Policies and Procedures for the Granting of Promotion and Tenure

These policies and procedures apply to all faculty who are not represented by collective bargaining and who hold faculty appointments eligible for tenure and promotion, including those who are being considered for tenure prior to beginning their employment. The committees described herein also consider tenure and promotion for bargaining unit faculty pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement between Wright State University and the Wright State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

Promotions to the ranks of Associate Professor and Professor in the Boonshoft School of Medicine and the School of Professional Psychology, and promotions to the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing and Health are not governed by this policy except for the section on “University Review.” Policies, procedures, and criteria for these promotions are set forth in the Bylaws of the Boonshoft School of Medicine and the School of Professional Psychology, and in a document maintained in the College of Nursing and Health Dean's Office.

Promotion and tenure are milestones in the continual process of faculty development. Faculty have the responsibility to help in the development of their colleagues, and faculty promotion and tenure are indispensable for the proper functioning of the University. Tenure ensures the retention of talented permanent faculty, secures faculty autonomy and forms the basis for the development of an intellectual community. Above all, tenure protects the academic freedom of faculty to conduct their teaching and research without constraint by interests both inside and outside the University or economic pressures

Promotion is the advancement in professorial rank according to applicable criteria for each rank. The following promotions may be approved under this policy:

• Assistant Professor to Associate Professor
• Associate Professor to Professor

This policy does not apply to faculty members whose rank has any additional modifier, such as adjunct, research, or visiting.

Tenure is a commitment by the University to provide a series of continuous annual appointments to faculty members. These appointments can be terminated only by resignation, retirement, removal for cause, or retrenchment. Faculty in the School of Medicine and the School of Professional Psychology are not eligible for tenure. In all other colleges, only Faculty hired in tenure track positions in one of the following ranks may be awarded tenure:

• Assistant Professor
• Associate Professor
• Professor

Faculty members appointed to any other rank (including ranks with an additional modifier, such as adjunct, research, or visiting) may not be considered for tenure.

The Promotion and Tenure Document is the information that the candidate seeking promotion and/or tenure submits to the department promotion and tenure committee summarizing his or her case for promotion and/or tenure. It consists of the following items:

1. the candidate review statement (Appendix A)
2. evidence of teaching effectiveness
3. the candidate's curriculum vitae, which includes a description of the candidate's teaching, scholarship, and service (See Appendix B for suggested content and format of the curriculum vitae.)
4. appropriate additional items in the form of an appendix may also be included
5. other items that are required, or suggested by departments or colleges

The Promotion and Tenure File consists of the Promotion and Tenure Document and the following items that are added during the review process.

1. the form shown in Appendix C used to record votes and recommendations
2. letters of evaluation by external or internal reviewers, copies of letters soliciting the reviews and brief statements of the reviewers' qualifications. At least three letters of evaluation from peers external to the University who can review the case in an unbiased manner (no co-authors, thesis advisors, or other persons who might have a conflict of interest) must be solicited for all promotion and/or tenure decisions. All letters received from external reviewers shall be included in the file. The external evaluators should be experts in the field of the candidate, and, if they are faculty members at academic institutions, they should hold at least the rank to which the candidate aspires. These letters should evaluate the candidate's scholarly activities. They should not be testimonial in character, and they should not relate to promotion and tenure at the writers' institutions.
   
   At the discretion of the dean or the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee, letters of recommendation supporting a faculty member's hiring may be used in lieu of letters of evaluation in tenure cases.
    
3. a record of the Department Committee's vote and recommendation, and written statements of both the Department Committee and the department chair
4. a record of the College Committee's vote and recommendation, and written statements of both the College Committee and the dean
5. the recommendation of the University Promotion and Tenure Committee

Promotion and Tenure Committees are composed of faculty with professorial rank who review promotion and tenure cases at the department, college, and university level and make recommendations to the next higher level.

Criteria for promotion and tenure of non bargaining unit faculty with tenure-line appointments shall be consistent with expectations set forth for bargaining unit faculty in the applicable department bylaws. A record of effective teaching must be established, even though the amount of recent teaching may be limited. A record of effective service must be established, and effective completion of administrative responsibilities may be substituted for service work expected of non-administrative faculty. A record of scholarship must be established with numbers and quality of publications, grants, and other appropriate outputs consistent with bylaws criteria. The ruling principle is that the candidate's career record of teaching, scholarship, and service should be comparable to the records of faculty at that rank in the department wherein the faculty member's tenure and rank reside.

A candidate's academic paper, book or similar work which has been accepted for publication but is not yet published shall be credited to the faculty member if there is adequate documentation confirming that the work is definitely scheduled for publication without further revision.

All grants of tenure or promotion are made by the Wright State University Board of Trustees based on review and recommendations from the following committees and individuals.

• A Department Promotion and Tenure Committee consisting of at least three voting members at the rank of Associate Professor or above (if the candidate's college has departments).
• The department chair (if the candidate's college has departments). If a candidate is the chair, then the dean will name another chair from within the college to perform this review.*
• A College Promotion and Tenure Committee consisting of at least five voting members at the rank of Associate Professor or above plus the dean as a non-voting member.
• The dean. If a candidate is the dean, then the department chair will request that the provost name another dean from within the university to perform this review.*
• A University Promotion and Tenure Committee consisting of twenty voting members: the provost, who chairs the Committee; the deans of the College of Education and Human Services, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Nursing and Health, the College of Science and Mathematics, the Lake Campus, the Raj Soin College of Business, the School of Medicine, and the School of Professional Psychology; one Professor elected by each of the nine aforementioned units; and one Professor-at-large, who is a member of the AAUP-WSU bargaining unit, to be elected by the bargaining unit faculty through an election conducted by the AAUP-WSU. All Professors must be tenured members of the bargaining unit, except those representing the School of Medicine and the School of Professional Psychology. Faculty who hold administrative positions of assistant dean or higher are not eligible for election to the University Promotion and Tenure Committee. An academic unit which does not have a Professor eligible for election may elect a Professor from another academic unit.
• The university president.

*Subsequent references in this document to department chair and dean refer also to the substitutes named to perform the chair or dean's functions.

By March 1 of each year, the University will develop and publish the deadlines for completion of promotion and tenure documents and files that will apply during the upcoming academic year. The schedule shall be made available to department chairs, deans, and individual faculty members, and it shall incorporate the following deadlines:

• To initiate the Promotion Process, a faculty member must submit a written request to the department chair, with a copy to the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee, by May 1.**
• By May 1, the candidate must submit suggested names of external reviewers to the chair of the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee.
• By June 1, the candidate must submit materials to be sent to the outside reviewers.
• By October 1, the candidate must submit to the department chair the complete Promotion Document.

**If a department chair is a candidate, then the request for promotion should be submitted to the dean to initiate the review. If the Dean of Lake Campus or of the College of Nursing and Health is a candidate, then the request for promotion should be submitted to the provost to initiate the review.

Along with the Promotion and Tenure Document, the candidate must submit complete copies of all publications listed in the curriculum vitae (CV). However, publications used to document a successful promotion or tenure application at Wright State in the past need not be submitted unless specifically requested by the department chair, the dean, or the chair of a promotion and tenure committee. The department chair will make these materials available to all members of the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee, and the dean will make these materials available to all members of the College Promotion and Tenure Committee. These copies of the candidate's scholarly work are normally not transmitted beyond the level of the college committee, but the dean will make them available to all members of the University Promotion and Tenure Committee who request to see them.

On the CV, each publication that is listed must include all authors, full title, publisher or journal, and, if known, volume, inclusive pages, and date of publication. When there are multiple authors and one is the primary author, that name should be clearly so identified. Citations of articles and papers should indicate whether the work was refereed (R) or not refereed (N). Items which have not yet been published but have been accepted for publication without revision shall be listed on the CV as “in press.” Requirements for scholarly works other than publications (e.g., those in the fine and performing arts) are substantially the same as those specified for publications.

After the candidate has submitted the complete promotion document, it may not be altered without permission of the candidate and the department chair. The document cannot be altered after it has been voted on by the College Promotion and Tenure Committee. The document becomes part of the promotion file to which the candidate may add only letters of rebuttal and/or evidence to support the letter(s) of rebuttal. A rebuttal letter and supporting evidence may confirm publication of an item listed in the curriculum vitae as under review, but it cannot admit previously unlisted works into the candidate's record of scholarship.

Once the promotion process has begun, only the candidate may terminate the process. To do so, the candidate must submit written notice of withdrawal to the provost, who will then convey this information as appropriate.

If the Department, College, or University Committee reviews materials that are not part of the individual's promotion file, the chair of that committee shall promptly make such materials available to the candidate.

If the candidate disagrees with any of the statements or conclusions in the file, the candidate may submit a letter of rebuttal and supporting evidence. In addition, the candidate may use a rebuttal to report the acceptance or publication of a work of printed scholarship and/or the awarding of a grant. The rebuttal letter(s) and supporting evidence will be added to the candidate's promotion file and will be given full consideration at all subsequent stages of the promotion process. At each stage, a rebuttal letter and supporting evidence may not exceed fifteen pages, although it may reference additional items with instructions as to where and how they may be inspected. The candidate has the right to access and obtain copies of the promotion file at any time during the process and after its completion.

Department Review

The Department Promotion and Tenure Committee will review the candidate's file and make its written recommendation, after which the department chair will review the file and prepare a letter recommending for or against the promotion. The department chair will inform the candidate promptly of the decision and vote of the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee and provide the candidate access to his or her file, which includes the committee's written recommendation and the chair's letter.

The department chair will notify the candidate promptly when the Department Promotion and Tenure Committee's recommendation and the chair's letter have been added to the file. Thereafter, the candidate will have ten (10) working days to add a rebuttal letter to the file. Thereafter, the department chair will transmit the file to the College Promotion and Tenure Committee.

College Review

The College Promotion and Tenure Committee will review the candidate's file and make its written recommendation, after which the college dean will review the file and prepare a letter recommending for or against the promotion. The college dean will inform the candidate promptly of the decision and vote of the College Promotion and Tenure Committee.

The dean will notify the Candidate promptly when the College Promotion and Tenure Committee's recommendation and the dean's letter have been added to the file. Thereafter, the candidate will have ten (10) working days to add a rebuttal letter to the file. Thereafter, the dean will transmit the file to the University Promotion and Tenure Committee.

University Review

The University Promotion and Tenure Committee shall review the candidate's file and make its recommendation. A simple majority is required of all eligible committee members who are present and voting on all promotion cases.

Only members of the University Promotion and Tenure Committee may attend University Promotion and Tenure Committee Meetings except as noted below. The University Promotion and Tenure Committee will be staffed by two tenured Professors who are not members of the Committee: one selected by the provost and one selected by AAUP-WSU. These Professors chosen to staff the Committee will attend the Committee meetings, will share the clerical duties of counting votes, and will be available, as needed, to respond to questions concerning applicable university policy and the collective bargaining agreement.

The provost will inform the candidate promptly of the decision and vote of the University Promotion and Tenure Committee and provide the candidate access to his or her file, which will include the Committee's recommendation and a record of the vote. The candidate will then have ten (10) working days to submit an appeal to the University President.

By April 1 of each year, the provost will forward all recommendations of the University Promotion and Tenure Committee to the university president for consideration and recommendation to the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees announces all promotions and all grants of tenure.

Procedures for tenure consideration are an abbreviated version of the “Procedures for Granting Promotion,” above. The process is initiated by the dean of the college within which tenure is sought, who obtains the necessary materials for a tenure document from the candidate and submits the document to the appropriate department chair. The participants in the process and sequence of consideration are as set forth in “Participants in Promotion and Tenure Decisions,” above. The timeline is greatly accelerated, however, since (1) the tenure process is usually completed before an administrator begins her or his Wright State employment and (2) faculty hired to be members of the bargaining unit can only be tenured under this policy before their employment begins. Letters of recommendation supporting the hiring decision may sometimes be used as the external letters of evaluation; committees often deliberate by memo or email without formal meetings; and opportunities for rebuttal during the process may be limited or nonexistent.

Deans and faculty from colleges or schools which do not have tenure cannot vote on a tenure case with the following exception: The Dean and representative faculty member from the School of Medicine are eligible to vote on tenure cases involving faculty from matrix departments.

Chairs, deans and other administrators with tenure track faculty appointments must obtain tenure no later than one year after beginning their administrative appointments. This requirement does not apply to faculty who are ineligible for tenure, including Instructors, Lecturers, clinical faculty in the College of Nursing and Health, visiting faculty, research faculty, and faculty of any rank in the School of Professional Psychology and the School of Medicine.

• Except for “acting” and “interim” appointments, members of the AAUP-WSU bargaining unit must obtain tenure pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement before assuming tenure track administrative appointments that remove them from the bargaining unit.
• Except for “acting” and “interim” appointments, faculty administrators hired from outside Wright State University must obtain tenure by the process described above no later than one year after beginning their tenure track administrative appointment.

Candidate Review Statement

Curriculum Vitae of Candidate

Record of Promotion and Tenure Votes and Recommendations