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Tenure Line Reappointment Process & Checklist

Per the Faculty Handbook, tenure-track assistant professors must learn no later than six months before the end of their first contract whether they are to be reappointed (see notes below).

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Late January/Early February

Faculty Affairs sends an email to tenure-track assistant professors in the spring semester before the last academic year of their initial contract to prompt them to assemble materials for their reappointment dossier. Reappointment candidates' department chairs are copied on the email, and receive their own email prompt, with checklist.

March

October (first Friday)

January 1

The dean reviews department recommendations and evaluates the dossiers. Successful candidates receive a four-year reappointment. Enclosed with the four-year contract from the dean is a document, drafted by the department, which offers a summary of the department’s recommendation. The summary will be included in the candidate's tenure dossier. An important part of the dean's evaluation is assessing how well the summary represents the recommendation and/or informs the candidate of their strengths and weaknesses. If the draft summary falls short, Faculty Affairs will work with department chairs to improve the summary until the dean is satisfied.

Faculty Affairs notifies reappointment candidates whether or not they are to be reappointed. This is regularly done by email initially to meet the Handbook deadline (see above). Four-year contracts with enclosed summaries follow shortly after.

Notes

Per the Faculty Handbook, the term “department” denotes the academic administrative unit(s) to which the candidate is being appointed.
Per the Faculty Handbook, a faculty member who has been granted an FMLA leave for a minimum of seven weeks may postpone for two semesters a scheduled reappointment (or tenure) decision. The faculty member must notify the appropriate dean of such postponements by May 1 of the calendar year in which the department is scheduled to begin its deliberations.
In March 2020, the Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities (CFRR) approved a recommendation from the provost/deans that all eligible tenure-track faculty be granted a two-semester tenure-clock extension owing to events surrounding the Coronavirus. This extension may be invoked (by May 1); faculty may request either a one- or two-semester (SARS-CoV-2) extension. They do this by submitting a written request to their chair, a request that will include the reasons for the requested postponement. The written request should be forwarded by their chair to the appropriate dean consistent with the process for FMLA-related tenure-clock extensions. (Tenure-track faculty who are unsure of their eligibility should contact Faculty Affairs.)
Reappointed tenure-track assistant professors who teach at least two semester courses per year are eligible for a research leave (the "Norman" leave), which is usually taken in their fourth or fifth year.
The above timings are for tenure-track faculty who take up appointment in the fall semester ("on-cycle"). For tenure-track faculty who take up appointment in the spring semester ("off-cycle") — one semester later — add six months to any of the stated months, i.e., January becomes July.