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Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion Criteria and the Criteria and Processes Relating to Other Faculty Personnel Actions

The Department of English expects all full-time TT faculty to be active as scholars or creative artists and to make significant contributions to the University community in the area of service.  The production and dissemination of high-quality scholarship or creative work that is recognized by peer review, the application of scholarship in and through teaching, and appropriate activity as a University citizen constitute the essential performance expectations for reappointment, tenure, and promotion throughout each faculty member’s career.  The Department recognizes that publication may be realized through collaborative projects, joint-authored work, and single-authored work.  

To gain assistance in making the best possible case for reappointment, tenure, and promotion, each candidate is encouraged to consult often and early with senior colleagues in the Department, especially those in related scholarly areas, and with the Department Chair about the preparation and presentation of the documentation.

The emergence of a national reputation within one’s chosen subfield of the discipline is essential for tenure and for promotion to ranks above that of assistant professor at the Kent Campus.  Thus for tenure and for promotion to associate professor and full professor, the Department requires external evaluation of scholarship or creative activity by nationally recognized scholars or creative artists who may speak to the candidate’s record and standing in the field.  All such reviews will require a minimum of four letters from external evaluators.  (N.B. When a candidate is being reviewed simultaneously for tenure and promotion, the same letters may serve for both reviews.)  After discussion with the Department Chair, the candidate will supply the Chair with a ranked list of at least three persons to contact to serve in this capacity.  Three of the reviewers will be chosen from the candidate’s list; the Chair also will select one or more additional reviewers without consultation with the faculty member, who then will be informed of the identity of the persons selected prior to the solicitation of the evaluation.

The Chair may also seek additional information and material that bears upon the candidate’s qualifications and performance.  Such materials may include additional teaching evaluations, other evidence of instructional performance, or additional evaluations of scholarship or creative activity.  The candidate shall be notified of, and given the opportunity to review, such new material as is added to the file and also provided with the opportunity to include written comments relevant to this material and/or the appropriateness of its inclusion in the file.

Faculty on all campuses will be held to the same standard of quality in all performance reviews.  In recognition of the mission of the Regional Campus system and of the different teaching responsibilities of regional faculty, the   teaching and University service will be weighed more heavily in reappointment and tenure reviews and in review for promotion to associate professor than in such reviews for Kent Campus faculty.

Decisions regarding tenure and promotion for all faculty members who are appointed to a tenure-track position for academic year 2010-11 or later will be governed by this policy and the unit handbook in place at the time of the initial appointment.  Faculty members who were appointed prior to the adoption of this policy may elect to be governed by this policy and the current unit handbook or by the University policies and procedures regarding faculty tenure and promotion and the handbook in place at the time of the faculty member’s initial appointment.  The faculty member will include a written election of this option in his/her file.