It allows departmental definition of standards, such as for library faculty. Each faculty member should understand their expectations. Expectations should be made very clear when faculty are hired, such as in the job advertisement. Maybe the individual job descriptions could be updates of the advertised job descriptions. This recommendation will allow more flexibility and more diverse roles and it will be less prescriptive.
Some universities apparently allow faculty to go up for promotion in their seventh year.
This may conflict with AAUP guidelines which requires notification in the sixth year. Some faculty are suspicious of how fast this is moving. They want to know why we should change. Some see it as a way of getting a foot in the door to do away with tenure altogether. It should be viewed as a way of protecting tenure.