- Proposed Revisions of Faculty Handbook 10/2/18
- Reviewed and approved by the Vice President for Academic Affairs, 1/8/2015 Note: added Faculty Review Guidelines and evaluation form, 1/8/15
- Note: edited by Chief Operating Officer (formerly titled 'Provost') for title updates: 7/4/11
- Note: edited by Provost for currency: 3/31/05
These guidelines provide a basis for judgment in evaluating and rewarding meritorious performance of faculty in Florida Institute of Technology's College of Psychology and Liberal Arts. Promotion and tenure are an acknowledgement of a faculty member's achievements in the areas of teaching/supervision, research/scholarship, and service/ administration.
Promotion and Tenure Procedures
Faculty Handbook (FH) 2.8 Tenure Policies and Procedures details the procedures that candidates, academic unit heads, promotion committees, and deans must follow. Collection of documentation for the dossier is the responsibility of the candidate going up for promotion and tenure. The dossier must follow the same organization and use the same headings and sub-headings as those that are listed in FH Appendix 1.
Appointment as Assistant Professor
Appointment as an assistant professor is based on a candidate's potential to teach effectively, develop a meaningful research/scholarship program, and contribute service to the program, school, college, and university. Potential is determined typically through the examination of a curriculum vitae, letters of recommendation, an invited interview, and a research presentation or seminar.
Promotion and Tenure Eligibility Associate Professor with Tenure
A candidate will be considered for promotion to associate professor with tenure in his/her sixth year in rank as an assistant professor. Procedures involving extensions to the probationary period for a pre tenured faculty member are identified in Section 2.1.2.3 of FH 2.8 Tenure Policies and Procedures.
Promotion of candidates to associate professor and the granting of tenure are based on the fulfillment of potential in teaching/supervision, research/scholarship, and service/administration.
Teaching/supervision performance of high quality is expected of all faculty, and such performance is evaluated on the basis of current and former student evaluations, peer evaluations, and the demonstration of effective and innovative teaching. The candidate must provide sufficient documentation to support his/her candidacy for promotion and tenure.
Candidates for promotion and tenure must evidence a meaningful program of research/scholarship and record of academic achievement. Candidates are expected to demonstrate that they will be able to establish national and international reputations in their fields and continue to be productive researchers and scholars. The "Promotion Criteria" section below details the types of research/scholarship considered for promotion and tenure to be submitted for review. The candidate's research/scholarship program is evaluated by the committee and at least three associate or full professors in the candidate's area of specialization.
Service/administration is a category that includes a faculty member's contributions to the program, school, college, university, and profession. Qualification in university and professional service is based on letters from administrators, supervisors, and colleagues in those endeavors and other documentation of activity. For faculty members with administrative roles as part of their workload, those contributions are represented within this category.
Professor
A candidate can be considered for promotion to professor in his/her sixth year in rank as an associate professor. There is no maximum time limit.
Promotion to professor is based on a record of academic achievement and the establishment of a university-wide and national or international reputation for research/scholarship.
The criterion elements for promotion to professor are the same as those for promotion to associate professor. However, the requirements within these criteria are more extensive for promotion to professor, and letters will be solicited from at least five full professors who are well-established in the candidate's area of specialization.
Promotion and Tenure Criteria
The three areas in which a candidate is evaluated for promotion and tenure are teaching/supervision, research/scholarship, and service/administration. Each area represents an important measure of a faculty member's performance. As merit in individual areas is evaluated in relation to the candidate's official roles and responsibilities, the weight of the individual categories may vary.
The criteria for promotion and tenure are described below. These criteria set minimum thresholds for promotion and tenure eligibility and the CoPLA promotion committee will use these criteria in making a promotion and tenure recommendation to the dean. Faculty who meet these criteria may be considered for promotion and tenure, but candidates are encouraged to exceed the minimum standards to make a stronger case for promotion and tenure. The lists of general categories for consideration and sources for evaluation in the three areas are not all-inclusive, and candidates are encouraged to highlight all relevant contributions in the dossier.
Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure
Teaching/Supervision
Candidates seeking promotion to associate professor with tenure must demonstrate a record of achievement in teaching. The candidate's narrative should characterize his/her teaching philosophy and contributions to the program, school, college, and university. Candidates should identify courses that they created and/or taught and discuss curriculum development, supervision of graduate and undergraduate students, and advising as well as other types of contributions to teaching, including the development of pedagogical tools or methods.
Supporting evidence for teaching includes the following:
- Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
- Peer Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
- Student Evaluation of Student Supervision/Training (including Clinical Supervision)
- Formal Recognition of Distinction in Teaching
- External Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness
- Course Administration/Coordination
- Academic Unit Head's Appraisal of Candidate's Teaching Ability
Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
A candidate will submit his/her end of course evaluations for all of his/her courses and/or supervision units from the past two years and provide a statistical summary for all of his/her courses and/or supervision units at his/her current rank.
Peer Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
The academic unit head (or designee) is responsible for assigning two senior faculty members to conduct individual peer appraisals of the candidate's teaching activities. A candidate must have at least two peer appraisals conducted by senior faculty during the pre-tenure period before going up for promotion to associate professor and tenure. Evaluation of teaching activities may be done by the academic unit head, program chair, or by other senior faculty members who are recognized as excellent teachers. Individuals outside the academic unit may also be enlisted. Scheduling of observations should be arranged with the candidate in advance.
These peer evaluations should, at a minimum, specifically address and provide relevant examples of the candidate's ability to present course content and/or skills to students, integration of topics, structure of the teaching session, and congruence between course goals and accomplishments.
An important part of peer review is the evaluation of instructional materials prepared by the candidate.
General categories for consideration and sources for evaluation:
- Strong teaching/supervision record in classroom/online teaching and research supervision
- Current student evaluations
- Former student evaluations
- Peer evaluations
- Developed and introduced innovative pedagogical techniques
- Commentary from peers and students
- Syllabi and representative lesson plans/assignments
- Introduced new courses into the curriculum, developed new academic programs or made significant modifications to existing academic programs at the undergraduate or graduate level, or contributed to development of university assessment measures
- Syllabi, program descriptions, assessment measures, and commentary from peers and program chairs
- Received funding from outside agencies or foundations for curriculum development, enhancing teaching laboratories,
- Published or made significant contributions to textbooks in his/her field or published articles/essays on pedagogy
- Excerpts from textbooks
- Articles/essays
- Development of teaching manual, study guide, workbook,
Threshold criteria for promotion to associate professor with tenure:
- Successful candidates will have the majority of evaluative ratings (two-thirds or more) in the good to excellent categories. Candidates must also demonstrate achievements across the categories listed
Research/Scholarship
Candidates must demonstrate a record of academic achievement in their fields and promise of continued growth and productivity. It is expected that assistant professors will develop the foundation of their scholarly programs during their minimum five years in rank. Promotion to associate professor Candidates must demonstrate a record of academic achievement in their fields and promise of continued growth and productivity. It is expected that assistant professors will develop the foundation of their scholarly programs during their minimum five years in rank. Promotion to associate professor and the granting of tenure recognize the promise of an active and vigorous research agenda and output. The candidate should demonstrate a line of thematic or programmatic research and not simply a number of unrelated studies, presentations, and publications. Hence, in addition to the demonstration of activity listed below, a characterization of the programmatic quality and overall contribution to the scholarly field is expected from the candidate's narrative and external references. Where available, formal measures of the candidate's scholarly work (e.g., h-index from Google Scholar, ResearchGate Score, journal impact factor, and Social Sciences Citation Index), published reviews of the candidate's scholarly work, and assessments of the quality and reputation of the journals and/or publishers should also be provided by the candidate and external references. Sources for evaluation include copies of articles and essays, tables of contents, award letters, etc.
General categories of scholarship for consideration:
- Scholarly books in field
- Editor of book series or book collection
- Refereed articles (print and online): these must be published in a journal that requires peer review prior to publication
- Book chapters
- Publications with students as coauthors
- Funded grants or contract support for research from federal, state, or private sources
- Awards for scholarly activities from university or regional, national, or international organizations
- Editor or associate/assistant editor of professional journal in field
- Journal editorial board member
- Development of assessment instruments
- Computer software
- Recordings as primary performer or composer
- Published musical compositions
- Invited presentations at regional, national, or international conferences
- Conference presentations with students as coauthors
- Article- or abstract-reviewed presentations at regional, national, or international conferences
- Invited presenter, conductor, or performer at regional, national, or international venues
- Non-refereed publications and public scholarship
- Reviewer of books or journal articles
- Served as session organizer/chair at regional, national, or international conferences
Threshold criteria for promotion to associate professor with tenure:
- Refereed articles or book chapters: at least five wherein the candidate is a major contributor, published in high-quality journals or books as evaluated by the committee and outside reviewers. With multiple-authored texts, candidates should represent their levels of contribution and indicate the significance, if any, of their positions in the author
- Article- or abstract-reviewed presentations at regional, national, or international conferences: at least five wherein the candidate is a major contributor
- A published monograph (full-length book) can substitute for two journal articles.
- Funded large grant application (e.g., an ROl federal grant) can substitute for two
- Submission of a large grant application (e.g., an ROl federal grant) can substitute for one publication.
- Candidates with published monographs and/or large grant applications must also have published at least three refereed articles or book
- The above scholarship must be published (or submitted, for the grant) during the candidate's time in However, candidates may represent their entire bodies of work as relevant to demonstrating the establishment and sustainment of a solid research program.
Activity in these additional areas may make a stronger case for promotion:
- Additional scholarly books (monographs, edited essay collections, or textbooks) in field
- Funded grants or contract support for research from federal, state, or private sources
- Awards for scholarly activities from university or regional, national, or international organizations
- Editorial board member or editor for professional journal in field
Service/ Administration
Service activities include but are not limited to the following: committee work for the program, school, college, or university; student advising; faculty mentoring; coordinating programs linking student or faculty expertise to opportunities outside the university; and service to the faculty member's discipline through involvement in professional organizations and conferences. Contributions in administrative/leadership roles are considered for tenure and promotion to associate professor although it is recommended that tenure-track faculty delay taking on administrative positions until after they have received tenure and promotion to associate professor. Service should reflect continued/consistent growth and development, progressing each year under review. For example, short-term committee membership or membership on committees that have little responsibility should be offset with added responsibilities/roles in other committees or evidence of new initiatives on the existing committees.
General categories of service for consideration:
- Program
- School
- College
- University
- Professional organizations (regional, national, or international)
- Program chair
General categories of administration for consideration include but are not limited to the following:
- Academic unit head
- Center/institute director
- Assistant/associate dean
Sources of evaluation of administration should include a list of activities and accomplishments while serving in administrative roles, which can be documented through letters, memos, catalog entries, contracts, or other relevant evidence. Candidates should also submit letters from their supervisors outlining and evaluating their performance and contributions to the university.
Threshold criteria for promotion to associate professor with tenure and sources for evaluation:
- Membership on at least two committees at the program, school, college, or university levels
- Letters/emails of appointment/election
- Membership on at least two capstone, thesis, or dissertation committees. For graduate faculty affiliated with a graduate program, chair at least one master's or doctoral committee.
- Candidates may document chairing an undergraduate or graduate thesis or doctoral committee in the teaching
- List of students and type of committee with year and committee role (i.e., chair or internal/external member)
- Service involvement in a professional organization for at least three years prior to
- List of service activities/organizations/years. (Examples include the following: paper reviewer for professional association conference; conference organizer; committee member; conference panel moderator [note, discussant can be listed under scholarship]; leadership position in professional organization)
- Thank you letters/emails for service (specific)
- Published lists of reviewers, committee members, or organizers
- Copies of relevant portions of conference programs
Activity in these additional areas may make a stronger case for promotion:
- Student organization advisor
- Student recruitment/marketing efforts
- Evidence of meetings or presentations to student groups, developing or coordinating social media campaigns
- Newsletter editor or contributor (for school, college, university, professional, or community organization)
- Community service (volunteer activities, board membership, or service learning activities in courses)
- Appointment to state or federal advisory committees
Promotion to Professor
Teaching/Supervision
Candidates seeking promotion to professor must demonstrate a record of achievement in teaching. The candidate's narrative should characterize his/her teaching philosophy and contributions in teaching to the program, school, college, and university. Candidates should identify courses that they created and/or taught and discuss curriculum development, supervision of graduate and undergraduate students, and advising as well as other types of contributions to teaching, including the development of pedagogical tools or methods.
Supporting evidence for teaching includes the following:
- Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
- Peer Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
- Student Evaluation of Student Supervision/Training (including Clinical Supervision)
- Formal Recognition of Distinction in Teaching
- External Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness
- Course Administration/Coordination
- Academic Unit Head's Appraisal of Candidate's Teaching Ability
Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
A candidate will submit his/her end of course evaluations for all of his/her courses and/or supervision units from the past two years and provide a statistical summary for all of his/her courses and/or supervision units at his/her current rank.
Peer Evaluation of Faculty Teaching
The academic unit head (or designee) is responsible for assigning two senior faculty members to conduct individual peer appraisals of the candidate's teaching activities. A candidate must have at least two peer appraisals conducted by senior faculty during his/her time at rank of associate professor before going up for promotion to professor. Evaluation of teaching activities may be done by the academic unit head, program chair, or by other senior faculty members who are recognized as excellent teachers. Individuals outside the academic unit may also be enlisted. Scheduling of observations should be arranged with the candidate in advance.
These peer evaluations should, at a minimum, specifically address and provide relevant examples of the candidate's ability to present course content and/or skills to students, integration of topics, structure of the teaching session, and congruence between course goals and accomplishments.
An important part of peer review is evaluation of instructional materials prepared by the candidate.
General categories for consideration and sources for evaluation:
- Strong teaching/supervision record in classroom/online teaching and research supervision
- Current student evaluations
- Former student evaluations
- Peer evaluations
- Developed and introduced innovative pedagogical techniques
- Commentary from peers and students
- Syllabi and representative lesson plans/assignments
- Introduced new courses into the curriculum, developed new academic programs or made significant modifications to existing academic programs at the undergraduate or graduate level, or contributed to development of university assessment measures
- Syllabi, program descriptions, assessment measures, and commentary from peers and program chairs
- Received funding from outside agencies or foundations for curriculum development, enhancing teaching laboratories,
- Documentation of awards
- Published or made significant contributions to textbooks in his/her field or published articles/essays on pedagogy
- Excerpts from textbooks
- Articles/essays
- Development of teaching manual, study guide, workbook, etc.
Threshold criteria for promotion to professor:
- Successful candidates will have the majority of evaluative ratings (two-thirds or more) in the good to excellent categories. Candidates must also demonstrate achievements across the categories listed above. It is expected that associate professors have made significant contributions to their programs at this stage in their
Research/Scholarship
Candidates must demonstrate an ongoing record of academic achievement and establishment of national or international reputation in their fields. It is expected that associate professors will solidify their scholarly programs during their minimum five years in rank. Promotion to professor recognizes an active and vigorous research agenda and output. The candidate should have established a line of thematic or programmatic research and not simply a number of unrelated studies, presentations, and publications. Hence, in addition to the demonstration of activity listed below, a characterization of the programmatic quality and overall contribution to the scholarly field is expected from the candidate's narrative and external references. Where available, formal measures of the candidate's scholarly work (e.g., h-index from Google Scholar, ResearchGate Score, journal impact factor, and Social Sciences Citation Index), published reviews of the candidate's scholarly work, and assessments of the quality and reputation of the journals/publishers should also be provided by the candidate and external references. Sources for evaluation include copies of articles and essays, tables of contents, award letters, etc.
General categories of scholarship for consideration:
- Scholarly books in field
- Editor of book series or book collection
- Refereed articles (print and online): these must be published in a journal that requires peer review prior to publication
- Book chapters
- Publications with students as coauthors
- Funded grants or contract support for research from federal, state, or private sources
- Awards for scholarly activities from university or regional, national, or international organizations
- Editor or associate/assistant editor of professional journal in field
- Journal editorial board member
- Development of assessment instruments
- Computer software
- Recordings as primary performer or composer
- Published musical compositions
- Invited presentations at regional, national, or international conferences
- Article- or abstract-reviewed presentations at regional, national, or international conferences
- Invited presenter, conductor, or performer at regional, national, or international venues
- Conference presentations with students as coauthors
- Non-refereed publications
- Reviewer of books or journal articles
- Served as session organizer/chair at regional, national, or international conferences
Threshold criteria for promotion to professor:
- Refereed articles or book chapters: at least seven wherein the candidate is a major contributor, published in high-quality journals or books as evaluated by the committee and outside reviewers. With multiple-authored texts, candidates should represent their levels of contribution and indicate the significance, if any, of their positions in the author lists
- Article- or abstract-reviewed presentations at national or international conferences: at least five wherein the candidate is a major contributor; at least two of these must include serving as chair, discussant, or moderator
- Appointment for a journal in field: ad hoc reviewer; part of a panel of reviewers; editorial board member; editor
- A published monograph (full-length book) can substitute for two journal articles.
- Funded large grant application (e.g., an ROl federal grant) can substitute for two publications.
- Submission of a large grant application (e.g., an ROl federal grant) can substitute for one publication.
- Candidates with published monographs and/or large grant applications and/or funding must also have published at least five refereed articles or book chapters.
- The above scholarship must be published (or submitted, for the grant) during the candidate's time in rank.
Activity in these additional areas may make a stronger case for promotion:
- Additional scholarly books (monographs, edited essay collections, or textbooks) in field
- Funded grants or contract support for research from federal, state, or private sources
- Awards for scholarly activities from university and regional, national, and international organizations
Service/ Administration
Service activities include but are not limited to the following: committee work for the program, school, college, or university; student advising; faculty mentoring; coordinating programs linking student or faculty expertise to opportunities outside the university; and service to the faculty member's discipline through involvement in professional organizations and conferences. Contributions in administrative/leadership roles are considered for promotion to professor.
Service should reflect continued/consistent growth and development, progressing each year under review. For example, short-term committee membership or membership on committees that have little responsibility should be offset with added responsibilities/roles in other committees or evidence of new initiatives on the existing committees. For promotion from associate professor to professor, candidates should have service commitments at the university level and in the larger academic community in national or international organizations.
General categories of service for consideration:
- Program
- School
- College
- University
- Professional organizations (regional, national, or international)
- Administration
General categories of administration for consideration include but are not limited to the following:
- Program chair
- Academic unit head
- Center/institute director
- Assistant/associate dean
Sources of evaluation of administration should include a list of activities and accomplishments while serving in administrative roles, which can be documented through letters, memos, catalog entries, contracts, or other relevant evidence. Candidates should also submit letters from their supervisors outlining and evaluating their performance and contributions to the university.
Threshold criteria for promotion to professor and sources for evaluation:
- Membership on at least three committees at the program, school, college, or university levels
- Letters/emails of appointment/election
- Membership on at least three capstone, thesis, or dissertation committees. For graduate faculty affiliated with a graduate program, chair at least two master’s or doctoral committees. Candidates may document chairing an undergraduate or graduate thesis or doctoral committee in the teaching section.
- List of students and type of committee with year and committee role (i.e., chair or internal/external member)
- Service involvement in a professional organization for at least five years prior to promotion with
at least one leadership role.- List of service activities/organizations/years. (Examples include the following: paper reviewer for professional association conference; conference organizer; committee member; conference panel moderator [note, discussant can be listed under scholarship]; leadership position in professional organization)
- Thank you letters/emails for service (specific)
- Published lists of reviewers, committee members, organizers
- Copies of relevant portions of conference programs
Activity in these additional areas may make a stronger case for promotion:
- Student organization advisor
- Student recruitment/marketing efforts
- Evidence of meetings or presentations to student groups, developing or coordinating social media campaigns
- Newsletter editor or contributor (for school, college, university, professional, or community organization)
- Community service (volunteer activities, board membership, or service learning activities in courses)
- Appointment to state or federal advisory committees