Section 4.9: Faculty Planning & Evaluation

4.9.6 Criteria for Tenure

Full-time, tenure-track faculty appointments at the academic rank of assistant professor, associate professor, or professor are eligible for tenure consideration. A faculty member appointed to an administrative position must attain or retain tenure in a particular unit, department, or approved center/institute. Faculty holding temporary appointments are not eligible for tenure.

Tenure is awarded after a thorough review, which culminates in the university acknowledging a reasonable presumption of the faculty member’s professional excellence and the likelihood that this excellence will continue to contribute to the mission and anticipated needs of the academic unit in which tenure is granted.

Professional excellence is reflected in the faculty member’s

• teaching (which includes advising and mentoring),
• research/scholarship/creative work (according to the terms of the candidate’s appointment),
• service, and
• professional comportment consistent with the Faculty Code of Conduct. 

It is the responsibility of departments and academic units to define professional excellence in terms of their respective disciplines. Criteria for tenure and/or promotion shall be established by each department. These criteria may be more restrictive than the criteria of the academic unit and the university, but they must be consistent with those criteria. Criteria for tenure and/or promotion shall be established by the academic unit. These criteria may be more restrictive than the criteria of the university, but they must be consistent with those criteria.  Criteria for the tenure and/or promotion shall be established by the university. Academic unit criteria for tenure and/or promotion shall become effective upon approval by the provost.  Departmental criteria for tenure and/or promotion shall become effective upon approval by the dean and the provost.

Written guidelines shall be available on the university website and faculty shall be notified of the guidelines when they join the department, when they come up for review during the probationary period, and when they apply for tenure and/or promotion. Faculty members shall be notified when the guidelines are revised and updated on the university website. The provost is responsible for maintaining a master set of approved statements of criteria and expectations for the university, academic units, and departments, if applicable. The deans and department chairs are responsible for ensuring that faculty members are informed about the criteria and expectations that have been developed for their respective academic units and departments (as applicable).

In addition to the criteria for tenure and/or promotion stated in university, academic unit, and department guidelines, administrative criteria such as enrollment patterns and trends, curricular changes, program development, financial consideration, and rank distribution, are considered in tenure and/or promotion decisions. Therefore, a decision to deny tenure or deny promotion does not necessarily mean that a faculty member's work or conduct has been unsatisfactory.