Q: A file is too large to be uploaded onto the Jotform submission. What should I do?
A: Try compressing the file. This is possible through Adobe Acrobat or apps like Smallpdf.com.
Q: Which semesters should be included in my teaching portfolio appendix?
A: For a reappointment: please cover the semesters since your last appointment or reappointment. For tenure: please cover the semesters of your probationary period. For promotion: please cover the last five years. For tenure and promotion: please cover the semesters of your probationary period.
Q: How many peer evaluations do I need?
A: Probationary faculty should have one peer evaluation for each semester in the probationary period. Clinical faculty should have one peer evaluation for each semester in the first six years of appointment. Faculty who are applying for promotion should have at least one peer evaluation from the past five years.
Q: My chair didn’t initiate any peer evaluations. Can I submit my Teaching Portfolio without them?
A: Yes, it is the responsibility of the chair to make sure that their faculty are being evaluated, and lack of evaluations should not delay reappointment. The School CAP will not hold faculty responsible if the chair did not arrange to have their faculty evaluated. Of course it is a good idea to initiate the process by suggesting to the chair any faculty that you would be interested in having serve as peer evaluators. The peer evaluation process is beneficial to faculty development on both sides of the evaluation and it provides an important perspective on teaching quality, in addition to student evaluations.
Q: Can a candidate apply for promotion to Associate Professor before applying for tenure?
A: Yes, but it is now a University norm to require external letters for promotion to Associate Professor and not just for tenure, so the candidate will ultimately need two sets of external letters.
Q: Do clinical faculty require letters for promotion to Clinical Associate Professor and Clinical Ordinary Professor?
A: This is only required for promotion to Clinical Ordinary Professor. These letters should not be evaluations of research unless the candidate desires this to be part of their promotion package. Please contact the Associate Dean for Faculty to talk about your particular case for promotion and the kinds of letters that would be suitable for it.
Q: Can the tenure clock be extended?
A: II-B-3.021. Yes, usually for a new child or a leave of absence, although a recent motion through the Senate has excluded research fellowships from granting automatic extensions to the tenure clock. Faculty can apply for a tenure clock extension through a Google form linked through the Provost’s office website.
Q: Do chairs present their faculty’s cases for appointments and reappointments?
A: II-C-5.079-080. It is expected in Arts and Sciences that chairs will present the case for reappointments, tenure, and promotion at the School CAP and, if necessary, at the Ordinary Professors meeting. The dean presents all cases at the level of the Senate CAP and Academic Senate.
Q: How should a faculty member answer Question 5 on the 1-P Form (also used as a summary in the Teaching Portfolio for reappointment), which asks for average scores from my student evaluations for both course and instructor?
A: The faculty member has two choices. He or she can either average all of the course scores and instructor scores for each class from all of the evaluations and then put that average into those columns. Or, he or she can use the average score for question 10 from each section of the teaching evaluations (i.e., “I would recommend this instructor to a fellow student” and “I would recommend this course to a fellow student”) in lieu of calculating the average scores. However, in this case the faculty member should clearly indicate on the form (and in the Teaching Portfolio) that Question 10 was used to provide the scores.