Promotion Review Committees

Each college and department must have a standing committee on faculty status to advise the dean and department head.

  • P&T committees will include at least three tenured faculty for all promotion and tenure reviews, and continuing status committees should include three academic professionals with continuing status for all CS&P reviews.
  • All committee members and external reviewers must have a rank superior to the candidate.  When reviewing associate candidates for promotion to full, committee members must be full professors or a full continuing-status professional.
  • In appointing departmental standing committees, consideration should be given to candidates’ involvement in GIDPs and other interdisciplinary units. When that involvement is significant, an outside faculty should be appointed to the committee. 
  • Committee members or administrators who have coauthored substantial publications or grants with a candidate within the last five years must recuse themselves to avoid raising questions about the independence of reviews. If recusing committee members is not feasible because of the size of the department, please consult with the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs before the committee begins review of the candidate.
  • Individuals who serve concurrently on departmental, college, and/or University promotion and tenure committees must recuse themselves from voting on any case they provided a vote in an earlier committee.
  • Review committees' assessments are to be independent of the administrators whom they advise. Standing committees normally will meet without the administrator whom they advise, as noted in the University Handbook on Appointed Personnel (UHAP).

As required in UHAP, review committees should begin their deliberations by reviewing department and college promotion criteria for research, teaching, and service and outreach. Committees should also review these standards at the end of the process and suggest revisions to their administrators. As part of their responsibilities, heads and deans are required to advise candidates in writing of their recommendations on renewal, nonrenewal, promotion, or tenure, or continuing status when the recommendation is forwarded to the next level in the review process.

The Provost will appoint University Promotion Committees to review Promotion Dossiers for faculty and Promotion Dossiers for continuing status following the appropriate UHAP provisions. These committees will advise the Provost in all tenure and continuing status considerations. In accordance with University-level criteria, these committees will carefully and systematically review all pertinent materials provided by departments and colleges to ensure that high standards of accomplishment and professional performance are maintained.