Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost
Promotion and Tenure:
Changes in 7.12 Statements for Units
During the two academic years 2006-2008, academic units have revised their individual criteria and standards for tenure and/or promotion to reflect the many changes in the revised Regents Policy on Faculty Tenure. These are called 7.12 Statements to reflect Section 7.12 of the Regents Policy on Faculty Tenure. Subsequent to the approval of the Procedures for Reviewing Candidates for Promotion and/or Tenure: Tenure-Track or Tenured Faculty by the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee and by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost in October 2007, these revised 7.12 Statements have been reviewed and approved by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. The approval process is ongoing.
Implications for Probationary Faculty Members
According to Interpretation 6 of the Regents Policy on Faculty Tenure, probationary faculty who were hired under an existing 7.12 Statement have the option to choose between the existing 7.12 Statement and a newly approved 7.12 Statement within one year of the date of administrative approval by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Each current probationary faculty member will be asked to sign a memorandum of agreement that documents the selection of 7.12 Statement for subsequent annual reviews and the final promotion and/or tenure decision. If the faculty member chooses the old 7.12 Statement, then she or he will be reviewed with the old Section 7.11 Criteria for Tenure of the Regents Policy on Faculty Tenure (2001) since that section was typically part of the 7.12 Statement.
Regardless of their choice of the old or new 7.12 Statement that is in place now for their promotion to the rank of associate professor and/or the conferral of indefinite tenure, current probationary faculty members will be bound by the new section 9.2 Criteria for Promotion to Professor of the Faculty Tenure policy for their promotion to the rank of professor later in their career. The exception is that if representations during hiring or negotiations were made regarding an election of promotion standards to the rank of professor, followed by reliance on those standards, then these faculty also will have the choice between the old 7.12 Statement and the new 7.12 Statement.
All faculty hired after June 2007 will be evaluated with the new version of the Faculty Tenure policy, specifically the new sections 7.11 and 9.2, for the purposes of tenure and promotion. Many departments, however, do not have their 7.12 Statements finalized and effective as of now. Consequently, chairs/heads should send each new faculty member a copy of the current 7.12 Statement and a copy of the draft of the new proposed 7.12 Statement, with the caveat that the 7.12 Statement will be finalized shortly.
Implications for Tenured Associate Professors
Per Interpretation 6 of the Regents Policy on Faculty Tenure, tenured associate professors get to choose which 7.12 statement they will be judged by for promotion to the rank of professor. There is no section of the 2001 Faculty Tenure policy that addresses promotion to the rank of professor. The only existing text came from the 1997 Procedures for Reviewing the Performance of Tenure-Track Probationary Faculty. There is one sentence in Section 28 that stated: “Promotion to the rank of professor requires, in addition, a national or international scholarly reputation in the individual’s field of study.” The words “in addition” refer to the previous sentence: “Promotion to the rank of associate professor is based upon professional distinction in research and demonstrated effectiveness in teaching and advising students, and where relevant, in discipline-related service.” Tenured associate professors will be asked to sign a memorandum of agreement that documents the selection of 7.12 Statement for subsequent review for promotion to the rank of professor. The current Procedures for Reviewing Candidates for Promotion and/or Tenure: Tenure-Track or Tenured Faculty will be used to govern this review.