College of Architecture, Arts and Design

Policy Memorandum No. 1

Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Guidelines

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  1. Introduction
  1. Guidelines
  1. Expectations and Indicators

# Introduction

> The promotion and tenure process within the College of Architecture, Arts and Design (AAD) is structured to allow for peer review in a thoughtful, systematic and judicious manner. The entire promotion and tenure effort including reappointment by the individual schools’ peer review committees during probationary years, and post-tenure review, relies upon the good faith, collegial spirit, and mutual respect of all faculty members within the college. > > The College of Architecture, Arts, and Design comprises four schools – School of Architecture, School of Visual Arts, School of Performing Arts, School of Design. > > There is nothing more fundamental to the success of the promotion and tenure process than reverence of confidentiality by all representatives on the individual schools’ and college’s committees. Confidentiality must be respected within the university community as well as outside of it. > > This document sets forth the policies and procedures for promotion, tenure, and reappointment evaluations in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. The promotion and tenure process for faculty within the college will comply with currently approved policies and procedures of Virginia Tech, as published in the Virginia Tech Faculty Handbook and Provost’s Office guidance. Those policies and procedures will take precedence over any conflicting policies and procedures in this document. > > In addition to this document outlining college-wide policies that intend to align the four schools with procedural practices, each school has its own promotion and tenure document that details the peer review committee composition at the school level, candidate dossier preparation, voting and committee’s recommendation, timeline, mentoring, peer evaluation of teaching, as well as general and detailed expectations with indicators of achievements across the tri-partite mission of the university – teaching and learning, research and discovery, including scholarly and creative works, and outreach and service. Outreach includes professional and scholarly engagement. Service includes serving on committees at the university, college and school level. > > This policy memorandum is effective beginning the AY 2022-2023.

# Guidelines

  1. Promotion and Tenure Committee Composition and Responsibilities

> Each school has a Peer Review Committee (PRC) whose charge is to mentor and assist in the progress of tenure-track faculty members towards reappointment during probationary period, and promotion and tenure, and post-tenure review. Each school’s PRC is also charged with assisting and mentoring collegiate faculty members, professors of practice and instructors towards promotion. The procedures for establishing the PRC and associated practices are outlined in their respective school’s documents. > > Note that promotion and tenure discussions are confidential. All parties involved must keep the deliberations strictly confidential to the extent permitted by law. As such, the content of conversations and the results of any votes may be discussed only with persons who have a current role in the promotion and tenure process, such as members of the same P&T committee or administrators. > > The college’s Promotion and Tenure (P&T) committee is tasked with reviewing all cases of promotion and tenure. The college’s P&T committee will meet as needed, but always begins their review and deliberations near the end of fall semester (see Section 6, Timeline) and completes the review at the beginning of spring semester. The evaluation of a candidate will be based on the contents of the candidate’s dossier. During its deliberations, the college’s P&T committee may ask the respective school’s director, the school’s PRC chair or PRC representative from the candidate’s academic program, to appear before the college’s committee to clarify content of the dossier or present additional information. However, the college’s P&T committee, the PRC, and/or their members shall not invite comments about candidates from faculty members outside of the committee, nor are they permitted to interview candidates. > > The college’s P&T committee shall be composed of the following faculty members.

  • One faculty member who holds either a named professorship or is a University Distinguished Professor or Alumni Distinguished Professor who is appointed by the dean.
  • One tenured faculty member, either associate professor or professor, from each school as a result of balloting by tenure-track and tenured faculty members in each respective school. The terms shall be staggered such that members from each school are not entering of leaving simultaneously.
  • Three at-large tenured faculty members, either associate professor or professor, selected by the dean from six nominees from results of balloting by tenure-track and tenured faculty members conducted by the college’s Faculty Association. The terms should be staggered.

| Committee member | YR 1 | YR 2 | YR 3 | |--------------------|:----:|:----:|:----:| | Named professor | | | X | | SOPA faculty | X | | | | ARCH faculty | X | | | | SOVA faculty | | X | | | DES faculty | | | X | | At-large faculty 1 | | | X | | At-large faculty 2 | | X | | | At-large faculty 3 | X | | |

The terms are for three years. Faculty members shall not serve more than two consecutive terms.

In addition to elected and appointed members the following associate deans shall serve as voting members of the college’s P&T committee.

  • Associate Dean for Research
  • Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Associate Dean for Graduate Studies

> The college’s P&T committee shall designate a chair and vice-chair every year. Ideally the vice-chair assumes the role of chair in the following year. > > The dean charges the college’s P&T Committee with its responsibilities and attends their deliberations, but is a non-voting observer. > > The college is also tasked with providing a representative to the university’s P&T committee. The college’s Faculty Association shall nominate two faculty members, as potential representative of the college on the university’s P&T Committee, for consideration by the dean. If the dean approves, s/he will submit the names to the provost before the end of the spring semester. > > The provost shall select one faculty member to serve a three-year term, who cannot be reappointed for a consecutive term. The college’s representative to the university’s committee will serve as a non-voting observer on the college’s P&T committee.

  1. Identification of Candidates.

> Candidates for mandatory reappointment, mandatory tenure, or promotion are identified and confirmed by the dean’s office and school’s director at the end of January prior to the candidate entering the review process. The dean’s office is notified of any non-mandatory candidates no later than the end of January and prior to the start of their review. (Includes tenure track and promotion to professor, as well as collegiate professor, professor of practice, and instructor ranks).

  1. Dossier Preparation.

> All dossiers shall be prepared in accordance with the university’s guidelines as set forth in the Faculty Handbook section related to reappointment, promotion and tenure and in additional documentation from the Office of the Provost. > > Section 6, Timeline provides deadlines for dossier review at various stages of completion, and final submittal. Each candidate’s complete dossier will be sent to external reviewers by the school director no later than June 15.

  1. External Review of Candidates.

External reviewers should be professors at peer institutions or have achieved a high measure of professional success in their discipline. Institutions may include SCHEV peers as well as the school’s competitive and aspirational peers. It is important to include senior, accomplished faculty members who will have had experience with the tenure and promotion process at their respective institution.

External review letters are required for candidates being reviewed for tenure only (associate professor), tenure and promotion (assistant professor to associate professor) as well as promotion of tenured faculty (associate professor to professor), collegiate faculty (assistant professor to associate professor, and associate professor to professor), and professor of practice (associate professor to professor).

  1. Voting and Committee Recommendation

> Each member of the college’s P&T Committee has one vote. > > The college’s P&T committee shall write a letter to the dean making a recommendation for each candidate summarizing its evaluation and the committee’s vote, and forward it along with the dossier to the dean. > > The dean sends forward to the provost the full dossier of every candidate for whom there is a positive recommendation from either the college committee or the dean, or both. The dean prepares a separate letter of recommendation to be forwarded with the dossier. Whenever the dean does not concur with the committee’s recommendation, the committee is so notified. > > If both the college committee and the dean of the college reject a positive school recommendation, the usual process of review is concluded and the dossier is not sent forward to the provost. The dean informs the school director of the rejection and the school director notifies the school’s PRC and the faculty member. In that case, the dean informs the faculty member, in writing, of the specific reasons for the decision and provides notification of appeal options outlined in Virginia Tech Faculty Handbook, chapter three, “Appeals of Decisions on Reappointment, Tenure, or Promotion.”

  1. Timeline

> By end of January

  • Candidates for mandatory review are verified by dean’s office in consultation with school directors.
  • Names of candidates for non-mandatory review sent to dean’s office by the school directors. (Includes tenure track and promotion to professor, as well as collegiate professor, professor of practice, and instructor ranks).

> By February 15

  • School director conducts the election of PRC.
  • The school director forwards election results in writing to dean’s office.
  • The school director convenes PRC to elect chair and review list of candidates for reappointment, tenure and/or promotion, including tenure-track, collegiate, professor of practice and instructor.

By March 1

  • PRC provides the school director with a list of six names of potential external reviewers for all candidates (except assistant professor of practice promotion to associate professor, and instructors.) The list should include the address of each as well as a brief description of his/her qualifications.
  • Each candidate (except assistant professor of practice promotion to associate professor of practice, and instructors) provides the school director with a list of six names of potential external reviewers. The list should include the address of each as well as a brief description of their qualifications.
  • The PRC may not have access to the candidates’ list and vice versa.

By March 15

  • The school director solicits commitments to write evaluation letters from six selected external reviewers for each candidate according to the university’s guidelines.

By March 30

  • The school director confirms commitments from external reviewers.

> By May 15

  • Candidates for reappointment, promotion and/or tenure submit an electronic complete dossier and electronic supplemental materials to their respective school’s PRC who proofread it for clarity and completeness. The PRC chair provides feedback to the candidate.

> By June 8

  • Following PRC comments, candidates submit complete dossier and supplemental material to the school director electronically.

> By June 15

  • Each school director sends out candidates’ dossiers to external reviewers with the deadline for return of each one’s letter no later than September 1.

> By September 1

  • Target date for receipt of letters from external reviewers.
  • Each school’s PRC convenes to review candidate’s dossiers.

> By October 1

  • Reappointment reviews for tenure track faculty members by PRC should be completed and letters of recommendation for each candidate sent to school director.

> By November 1

  • The school director writes letters of non-reappointment (either for 2 nd or 4 th year) to and meets with each faculty member.
  • The school director sends a copy of this letter along with the PRC’s recommendation, to the program chair and the dean’s office.
  • PRC submits letters of recommendation for tenure and promotion to the school director.

> By November 15

  • Each school director conducts a thorough review of each candidate’s dossier and supplemental material, and writes a letter summarizing PRC findings and their recommendation.
  • Each school director submits the complete dossier and supplemental materials to the dean’s office.

> By November 30 (preferably before the start of Thanksgiving break)

  • Dossiers distributed to members of college’s P&T committee.

> Between December 10-20

  • The college’s P&T committee meets.

> By mid-January and before the start of spring semester

  • The college’s P&T committee forwards recommendation letters for all candidates including tenure-track, collegiate, professor of practice and instructors to the dean’s office.

> By the end of January (per university schedule)

  • The dean’s office forwards promotion and tenure recommendations and complete dossiers for tenure-track faculty members only to the provost’s office.

> By February 9 (or earlier, per university schedule*)*

  • Notice of non-reappointment of first-year appointments including instructors.
  • Notice of non-reappointment for probationary faculty member in at least third year of service sent by provost.
  • Notice of non-reappointment for instructors who have completed one year of two-year appointment by the provost.

> *By March 1 (*per university schedule*)*

  • Recommendations for promotions forwarded to provost’s office, including professors of practice, collegiate faculty and instructors.

> *June (*per university schedule*)*