Overview These guidelines set out expectations for departments' active involvement with junior faculty during the probationary period. They call on development of procedures and practices fitting the discipline and department culture through which junior faculty will be made aware of departmental, college and campus promotion and tenure requirements and their responsibilities during the probationary period. The guidelines ask departments to do this within an approach that supports faculty development. We set very high standards for promotion and tenure, and those standards need to be understood by untenured faculty, but equally important, we want junior faculty to understand that we share their desires to build highly successful careers here.
Rigorous evaluation is wholly compatible with active engagement and faculty development.
Junior faculty deserve not only to clearly understand our expectations, but also to be made aware of sources of support available within the department and campus and to receive feedback from knowledgeable senior colleagues that is well-grounded, timely and helpful. These guidelines have grown out of annual oversight discussions of the third-year review letters by the LAS College Executive Committee and have been reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee. The letter should be addressed to the faculty member from the unit executive officer and copied to the dean. That copy is due no later than April 1. The letter should clearly specify the mechanics of the review process.