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: Yes, this is also a norm of the University now; however, 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 appointments, 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.