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PROMOTION and TENURE POLICIES

The JESS and MILDRED FISHER
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS
PROMOTION, TENURE/REAPPOINTMENT, AND MERIT COMMITTEE
POLICIES, PROCEDURES, CRITERIA, AND STANDARDS

(approved by the FCSM College Council, Feb. 28, 2003,
revised on Feb. 2, 2007)


TABLE OF CONTENTS

             Mission Statement

  1. General Directions

    2.
  2. Policies and Procedures for Promotion, Tenure, Reappointment, Merit, and Five-Year Comprehensive Review Recommendations

    3.
  3. College-wide Criteria and Standards for Promotion and Tenure

    4.
  4. Materials to be submitted for Promotion, Tenure and Reappointment Recommendations

    5.
  5. Materials to be submitted for Merit

    6.
  6. Copies of forms for Promotion and Tenur

    7.
  7. Appendices

Mission Statement

The FCSM Promotion and Tenure Committee consists of one representative from each department elected by the College at large.  The Dean of the College is an ex officio non-voting member of the Committee. The primary obligation of the Committee is to review the submitted files to insure fairness and equity to faculty members who are being evaluated for promotion, tenure, re-appointment, merit, and performance in the Five-Year Comprehensive Review.

In accordance with the Strategic Plan of the University, the College Promotion and Tenure Committee aims to maintain a highly qualified faculty that balances the tripartite responsibilities of teaching and advising, creative and scholarly activity, and service. In order to implement this objective, the Committee will evaluate the files of the candidates according to Towson University policies for faculty evaluation, which are in accordance with the Boyer’s Scholarship Model (see Appendix D). The Committee will then make recommendations to the Provost.

As part of its duties, the Committee will fully investigate appeals from departmental recommendations and, if it deems appropriate, will attempt to resolve such disputes before a final decision and vote is taken.

  1. General Directions

    2.
    1. Composition of the Committee and election of its members

      • The FCSM P&T Committee will consist of one representative from each department elected at large from the college for a period of three years. These three-year terms shall be staggered to insure some consistency from year to year. Eligible members include tenured faculty at the rank of associate and professor who have been at the College for at least three years. Chairpersons and faculty members who are candidates for promotion are not eligible. The Dean of the College shall serve as an ex officio non-voting member of this committee.

      • The election of members of FCSM P&T Committee will be according to the procedures of FCSM (see appendix B).

    2. Forms Required

      • To ensure that accurate Annual Reports (AR) are available at the appropriate times, the promotion and tenure chairperson(s) of each department in the College must make sure that these Reports are completed and filed with the department by the deadline established by the University P&T Committee.

      • The FCSM recommendation forms must be signed by the individual and by the chairperson of the departmental rank and /or tenure committee. If the recommended faculty member is the chairperson of the departmental rank and/or tenure committee, then the chairperson of the department must cosign the document.

      • All documents and supporting data are confidential and should be submitted to the office of the Dean of FCSM, where they are kept in a FCSM P&T file. Thereafter, the documents and supporting data of all persons recommended for promotion, tenure and/or merit by the FCSM P&T Committee are submitted to the Provost. Departments should make copies of all documents, as these may not be returned.

    3. Schedules

      • All departments are advised that the FCSM P&T Committee adheres to the deadlines set by the University Promotion and Tenure Committee (see Appendix C).

      • Additional or supplementary documents sent to the FCSM P&T Committee after the Wednesday before Thanksgiving will not be accepted unless specifically requested by the responsible departmental committee and approved by the FCSM P&T Committee.

      • All departments must inform non-first year faculty who wish to appeal to the College P&T Committee that they must do so by the first Monday in November. The FCSM P&T Committee will render decisions on appeals by the third Monday in November. By this date, the FCSM P&T Committee will have delivered to the appellant its written decision containing specific factors substantiating its decision. The letter containing the decision must be personally given to the appellant or must be sent by certified mail.

      • First-year faculty who wish to appeal departmental decisions to the FCSM P&T Committee must do so by the first Monday in December. The committee will decide on the appeals and inform the appellants by the third Monday in December. By this date, the FCSM P&T Committee will have delivered to the appellant its written decision containing specific factors substantiating its decision. The letter containing the decision shall be personally given to the appellant or, if unavailable, shall be mailed to his/her home postal address.

  2. Policies and Procedures of the FCSM P&T Committee for Promotion, Tenure, Reappointment, Merit Recommendations and Five-Year Comprehensive Review

    3.
    1. General

      • The FCSM P&T Committee will review faculty files in the context of its Mission Statement and the document “TOWSON UNIVERSITY POLICY ON FACULTY EVALUATION FOR PROMOTION, TENURE/REAPPOINTMENT, AND MERIT (see Faculty Handbook or Appendix A).

      • All matters considered by the committee pertaining to individual faculty members shall be held in strict confidence.

      • Because of the importance of the Committee’s deliberations, all voting members are expected to be present at all meetings.

      • During deliberation, any voting committee member may request reconsideration and a revote on tenure, promotion, or Reappointment decisions at any time. A member who was not present at a meeting may request a complete reconsideration by the committee, including the reopening of discussion and re-voting.

      • In the event that any committee member(s) strongly feel that a minority report should be submitted, they may do so subject to review by the whole committee. Both the majority and minority reports will be forwarded together to the Provost.

      • The entire committee shall review all outgoing correspondence. This correspondence must include written specifics justifying the committee’s decision based on the file of the candidate.

    2. Tenure, Promotions, and Reappointment

      • Each committee member individually will examine the materials submitted by each department for faculty members recommended for tenure, promotion, or Reappointment and decides whether to support or deny the recommendations.

      • During meetings of the full committee, each committee member will contribute to an open discussion of each candidate. Following the discussion, the committee will vote to support or deny the departmental recommendation concerning the candidate. A simple majority (at least 3 out of the possible 5) is required.

      • The recommendations of the department, of the FCSM P&T Committee, and of the Dean of FCSM, if he or she makes one, will be forwarded, together with all pertinent files, to the Provost. All the recommendations of the Dean of FCSM will be shared with the FCSM P&T Committee.

    3. Evaluation of Interdepartmental, Interdisciplinary Faculty Members

      • The FCSM P&T Committee follows the university guidelines. Please refer to the relevant sections of the Faculty Handbook.

    4. Merit

      • The appropriate department merit committee will decide on merit based on the correspondence between the Agreement on Faculty Workload Expectations (AFWE) and Part I of the Annual Report (AR) for the academic year.

      • If discrepancies are found between the faculty member’s AFWE and Part I of the faculty member’s AR and are considered deleterious to the mission of the department by a the appropriate departmental merit committee, the faculty member may be denied merit. It is recognized that there will be some flexibility in the evaluation of such discrepancies.

      • The Dean of FCSM and the Chair of the FCSM P&T Committee will review departmental merit recommendations. If the Dean and the Chair agree with a departmental merit recommendation, then the FCSM P&T Committee will support this recommendation. If either the Dean or the Chair disagrees with a departmental merit recommendation, then the FCSM P&T Committee will review the recommendation. After review, the committee votes to support or deny the departmental merit recommendation. A simple majority (at least 3 out of the possible 5) is required.

    5. Five-Year Comprehensive Review

      • The FCSM P&T Committee will evaluate departmental recommendations of faculty members who have participated in a Comprehensive Review.

      • In these evaluations, the FCSM P&T Committee will follow the “Comprehensive Review Policies and Procedures of Towson University” (see the Faculty Handbook or Appendix E).

      • In cases of appeals to the FCSM P&T Committee, the committee will follow its established procedures as for all appeals.

  3. College-wide Criteria and Standards for Promotion and Tenure

    4.
    1. Statement of Philosophy

      The following are the general criteria and standards for promotion and tenure within the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics. We recognize that each department within the College has a distinctive character and set of expectations and the purpose of this document is not to stifle that individuality. Conversely, we also believe that there should be some commonality of standards that apply to all departments within the College that reflects the nature and mission of the College. This draft outline attempts to reconcile these different views.

    2. Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor

      Because the promotion to Associate Professor usually (but not always) carries the award of tenure, we treat these as one and the same in this draft. In unusual cases, there may be justification for tenure without promotion, but that is not considered here.

      Promotion to Associate Professor with tenure is the most important step up the academic ladder for two reasons. First, the newly promoted faculty member can remain at Towson throughout his or her academic lifetime; promotion with tenure should be considered as a commitment to keeping that faculty member as a productive colleague throughout this time. Second, with rare exceptions, promotion to Associate Professor with tenure is a one-time event; if not granted, that faculty member will likely leave Towson University. For these reasons, it is important that the general criteria and expectations for this promotion be laid out clearly.

      In general, the College does not feel that rigid, quantitative criteria are appropriate for a faculty whose interests range from astrophysics to field zoology. This is especially true in the area of research, where use of numbers of publications, grants, or presentations at meetings is highly variable among disciplines. However, we have provided some general guidelines for achievements in Teaching, Scholarship, and Service.

      Teaching — The general expectation of the College is that teaching is our central function and that all faculty should strive to be outstanding teachers. Assessing teaching performance, however, is extremely difficult. Our general philosophy is that no single criterion can be used to adequately judge teaching performance. At a minimum, the following must be used to measure teaching effectiveness. The listed criteria are not prioritized according to order of importance.
      • quantitative student evaluation scores

      • summaries of written comments from student evaluation forms

      • course syllabi, exams, assignments, etc.

      • copies of signed reports from peer observations of teaching

      However, in addition to the above items, other measures are also appropriate. The faculty member is encouraged to submit a teaching portfolio to assist in the evaluation of teaching performance. This portfolio would include all of the above 4 items. Other items that may be included, where appropriate, are (but not limited to) the following. The listed criteria are not prioritized according to order of importance.
      • evidence of the development of new courses

      • evidence of modification of course content or delivery

      • evidence of improvement of personal knowledge of subject content or teaching methodologies

      • evidence of contributions and/or delivery of a new curriculum

      • professional awards for teaching excellence

      • evidence of supervision of student research

      • for mathematics and science educators: evidence of supervision and mentoring of pre-service teachers

      Scholarship — The College recognizes faculty practice four kinds of scholarship as defined by the Boyer Model* : discovery, integration, application, and teaching. The general expectation of the College is that all faculty members should be able to demonstrate the presence of an active and ongoing program of scholarship of one or more of these forms. The faculty member needs to demonstrate the ability to initiate and carry out to completion scholarly work at Towson University in his/her research specialty as evidenced by the following. The listed criteria are not prioritized according to order of importance.
      • publications in peer reviewed scholarly journals

      • or, when appropriate to a discipline, publications in peer reviewed conference proceedings

      • publication of a professionally appropriate peer reviewed book, textbook, manual or extensive monograph

      • submission of university-approved patent applications to the U.S. Patent Office or the awarding of such patents

      *Charles E. Glassick, Mary Taylor Huber, and Gene I. Maeroff. Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate (An Ernest L. Boyer Project of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.)

      In addition to a scholarly publication record, several other criteria may be employed as illustrated below. Note that these are examples of criteria to be used, and other criteria may be employed at the discretion of the department. The listed criteria are not prioritized according to order of importance      .

      • competitive internal and external grants attempted and received

      • progress report or final report on the implementation of an externally funded project

      • chairing (and/or organizing) sessions at professional meetings

      • presenting papers at professional meetings

      • documented research in progress

      • conducting workshops (This item might be expected to count more heavily for mathematics and science education faculty.)

      • invited lectures

      • panelist or discussant at professional meetings

      • professional awards based on scholarly achievement

      Service — The general expectation of the College is that all faculty members should be actively engaged in service, to the department, the College, the University community, and to the faculty member’s discipline. The exact level of service is primarily a departmental function and no specific level of service is mandated here (specific levels of Service are outlined in the Faculty Handbook.) Faculty are expected to make useful, documented contributions to their department, their College, the University, and to their discipline.

    3. Promotion to Full Professor

      Promotion to Full Professor is the ultimate step in academic recognition. This promotion should recognize not only length of service, but also a sustained commitment to excellence or distinction in teaching, scholarship, and service. In addition to high levels of teaching effectiveness (using criteria noted above), and a leadership role in the area of service, faculty should demonstrate a sustained program of recognized scholarship, as indicated by, for example, a substantial refereed publication record, successful textbook authorship, success in attracting external grants, and presentations at national and international meetings. We emphasize that while different disciplines will necessarily have different levels of grant success and publication, the key element is a sustained commitment to scholarly productivity.

    4. Early Promotion

      Initial Promotion — In cases when an application for early promotion is made (early in this context refers to an application made before the date agreed upon in the Faculty Appointment Contract), the justification provided for such a step needs to be clearly and explicitly stated. The standards for such applications will necessarily be higher than with applications made in accordance with the dates in the Faculty Appointment Contract and such applications will be considered separately from applications following the agreed-upon dates.

      Promotion to Professor — As noted in the Faculty Handbook, promotion to Professor normally requires a minimum of ten years of full-time university teaching experience, although exceptions can be made for faculty who have attained national distinction for comparable professional activity or scholarship. As noted above, when an application for early promotion is made, the justification provided for such a step needs to be clearly and explicitly stated. The standards for such applications will necessarily be higher than with applications made in accordance with the dates in the Faculty Handbook and such applications will be considered separately from applications following the agreed-upon dates.


      5.
  4. Materials to be submitted for Promotion, Tenure, and Reappointment Recommendations

    5.
    1. Merit Folder

      • The Merit folder should be independent of and separate from the Promotion & Tenure folder

    2. Summary Sheet

      Summary Sheet from the department containing:

      1. A list of names of all faculty members recommended for promotion for each academic rank.

      2. A list of names of all faculty members recommended for tenure.

      3. A list of names of all faculty members recommended for Reappointment.

    3. Materials for Promotion, Tenure, or Reappointment

      • For faculty members recommended for promotion, tenure, or Reappointment, the materials submitted should be arranged in a hard cover three-ring loose leaf binder with each of the sections separated and indexed with tabs in the following sequence:

        1. Department Summary Record (DSR).

        2. Fisher College of Science and Mathematics Promotion and Tenure Form (FCSM P&T Form). Required for promotion and/or tenure recommendations only.

        3. A curriculum vita.

        4. Annual Reports (AR) or equivalent for the entire evaluation period. If the person recommended has been on the faculty for less than three years, then the candidate should submitted annual reports for those years served at Towson. These forms should be arranged in reverse chronological order (most recent one on top).

        5. A Summary of Major Accomplishments written by the faculty member is required for promotion and/or tenure recommendations only. This concise summary should highlight the accomplishments of special merit. (A typical summary is two or three pages in length.)

        6. Syllabi of all courses taught for each of the three most recent years of service.

        7. Any supporting documents the candidate may desire to include.

    4. Justification for Denial

      • A department that makes a negative recommendation for promotion, tenure, or Reappointment will furnish the FCSM P&T Committee with a letter containing specific reasons for the denial.

  5. Materials to be submitted for Merit

    6.
    1. The Current Department Merit Recommendation Form (CDMR) prepared by each respective department.

    2. For each faculty member being recommended for merit, the materials to be submitted are the following (and should be submitted in the given order):

      1. Fisher College of Science and Mathematics Merit Form (FCSM Merit Form).

      2. Department Summary Report (DSR) Form.

      3. Annual Report (AR).

      4. A curriculum vita.

  6. Copies of forms for Promotion and Tenure

    7.
    4. FCSM Departmental P & T Recommendation Form (FCSM P & T Form)
    5. FCSM Departmental Merit Recommendation Form (FCSM Merit Form)

  7. Appendices

    8.


The Jess and Mildred Fisher
College of Science and Mathematics
Smith Hall, Room 312 (campus map)

Phone: 410-704-2121
Fax: 410-704-2604
E-mail: fcsm@towson.edu
 
 

 

  
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