Policy Number:
II.02.04
Reason for Policy:
To articulate the university’s position on and processes related to expedited tenure review.
Entities Affected by this Policy:
Faculty; those working within promotion and tenure processes
Responsible Office:
For questions about this policy, please contact the Office of the Provost and Academic Affairs at provost@uoregon.edu or 541-346-3186.
Website Address for this Policy:
Enactment & Revision History:
28 February 2020 - Amendments approved by the university president upon recommendation by the University Senate. (Senate action on 05 February 2020 via motion US19/20-10.)
30 January 2018 - Enacted by the university president upon recommendation of the University Senate. (Senate action on 17 January 2018 via motion US 17/18-01.)
Policy:
- The expedited tenure process is not appropriate for faculty members or academic administrators who are currently employed and/or under contract at the University of Oregon.
- Expedited tenure may be used in the case of hiring faculty, already tenured at other institutions, at the rank of full professor or associate professor. Only associate professors who have been at that rank for a minimum of three years will be eligible for expedited tenure. Faculty hired through the expedited tenure process shall start at the UO at a rank not to exceed their current rank at a previous institution. The promotion of an associate professor to full professor requires review under the full promotion and tenure process.
- If a unit faculty votes to hire a new tenure-track faculty member at the rank of full professor or associate professor, and votes to recommend utilizing the expedited policy to grant indefinite tenure to the candidate based on the candidates’ application materials, and the Provost and the Dean of the relevant School or College agrees with the hiring and tenure recommendation of the unit, then the faculty and the Dean can forward the possible new faculty member’s dossier to the Faculty Personnel Committee for an expedited promotion and tenure review.
- The expedited review shall be conducted by a subcommittee of the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC) consisting of five members (with one member selected as chair by the subcommittee) and will include three FPC members from the College of Arts and Sciences (one from each division) and two FPC members from the other schools and colleges. The members of this committee, to be called the Expedited Tenure Review Committee (ETRC), will be elected annually by the FPC. The ETRC will be composed with attention to equity, diversity and inclusion. ETRC members shall recuse themselves from the consideration of tenure cases in their unit. Vacancies, including those that arise from recusals, will be filled by the FPC chair after consulting the FPC membership.
- The ETRC will be “on call” through the academic year and the summer term to review cases and make recommendations to the Provost. The ETRC will meet at least once each fall with the Provost to discuss process and standards and select a chair for the year.
- The ETRC, upon completion of its review, will report its recommendation to the hiring unit, and will provide the compiled tenure dossier, which shall include all information upon which they have made their recommendation, to the hiring unit. In the case of a candidate who is a full professor, the hiring unit may opt to forgo any additional unit-level review, in which case the recommendation of the ETRC shall be forwarded to the Provost. In the case of an associate professor, or in the case of a full professor when the hiring unit wishes to engage in additional unit-level review, relevant members of the unit, as specified by the unit governance documents, shall have five business days after receipt of the dossier to change their vote for indefinite tenure and to notify the ETRC about any such changes. The ETRC shall consider any changes to the unit tenure vote and either recommend to the Provost that the possible new faculty member should receive indefinite tenure and the rank of full professor or require that the faculty member be reviewed by the full promotion and tenure process.
- The ETRC will determine what materials should be considered in their review, but such materials must include at a minimum the following: candidate’s CV, all relevant research materials, a quantitative assessment of the candidate’s work and impact if available, teaching evaluations for positions with any teaching responsibilities, and at least five external evaluations, three of which may be letters from application process and at least two of which must be external evaluations (by letter or by a phone call conducted by a member of the ETRC). The latter two evaluators must be selected by the committee from a list of possible evaluators prepared by the hiring department(s) and not including anyone listed among the candidate’s references.The ETRC will carefully document any non-written evaluations for inclusion in the tenure dossier. The ETRC may request other information as it sees fit through the dean of the relevant school or college.Failure of a dean to provide requested information may result in the ETRC requiring the candidate be reviewed by the full promotion and tenure process.
- Materials collected for each review will be available to all members of the FPC and FPC members may provide comments to the ETRC until the ETRC concludes its deliberations and makes its decision on the case.
- The FPC shall be responsible for tracking when an individual is awarded tenure via the expedited process and will include in their annual report to the Senate the number of cases considered by the ETRC and the number of cases in which tenure was awarded via the expedited process.
Chapter/Volume:
- Volume II: Academics, Instruction and Research
- Chapter 2: Appointments, promotion and tenure
Original Source:
UO Policy Statement