College of Engineering

This document describes COE's process for conducting the college-level review of faculty promotion and tenure (P&T) cases. Additional information is available in the "Promotion and Tenure Guidelines" section of the Faculty Handbook.

1. Committee Charge

The purpose of the Faculty Status Committee is to provide an independent evaluation of faculty P&T dossiers. The purpose of the evaluation is to ensure that individuals who are recommended for tenure or promotion in COE have demonstrated their impact as educators and researchers, as well as their potential for continued and significant impact in the future.

The Committee will use its collective judgment to assess the written evidence provided in each candidate's dossier to

• evaluate each candidate's effectiveness in educating students, building a successful research program, disseminating research results, active involvement in internal and external service, and achieving external visibility in the professional community,
• ensure that consistent standards of evaluation are applied to all candidates, and
• verify that each dossier has been carefully and properly prepared, and contains all the information required by the University and College.

The Committee will prepare a letter documenting its observations and making a collective recommendation; this will be added to the dossier prior to the Dean's review.

To improve the transparency of the P&T process within the College, the Committee will maintain a publicly-accessible website with up-to-date copies of these guidelines, the annual P&T timeline, the COE dossier template, the evaluation categories used by the Committee to assess candidate performance, and a list of the current Committee membership.

2. Committee Composition

The Committee is structured to provide fair and equitable faculty representation, reflecting the diversity among units within the college.

• The Committee will consist of approximately 10 people. Each unit (school or department) in the College will be represented, with membership proportionate to the size of the current tenure-track faculty in the unit, plus one at-large member. The distribution of membership will be reviewed annually by the Dean's office, and adjusted as necessary over time.
• All tenured faculty at 0.5 FTE or above are eligible, with the following restrictions:
  • at least one member from each unit must hold the rank of full professor
  • the at-large member must hold the rank of full professor
  • unit heads are not eligible
  • faculty who will be on sabbatical, or otherwise unavailable during either Winter or Spring term, are not eligible
  • members during each dossier review cycle must also meet the conflict of interest criteria specified later in this document
• Committee members serve a three-year term beginning July 1, with terms staggered so that approximately one-third of the members are elected each year. Individuals may serve up to two consecutive terms.
• A Chair-Elect will be elected by the Committee at the beginning of each academic year, selected from among those members who have at least two years remaining in their term-of-office. He/she will assist the Chair in organizing and coordinating Committee activities. At the end of the year, the Chair-Elect will become Chair for the next year.
• While every attempt will be made to schedule meetings so that all members can participate, a quorum will be sufficient to conduct Committee business. A minimum of 2/3 of the eligible voters for each case under discussion will constitute a quorum, with the proviso that each unit must be represented by at least one person.

3. Committee Elections

While the distribution of membership among units will be established by the Dean?s office, only the election of the at-large member will be conducted by the College. Elections for other Committee positions will be carried out by the corresponding units.

• At the beginning of April, the Dean?s office will remind the unit heads about which Committee membership terms are due to expire, and whether membership slots are being reallocated to improve representativeness.
• Each affected unit will be responsible for developing its own slate of candidates and handling its election. All tenure-track faculty meeting the committee composition requirements (see above) are automatically candidates, unless the individual has specifically requested an exemption from the unit head based on potential conflict-of-interest, planned absence during Winter or Spring terms, an unduly heavy load, etc.
• During the appropriate years, the Dean?s office will conduct a College-wide election to fill the at-large position. Again, all eligible faculty will be included on the ballot unless the individual has specifically requested an exemption based on exceptional circumstances.
• All tenured and tenure-track faculty are eligible to vote, and balloting must be complete prior to the end of May. The person(s) receiving the most votes will serve on the Committee, provided the committee composition requirements are met.
• Ballot counts will be kept on record to address vacancy issues. Should a Committee member need to step down due to conflict of interest or other reasons, the individual who received the next-highest number of votes in the unit?s last election will serve as replacement. Because it is not practical to introduce a new member in the middle of ongoing P&T or midtenure reviews, replacement will occur only if the new member can be present for all discussions in that particular cycle.

4. P&T Timeline and Dossier Format

While each candidate?s case is unique, the Committee is expected to apply a consistent evaluation process that ensures normalization across candidates and units. This is impossible if each unit follows its own timeline and each candidate has a unique interpretation of what is required in the dossier.

• The Committee, in consultation with COE department/school heads, will establish an annual P&T timeline and publicize it to all tenure-track faculty.
• All COE dossiers will follow a standardized format. A dossier template will be provided to all potential candidates on the Committee website. The template will be reviewed and updated in March or April of every other year, or as required by changes to the University process. A corresponding midtenure dossier template will be maintained for third-year reviews.
• It is the responsibility of candidates and units to ensure that the latest format is used.

5. COE P&T Review Process

The Committee will ensure that its evaluation process is consistent across all candidates at a given rank.

• The evaluation criteria [provide link to online version] used for the College-level review will be made available on the Committee website.
• Evaluations will be conducted on the basis of the written evidence provided in the candidate?s dossier. If clarification is needed on particular informational points of a case, the committee may choose to solicit input via direct questions to Committee members from that unit (who are present, but otherwise silent, during discussions) or from the unit head (who is not present)
• Mandatory P&T cases will be evaluated at the beginning of each Winter term. Non-mandatory cases will follow the same timeline. Third-year review (midtenure) cases will be evaluated at the beginning of each Spring term.
• Occasionally there is need for evaluating isolated cases (primarily tenure-at-hire decisions). Since timing is often critical, some of the normal requirements may be modified in these cases:
  • The COE dossier template need not be used for the candidate?s portion of the evidence, as long as there is clear information provided on teaching record, student evaluations, students advised/graduated, publications, and external funding.
  • The candidate?s reference letters may be used in lieu of the candidate-suggested external reviewers. The unit will still be required to obtain external reviews from other appropriate individuals.
  • At the unit head?s discretion, the process may be expedited by (a) reducing the time external reviewers have to respond, (b) requesting that the unit committee accelerate their review, and/or (c) suggesting that the unit committee use a quorum in lieu of a full vote.
  • If a full quorum of the Committee cannot be convened, absent members may be allowed to submit their assessments and recommendation in writing.
• In the interests of communicating information back to the units, a debriefing with the unit heads and the Dean will be scheduled at the end of each academic year. The Committee chair will provide a post-mortem summary of the issues raised during Committee deliberations and convey suggestions for improving transparency and consistency.
• The College-level guidelines and procedures will be reviewed and modified where necessary in Spring of 2012, and every 3-5 years thereafter.

6. Managing Conflict of Interest

University policy requires that potential conflicts of interest be identified and managed at each step in the P&T process. The Committee will apply the following guidelines:

• Spouses/partners/relatives of a candidate will not serve on the committee during the cycle when the candidate is evaluated.
• Close collaborators of a candidate will be recused from the discussion and vote.
• A candidate?s supervisor will be recused from the discussion and vote.
• Committee members who are from a candidate?s unit will be present for the discussion, but their role is to answer direct informational questions from other members (rather than to offer general commentary or opinions). They will not participate in the vote.
• A candidate?s discussion will be led by individuals from two units, neither of which is the candidate?s.