10.4 University Policy and Procedures

10.4.1 FSU Constitution, Article VI, Section B - Tenure, see Section 1.1 of this Handbook.

10.4.2 University Criteria for Promotion and Tenure.

(a) When first employed, each faculty member shall be apprised of what is expected of him or her, generally, in terms of teaching, research and other creative activities and service, and specifically if there are specific requirements and/or other duties involved. If and when these expectations change during the period of service of a faculty member, that faculty member shall be apprised of the change.

(b) Promotion

1. Promotion to the rank of assistant professor shall be based on recognition of demonstrated competency in teaching, service, and promise of scholarly development. Promotion shall be considered automatic upon completion of the doctorate, but full documentation for promotion of faculty member receiving doctorate shall be submitted with other promotion nominations.

2. Promotion to rank of associate professor shall be based on recognition of demonstrated effectiveness in teaching, service, definite scholarly or creative accomplishments, and recognized standing in the discipline and profession.

3. Promotion to the rank of professor shall be based on recognition of superior teaching, service, scholarly or creative accomplishments of high quality and recognized standing in the discipline and profession as attested to by three letters from competent scholars outside the University.

4. Although the period of time in a given rank is normally five years, demonstrated merit, not years of service, shall be the guiding factor. Promotion shall not be automatic, nor may it be regarded as guaranteed upon completion of a given term of service. Early promotion is possible where there is sufficient justification.

The criteria for awarding tenure shall be the same as those for promotion to the rank to which the candidate is being considered for promotion or the rank held by the candidate if the candidate is not being considered for promotion.

10.4.3 Procedures

Note: The general procedures given here are supplemented by the annual memorandum on "Recommendations for Promotion and Tenure" sent by the Dean of the Faculties to deans and department chairmen each Spring Semester. That memorandum contains detailed instructions from the University Promotion and Tenure Committee for preparing promotion and tenure binders, and copies of it should be provided to all prospective candidates as soon as it is available each spring.

1. Each department or its equivalent program or area (hereafter in this statement, "department" will be used to convey "department, program, or area") and each school or college shall have a written statement of criteria and procedure for promotion and tenure, which shall be compatible with Florida Statutes, Board of Regents Policy, the University Constitution, and the University statement of criteria and procedure for promotion and tenure. These statements shall be available to all faculty.

2. Each department shall have an elected faculty promotion and tenure committee, of whom a majority of the members shall be tenured faculty, charged with the responsibility of reviewing the records of all prospective candidates in that department and recommending action on the nomination of each candidate. Each department is to consider all faculty members below the rank of tenured full professor for promotion or tenure, or both, if applicable, each year. Faculty do not apply for promotion or tenure. If a faculty member is recommended by a departmental committee, the department chairman prepares a nomination binder for promotion or tenure with the participation of the faculty member. There shall be only one binder if a faculty member is being recommended for both promotion and tenure. Once a binder has been finally reviewed by the departmental committee no material may be added to or deleted from the binder except under the conditions specified in Articles 14.3 and 15.5 of the BOR/UFF Agreement and the promotion and tenure appeals procedure. For all practical purposes this means that after the binder leaves the first-level committee it is complete and no materials can be added to it under normal circumstances. The chairman shall submit the binders of all recommended candidates to the dean with a report of departmental committee recommendations and the chairman's recommendations on all submitted binders of all candidates.

3. Nominations for tenure shall include the results of a secret ballot poll of the tenured faculty in the department of the candidate taken at a meeting of the tenured departmental faculty during which there has been a thorough discussion of the candidate's qualifications for tenure. This meeting is to be held after the departmental committee has made the decision to recommend the faculty member for tenure. In schools and colleges without departments, the secret ballot is taken at such a meeting of the tenured faculty of the school or college after the school or college committee has made the decision to recommend the faculty member for tenure.

4. Each school or college shall have an elected faculty promotion and tenure committee charged with the responsibility of receiving and reviewing all binders reviewed by departmental committees and of recommending action on the nomination of each candidate. Note that a school or college may use an additional committee between the department committee and the school or college committee if the faculty of said school or college has voted for such usage in its bylaws. The eligibility of the dean of the school or college to function in some relationship to and with its promotion and tenure committee is subject to the governing bylaws of the school or college. In schools and colleges without departments, a majority of the committee shall be tenured faculty, and the committee and the dean shall perform the functions of the departmental committee and the department chairman described herein. In schools and colleges with departments, all members of the committee shall be tenured faculty. The dean shall submit the binders of those recommended by the school or college committee to the Vice President for Academic Affairs through the Office of the Dean of the Faculties with a report of the school or college committee's recommendations and his or her recommendations. Deans in schools and colleges with and without departments have the responsibility to see that the promotion and tenure binders are prepared in compliance with established requirements and the material in the binders organized according to the detailed instructions from the University Promotion and Tenure Committee indicated in the annual memorandum on "Recommendations for Promotion and Tenure" from the Dean of the Faculties. Any binders not meeting established requirements shall be returned by the dean to the chairman of the candidate's department; the chairman and the candidate shall have five days to comply with established procedure. Binders for candidates not being recommended by the school or college committee are to be held in the dean's office to be available to the University Promotion and Tenure Committee or the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the President.

5. The University shall have an elected promotion and tenure committee of tenured faculty (see Section 5.8 of this Handbook) charged with the responsibility of receiving and reviewing all binders reviewed by school or college committees and of recommending action to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. In schools and colleges with and without departments, deans are not to be considered eligible for election to the University Promotion and Tenure Committee. The Vice President for Academic Affairs shall submit all binders to the President with a report of the University committee's recommendations and his or her recommendations.

6. Each level committee shall review the candidates in terms of the written statements of criteria and procedure for promotion and tenure. Any deviation must be clearly noted and fully justified.

7. Each faculty member shall be informed of his or her prospective candidacy, have an opportunity to assist in preparing the folder and add any relevant information within the listing below prior to review by the departmental committee and be informed in writing of the advancement or rejection at each level of review. Each candidate's folder shall contain the information listed below in the order indicated. A detailed description of materials to be included in each of the listed sections following the suggested guidelines given in Section 10.4.6 below is provided in the instructions for preparing binders from the University Promotion and Tenure Committee indicated in the annual memorandum on "Recommendations for Promotion and Tenure" from the Dean of the Faculties. Appropriate materials may be selected or abstracted from the faculty member's one evaluation file for purposes of promotion and tenure, as long as the affected faculty member is informed of the selection for the promotion and tenure file. Any evaluation of a faculty member placed in the promotion and tenure file shall become a part of the faculty member's one evaluation file.

a. Summary Cover Sheets.

(i) Promotion Cover Sheet.

(ii) If applicable, Tenure Cover Sheet, including statement indicating results of secret ballot taken at a meeting of the departmental tenured faculty.

b. Statement of adherence to University regulations on criteria and procedures.

c. Detailed professional vita.

d. Statement of assigned duties.

e. Listing of courses taught in last two years.

f. Evidence on teaching effectiveness.

g. Evidence on scholarly or creative activity.

h. Evidence on service.

i. Annual evaluations for the two preceding years.

j. Chairman's (or Dean's) letter evaluating candidate's teaching, scholarly or creative activity, and service.

k. Cover sheet for solicitation process of outside letters.

l. Letters of recommendation/evaluation.

(i) Promotion to Associate Professor: four letters requested by the department chairman, two from colleagues inside the University, two from outside.

(ii) Promotion to Professor: three letters requested by the department chairman from outstanding scholars in the candidate's field outside the University who hold the rank of Professor.

(iii) Tenure: four letters requested by the department chairman, two from colleagues inside the University, two from outside. Unless justified in writing by the chairman, the two outside letters for tenure must come from tenured faculty at institutions outside Florida State.

8. A promotion and tenure committee at any level may withhold a recommendation if in its judgment there has been noncompliance with established procedure or the binder does not contain required information and materials or does not contain adequate information. If the withholding is by the departmental committee or by the next higher committee, the chairman and the prospective candidate shall have five days to comply with established procedure or add requested material and documentation prior to final recommendation of the committee. A statement of committee action and all resultant changes in the binder must be recorded on the Summary Cover Sheet. Upon completion of review and recommendation, the promotion and tenure committee at each level should inform the appropriate official of any inadequacies in procedure and in the composition and documentation of the binders.

10.4.4 Appeals

1. A candidate who is not recommended for promotion or tenure by a committee at any level of the deliberations may appeal that negative decision to the committee at the next higher level by so requesting in writing within a period of ten (10) working days after receiving notification of the negative decision. Appeals to the University Promotion and Tenure Committee are submitted through the Office of the Dean of the Faculties.

2. When a faculty member appeals a negative recommendation for tenure made at the lowest level of the deliberations, the vote of the tenured faculty in the appropriate unit shall be taken at a meeting before the nomination appeal is sent on to the unit to which the appeal is made.

3. A candidate may appeal a negative decision of the University Promotion and Tenure Committee to the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the President by so requesting in writing through the Office of the Dean of the Faculties within a period of ten (10) working days after receiving notification of the negative decision.

4. The binder of a candidate not recommended by a committee may go forward to the next level of the deliberations only if the candidate appeals it forward. When a candidate appeals the negative decision of the lowest level committee, a completed binder as described above in paragraph 7 of Section 10.4.3, including the chairman's letter as described there, is to be submitted to the next level committee for action. All evaluations must be based on the record as revealed in the nomination binder. Any material added to a binder in an appeal must be in the form of a letter of appeal and its attachments, in which the candidate may address the rationale for the committee's decision but may speak only to matters already contained in the binder. It is inappropriate to submit letters and other materials independently or request conferences with those who will be considering the appeal. The candidate should request a conference with the chairman of the committee rendering the negative decision to obtain advice about the concerns of the committee which should be addressed in the appeal letter. Candidates considering filing an appeal at any level are urged to consult with the Dean of the Faculties about the appeal process before filing.

10.4.5 Time frame for promotion and tenure recommendations

1. Departmental, and school or college, committees' work should be so timed that all recommendations with accompanying binders are submitted to the Dean of the Faculties for the University Promotion and Tenure Committee by the date specified in the annual memorandum on "Recommendations for Promotion and Tenure" from the Dean of the Faculties, which shall be no later than November 1. The University Promotion and Tenure Committee shall submit its recommendations to the Vice President for Academic Affairs by January 1.

2. All candidates shall be informed of final action on promotion and of recommendation to the Board of Regents on tenure by the date set by the Board of Regents for inclusion on the agenda of its April meeting.

10.4.6 Suggested guidelines for preparation of binder of candidate for promotion or tenure.

1. Teaching.

a. The following general information related to teaching is suggested for inclusion in the candidate's binder:: (i) A listing of courses taught, contact hours and enrollment each term for the last two years.; (ii) A statement as to the proportion of time the candidate is assigned to teaching.; (iii) The value, in percentage, assigned to student, faculty and/or administrative evaluations of teaching.; (iv) A copy of any departmental instrument developed for student, peer or committee evaluation of the candidate. If copies of such forms are not included, the information provided will be discounted.; (v) Placement and success of graduate students, if applicable.
b. The following specific information and standards will be used to evaluate teaching:: (i) Course materials and methodology; include only statements related to the development of innovative course materials and new programs. (Programs will be interpreted in the broad sense to include media, methodology, etc.); (ii) Special teaching responsibilities and related assignments; teaching workshops or seminars; honors courses; adult education courses; in-service courses, DIS, supervised research and supervised teaching; membership on master's or doctoral committees; number of master's or doctoral committees; number of master's or doctoral recipients for which candidate has served as major professor or co-major professor.; (iii) Out of class student contact; academic advising-- number of students and hours assigned to advising; and a statement as to candidate's accessibility to students.; (iv) Awards or other public recognition; departmental teaching awards; University teaching awards and others (please specify).; (v) Student evaluations: SIRS or other University-wide instrument and departmental instrument.; (vi) Peer evaluations, including only data which is reasonably objective such as information gleaned from visitations and video tapes.; (vii) Evaluations by administrative supervisors.; (viii) Statement by the candidate, at the discretion of candidate.
c. The committee will not consider:: (i) Informal oral communication by students or peers of any unsigned communication.; (ii) An endorsement not accompanied by material susceptible to independent evaluation.; (iii) Lecture notes.

2. Scholarship. For the purposes of assessing scholarship three kinds of data are appropriate: publications, creative productions in the arts, or performances of critical importance to the candidate's area of expertise. The promotion binders should include full publication data on each work listed and be accompanied by a departmental evaluation of the candidate's scholarship. The candidate should also include information he or she feels pertinent to evaluation.

a. Published books: (i) Scholarly books: limited monograph of 75 to 100 pages; textbooks; edited and/or translated books; bibliographical books; books of readings or casebooks; any of the above co- authored or with multiauthors, in descending order.; (ii) Published; university, scholarly, commercial, international and national reputation; vanity or subsidy presses, differentiating those subsidy presses whose publications are refereed; and in-house organs.; (iii) Details of publication: Is the book out or does the individual have a contract? Contract signifies that the work has been accepted for publication and will be published, to differentiate from the contract often used by commercial houses indicating desire to consider publication rather than guarantee of publication; book reviews, or if not available, referee's report; influence of work as indicated by frequency of citation in published works of other investigators and writers, reprinting, translation in foreign language, or similar criteria; research effort required; and number of copies printed.
b. Articles in journals: prestige of journal and circulation; originality and scope of article, length and breadth as exhibited by variety of subfields in which research or development is manifest; research effort required; journal refereed; co-authored works; and multi-authored works. (The status of the journals should be indicated, i.e., refereed or non-refereed. Number of pages of articles should be indicated.)
c. Articles in published works: festschriften; anthologies; proceedings of conferences or symposia; technical reports; original articles of semipopular nature, having as their purpose the dissemination of technical or scientific information; book reviews, newspaper articles/reviews listed separately; encyclopedia articles; and abstracts. (Number of pages of the articles should be indicated.)
d. Related scholarship: papers read at national or international professional meetings; papers read at regional professional meetings; discussant or chairman roles at conferences and symposia; invited lectures; editorship, service on Board of Editors, and editorial positions on boards of regional, national and international journals; professional awards for scholarship; grants from the FSU Research Council; role as referee of manuscript, journals, and grant proposals, consultant to a federal agency, university, or national foundation or foreign university, or government agency; visiting appointment reflecting scholarship or post-doctoral research program; funded research--Government, University, International, Regional, etc.; consultation resulting in scholarly publication.
e. Idiosyncratic criteria where applicable, as in Art, Dance, Music, Theatre, etc.

3. Service.

a. Recognized service: membership on departmental/college/ university committees essential to operation of the respective units; administrative duties for the department/college/university, even on a temporary (1 semester--1 year) basis; activity in professional (local, regional, national) groups beyond simple dues-paying membership (role as officer, committee member, etc.); non- funded professional advisory service to community, civic, governmental, religious, or social groups (periodic consultant, speaker, workshop leader); representative of department/college/university at professional meetings; testimony on professional matters to legislative bodies; advisor for a student organization.
b. Basics: service should incorporate contributions which are not considered teaching and scholarship but which enrich one's teaching and scholarly work; service can range from assisting individual students to working with national organizations; faculty at the junior level are expected to offer service more at the local and/or regional level--senior faculty, at both those and the national level; no department should recognize service only in the area of committee work as opportunities for such service vary among departments; service should be evaluated so that weight is given leadership, time, effort, and breadth of service.