at all levels shall be strictly confidential, and only the chair may communicate a committee’s decision to the candidate and to the next level. Within the confidential discussions of the committees, each member’s vote on a case shall be openly declared. No abstentions or proxies are allowed.
3.0 Individual Participation
3.1 Only tenured faculty may serve as voting members of promotion and tenure committees at any level.
3.2 No person shall serve as a voting member of any committee during an academic year in which his or her nomination for promotion or tenure is under consideration, nor shall any individual make a recommendation on his or her own promotion or tenure nomination.
3.3 The department/program level excepted, no individual shall serve in a voting or recommending role at more than one decision level. In order that this be accomplished, the campus committee shall be filled before college/school/division committees. In the event that the chief academic officer of a department, program, college, school, or division serves as ex-officio member of a committee, then that person shall not vote during that committee’s deliberations and decisions.
PROCEDURES FOR THIRD YEAR REVIEW
Departments will review the progress of probationary faculty toward tenure during the third probationary year. This review will occur at the time of the fourth reappointment, that is, for reappointment for the fifth year of the probationary period, normally initiated during February of the third probationary year.
4.0 Third year review shall occur at the first level (department or program committee referred to in 1.1 above) and shall result in a written recommendation to the second level (1.2 above) for reappointment for the fifth year of the probationary period.
4.1 The recommendation for reappointment made by the department/program committee shall be considered by all other levels involved in making the reappointment recommendation during the third year. Ordinarily those levels are those referred to in 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, & 1.7 above.
4.2 Departments and programs may use similar procedures to recommend reappointment in other probationary years.
(Amended, 12/12/1988)
(Amended & Approved, 1/16-1/23/1989)
(Amended, 11/14/1994)
(Amended, 4/10/1995)
(Amended, 4/13/1998)
(Amended, 4/12/1999)
(Amended, 3/18/2002)
(Amended, 10/21/2002)
(Amended, 4/21/2003)
(Amended, 9/8/2003)
(Amended, 1/12/2004)