Attachment to Resolution m:

Participation in Promotion and Tenure Decisions.

Under Section 4.4.4 of the Faculty Handbook (“Departmental Responsibilities”), departments may include faculty who are “below rank” in promotion decisions. Under this provision, a department may allow a minority of its promotion and tenure committee to be comprised of faculty who are below rank to the candidate. Untenured faculty also may be included on department committees in tenure decisions. There is no limit on the number or percentage of untenured faculty who may serve on such a committee. Accordingly, untenured instructors and assistant professors can serve on a department promotion and tenure committee and vote on the promotion of a tenured associate professor to full professor—subject to the limitation that a majority of the committee must be at or above rank to the rank for which the candidate is seeking promotion. While most departments require that members of their promotion and tenure committee be both at or above rank to the candidate in promotion decisions and tenured in tenure decisions, apparently at least two departments rely on this provision to include faculty on their promotion and tenure committees who are below rank and/or without tenure. One department relies on the aforementioned provision in Section 4.4.4 to include junior faculty on their department promotion and tenure committee rather than include senior faculty who are at or above rank from other departments who may not be as well versed in the candidate’s academic discipline. While there may be merit to that position, most departments have concluded that it is preferable to include only faculty who are at or above rank, whether or not in that department, than junior faculty who are below rank but in the same department. Arguably, faculty who do not hold tenure or who are below rank to the candidate lack the experience and/or qualifications to make an informed decision in such cases. Accordingly, the Faculty Handbook shall be amended to require that participation on department promotion and tenure committees be limited to those faculty who are at or above rank to position for which the candidate is applying, and in decisions that involve the granting of tenure, shall be limited to those faculty who hold tenure.