Policy Manual
  University of North Texas

   Date Issued: 9/94; 8/95*
                       6/99; 5/01,8/02
                 

SUBJECT:  PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR PROMOTION AND TENURE 

APPLICABILITY:  ALL FACULTY AND ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS

Principles

1. Decisions regarding promotion and tenure shall be made up on evidence of continuing productive performance during the professional career of the faculty member. Continuing evaluation of a faculty member will focus on three principal functions: teaching, scholarly, creative, and professional activities; and service.

2. The appropriate elected departmental committee (e.g. Promotion and Tenure Committee) shall develop recommendations for promotion and tenure decisions in accordance with the guidelines in the Faculty Handbook.

3. Definitions of evaluative criteria should be comprehensive in nature, e.g., teaching includes not only classroom performance but also instructionally related responsibilities such as advising, the supervision of graduate students and the like; scholarly, creative and professional activities may include research, publication, exhibition and performance as well as participation in the professional activities of the respective disciplines, including editing, serving as a referee for a journal, chairing sessions at scholarly meetings, etc.; service includes service to the department or division, the school or college, and the university, as well as professionally related public service activities.

4. A faculty member seeking tenure should serve a sufficiently long period of time at the University of North Texas (“UNT”) to demonstrate clearly that he or she has met the evaluative criteria outlined in Principle 3. Normally, a faculty member will serve the full probationary period before a tenure decision is made. Any credit for prior experience should be determined and agreed upon in writing at the time of appointment. Such credit may be modified by mutual agreement among faculty, department and university administration.

5. Consideration of promotion to the rank of associate professor and a decision regarding tenure will, except in unusual cases, be made concurrently.

6. For promotion to the rank of associate professor or professor, a faculty member should be recognized for teaching; scholarly, creative and professional activities; and service. Scholarly, creative and professional activities should transcend the local campus and community. It is expected that balance among these various activities may be expected to vary somewhat from one discipline to another and between individuals; however, contributions in one area alone will rarely qualify a person for tenure. Thus, scholarly production, even of exceptional quality, will not compensate for indifferent teaching nor will unusually effective teaching compensate for a total lack of scholarly or professional accomplishments manifesting the individual’s continuing professional growth and development.

7. Promotion and tenure recommendations should be documented by a consistent record of teaching; scholarly, creative and professional activity; and service activities. The documentation should establish the faculty member’s recognition beyond the local campus and community. To provide external validity to their recommendations, academic departments should have their criteria for promotion and tenure validated by external referees or provide external evaluations in support of individual cases. The choice should be included in the academic department’s statement of its policies and procedures regarding promotion and tenure. (See Procedure 2.)

8. The ranks of lecturer and adjunct faculty are not tenurable, and the time spent in these ranks shall not be counted toward tenure. However, serving in either of these ranks does not preclude an individual going on to probationary status (i.e., tenure track) at some future date.

9. A tenure recommendation must carry with it the affirmation that, so far as can be determined, the individual understands the nature of membership in a community of scholars; that he or she adheres to a high standard of integrity and professional ethics; that he or she has the ability and desire to work as a member of a group while retaining all rights of individual expression; and that he or she feels a sense of responsibility for the well‑being of the University of North Texas and a commitment to work for the accomplishment of its goals.

Procedures

1. Each department/division shall provide for review by the dean a statement of its policies and procedures regarding promotion, tenure and grievance procedures. In turn, each dean/director shall provide for review by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs a statement of the policies and procedures for the school or college. Periodic review (three to five years) of approved policies and procedures should be conducted at each level or at any time changes are made in the policies or procedures.

2. If the academic department chooses to have its criteria for promotion and tenure validated, this should be done at least every five years, and the criteria should be compared with criteria used by institutions of at least similar quality and stature. Results of the external review should be filed with the academic dean and the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. These validated criteria should then be used in building each promotion and tenure case.  

If the academic department chooses to provide external evaluations for each case, supporting letters should be provided as follows: 

a.  In the case of assistant professors who are being recommended for tenure and promotion to associate professor, three letters of recommendation from scholars at institutions with programs at least comparable to those at the University of North Texas who have already attained tenure and hold the rank of associate professor or professor.  These letters should not be solicited from close personal friends of the candidate or from those involved in a recent faculty-student relationship.  A minority of letters may be solicited from graduate school colleagues, former professors, or former professional colleagues of the candidate in exceptional circumstances.  Documentation must be provided outlining what the exceptional circumstances are.  Referees should evaluate the candidate's record as a scholar and comment on his or her potential for continued productivity.  They should confirm an achieved national reputation for promotion to professor and an emerging national reputation for promotion to associate professor and evidence regarding continued productivity. 

b.  In the case of associate professors who are being recommended for tenure, three letters of recommendation from scholars at institutions with programs at least comparable to those at the University of North Texas who have already attained tenure and hold the rank of professor.  These letters should not be solicited from close personal friends of the candidate or from those involved in a recent faculty-student relationship with the candidate.  A minority of letters may be solicited from graduate school colleagues, former professors, or former professional colleagues of the candidate in exceptional circumstances.  Documentation must be provided outlining what the exceptional circumstances are.  Referees should evaluate the candidate's record as a scholar and comment on his or her potential for continued productivity.  They should confirm an achieved national reputation for promotion to professor and an emerging national reputation for promotion to associate professor and evidence regarding continued productivity. 

c.  In the case of professors who are being recommended for tenure or associate professors who are being recommended for promotion to professor, five letters of recommendation from scholars at institutions with programs at least comparable to those at the University of North Texas who have already attained tenure and hold the rank of professor.  These letters should not be solicited from close personal friends of the candidate or from those involved in a recent faculty-student relationship with the candidate.  A minority of letters may be solicited from graduate school colleagues, former professors, or former professional colleagues of the candidate in exceptional circumstances.  Documentation must be provided outlining what the exceptional circumstances are.  Referees should evaluate the candidate's record as a scholar and comment on his or her potential for continued productivity.  They should confirm an achieved national reputation for promotion to professor and an emerging national reputation for promotion to associate professor and evidence regarding continued productivity. 

d.  In applied fields, it may be appropriate for additional references to come from professionals who are not members of the academic community but who can comment on public service activities of the faculty member.  

e.  In instances where an academic unit is making the primary case for promotion and/or tenure on the basis of superior teaching, extensive documentation should be supplied in support of teaching effectiveness. If the unit has elected to use the individual external evaluations for such a case, the reviewers should be informed that the candidate is considered to have an extraordinary competence in teaching and teaching‑related activities. The reviewer should be informed that in such cases the candidate must have an adequate record of scholarly, creative or professional activities combined with superior teaching (see 15.1.1. and 15.1.2. in the Policy Manual). 

3. The calendar for promotion and tenure should be set and deadlines followed to ensure adequate time for review, discussion and appeal by the faculty member, the department/division chair, the dean, and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

4. Each department or division should review all probationary status (i.e., tenure track) faculty each year and report the results of the review to the faculty member and to the dean. Faculty eligible for promotion should be reviewed annually in accordance with the department, college, university and Faculty Handbook guidelines.

5. The entire professional career, with emphasis on the probationary period at UNT, will be used in evaluating faculty for tenure.

6. The entire professional career, with emphasis on the time since the last promotion, will be used in evaluating faculty for promotion.

7. Weights assigned to the three areas of responsibility may vary from school to college and from department to division. Decisions about weighting should be consistent with Section II, F of the Faculty Handbook and should be made at the beginning of an evaluation period, not ex post facto. The weighting scales must be part of the policies and procedures submitted as part of Procedure 1 above.

8.  It is the responsibility of the head of each academic unit to furnish to faculty members relevant departmental/divisional and school/college policies and procedures and to convey specific requirements for advancement. Faculty members are expected to familiarize themselves with personnel policies and procedures found in the Faculty Handbook. Results of all personnel decisions should be clearly communicated to faculty in writing by the academic department heads.

9.   Documentation of cases should follow the “Procedures for the Renewal of Probationary Appointments and the Granting of Tenure” (15.1.2 in Policy Manual).

10. Present department (division) promotion and tenure policies should be made consistent with this document immediately, if they are not already consistent with it. Probationary faculty employed after the adoption of such consistent policies will be covered under the department policy in effect at the time of their initial appointment until either their probationary term has expired or they have been granted tenure.