Promotion and Tenure Procedure

The deadline for the submission of these packets is early January as the date changes from year to year. The Promotion packet should be prepared and submitted using the SmartPath Workflow system.

Mentorship: All junior faculty will be assigned a mentor to help them through the tenure process.

Mid-year review: Junior faculty will also participate in writing a review report of their activities.

Minimum Service Requirements for Tenure: Any member of the faculty or of the academic staff who is on a tenure-track appointment and has completed more than three (3) years of tenure track service at Wayne State University or has three (3) years of credited prior service and more than two (2) years of full-time service at Wayne State University and is otherwise eligible must upon application be considered as a candidate for tenure and formally assessed. Highly qualified individuals may be recommended for tenure regardless of their length of service.

Basis for Promotion Recommendations: A recommendation for promotion is based upon a candidate’s qualifications in the light of a specific department, School/College, and University considerations, and not primarily upon length of service in rank. The assessments of a candidate’s qualifications shall be based upon excellence in teaching and in scholarly achievement, or for a candidate in the creative or performing arts, in creative professional achievement.

Process:

• The faculty candidate should have a conversation with the Associate Dean on applying for promotion and/or tenure before collecting materials for their application.
• The Associate Dean will begin the workflow in SmartPath where all documents will be uploaded and processed. These instructions can be found on the Provost’s site or here: Promotion Workflow Training (Departmentalized) (loom.com)
• The candidate for promotion and/or tenure will submit their packets (PDF) to the Associate Dean.
• The Associate Dean will go into SmartPath and complete the second and third sections that include uploading the faculty’s documents, and additional faculty documents such as teaching portfolio, longitudinal SET report, miscellaneous information, externally funded research, etc. Once faculty submit all documents to the department, faculty will no longer be able to access/edit/view their packets unless given permission by the school/college.
• Once this has been completed, the Promotion and Tenure committee, along with the Associate Dean, will meet to discuss the candidate's materials and how the candidate provides evidence of scholarship, teaching, and service—the criteria for tenure and promotion set forth by the collective bargaining agreement.
• The committee will also begin to discuss four (4) external evaluators in their field to submit with their promotion and tenure materials. The candidate is allowed to suggest two (2) evaluators, but the committee does not have to use these.
• The Associate Dean contacts external evaluators and provides a template for the evaluators, a deadline for submission back to the Associate Dean, and a summary of the candidate’s materials provided by the Promotion and Tenure committee.
• Once external evaluator letters are received, the Associate Dean uploads the recommendations to SmartPath.
• Meanwhile, the Promotion and Tenure Committee will be writing its letter of recommendation, which is then signed by the committee representative. This will also be uploaded into SmartPath. The committee vote should not be mentioned in the recommendation letter.
• The Associate Dean will also write and upload a letter of recommendation for the candidate to SmartPath.
• Once the Associate Dean submits their recommendation this will submit the P&T packet to the Provost’s Office for university consideration.

Appeal Procedures for Tenure/Promotion

If neither the department committee nor the department chair or administrator of equal function recommends tenure, the candidate may, within fifteen (15) days after written notice of the decisions, request, in writing, a reconsideration of the decision by the department tenure committee and/or by the Associate Dean. The candidate may, at his/her/their option, appear before the committee.

If on reconsideration the chair and/or the department tenure committee decide to recommend the candidate for tenure, then the chair shall notify the candidate of the decisions and shall forward the recommendations in the usual manner. But, if after reconsideration the Associate Dean and the department tenure committee both reaffirm their negative recommendations, then the associate dean shall notify the candidate of the decision not to recommend tenure.

Appeal of the School/College/Division Decision

If neither the school/college committee nor the Associate Dean recommends tenure, the candidate may, within fifteen (15) days after written notice of the decision, request, in writing reconsideration by the School of Information Sciences Promotion and Tenure committee along with the department’s committee representative or, in the event that the departmental committee did not recommend tenure, a tenured faculty member.

If on reconsideration the Associate Dean and/or the school/college tenure committee decide to recommend the candidate for tenure, then the Associate Dean shall notify the candidate of the decisions and shall forward the recommendations in the usual manner. But, if after reconsideration the Associate Dean and the school’s Promotion and Tenure committee both reaffirm their negative recommendations, then the Associate Dean shall notify the candidate of the decision not to recommend tenure.

In the school/college, which are initiating units, the faculty members denied tenure shall have the right to appeal the decisions to the President or his/her/their designee and the University Faculty Tenure and Promotion Committee.

Promotion from Rank to Rank

The level of achievement in teaching, scholarship or creative activities, and service that is necessary for promotion increases for each higher academic rank. This is contemplated by the collective bargaining agreement, which provides that:

Assessment of a candidate’s qualifications must take into consideration proven abilities, professional experience, and prospects for continued excellence and professional growth as appropriate to the candidate’s current and contemplated ranks… (Article XXIII.A.2)

Process:

The process for promotion from rank to rank is the same process as tenure. See above section for this process. The guidelines and instructions for faculty promotion can be found Promotion and Tenure Procedures - Office of the Provost - Wayne State University