Reappointment Procedures for Arts and Sciences Faculty on Renewable Contracts
These procedures govern reappointment reviews for full-time and part-time faculty on renewable (usually multi-year) contracts in Arts and Sciences.
Evaluative Criteria for Reappointment
For reappointment outside the tenure structure, the Handbook states that the criteria will include consideration of "the candidate's teaching, scholarship and/or creative work; the educational and service needs of the academic unit; and university needs" (V.A.6.a, b).
At the time of hire, the department/program (henceforth "department") will have specified the faculty member's duties and responsibilities, including teaching load, in a job description. At the time of the first reappointment review, the job description thus becomes the basis for evaluating the faculty member's performance. Assuming the candidate is reappointed, her/his job description is thereafter revised to reflect any changes in duties and responsibilities, which should be duly noted in her/his new letter of appointment. Please note that proposed revisions to job descriptions must be approved by the dean.
Reappointment With Promotion Review
Insofar as possible, reviews for promotion should be timed to coincide with the reappointment review so as not to duplicate time and effort within a short span. Departments that anticipate that they will seek to recommend a faculty member for a promotion involving review by committee (ad hoc or standing) should initiate the process with the Dean's Office no later than one year before the faculty member's contract is scheduled to expire.
Institutional Need
Reappointment is conditional on continued curricular or programmatic need for the position in question, as determined by the dean. Faculty who are not going to be reappointed because of a lack of continuing need should be given as much notice as possible. If it is known prior to the initiation of the reappointment process that a position is going to be terminated on this basis, then the faculty in question should be so informed, and the process below will not be undertaken. If the decision to terminate a position because of lack of continuing need is made after the process below has begun, the process may be terminated.
Post-termination year
Full-time faculty members who have been reappointed to a multi-year contract at least once will normally be given notice by October 1 of their last contract year if it is determined that the faculty position will be eliminated because of institutional need or shifting curricular commitments. If the timing of a decision to terminate the position makes this impossible, such faculty will normally be granted a post-termination employment year.
Process
- In the fall, the Dean's Office sends a memo to the department chair, informing him or her that a contract review and recommendation for reappointment must be completed for faculty whose contracts are due to expire in the current academic year. The faculty member is also notified.
- The department chair establishes the membership of the reappointment review committee in consultation with the dean. A reasonable cross-section of departmental faculty, including ideally faculty from both inside and outside the tenure structure, of rank above that of the reappointment candidate, should be involved in the review process.
- The reappointment committee should decide what materials it will need to request of the reappointment candidate in order to enable it to evaluate her/his performance. In each case an up-to-date curriculum vitae will be requested. The criteria for reappointment are the key responsibilities of the position that were established at the time of first hire (or last reappointment), and are to be found in the most recent version of the faculty member's job description.
- The department chair (or her/his designee) drafts a written report summarizing the committee's findings. This is not intended to be a lengthy report, but it should contain an evaluation of the faculty member's accomplishments in relation to her or his designated responsibilities, which should include a brief analysis of the candidate's teaching evaluations (including where his/her numerical ratings are typically situated in relation to the department mean) as well as a summary of the candidate’s service contributions. The report should explain the continued curricular and/or programmatic need for the position, and should clearly indicate whether or not the candidate is recommended for reappointment.
- If the faculty member is recommended for reappointment, the report should also contain a recommendation about contract length for the next appointment. Recommended contract lengths should follow both the regulations of the pertinent sections of the Faculty Handbook. (See also Guidelines for Normal Contract Lengths.)
- Once the draft report has been reviewed and approved by all members of the committee (and by the department chair if they are not a member of the review committee), it is submitted in its final form to the office of the appropriate academic dean, accompanied by the reappointment candidate's curriculum vitae and their job. (An updated job description will be in draft form until it has been approved by the dean.)
- The dean reviews the recommendation and decides whether to reappoint. The dean informs both the department and the candidate of their decision in writing. If the dean decides not to reappoint, the written response will contain a clear statement of the basis on which the decision not to reappoint was made.