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Procedures for Preparing the Promotion and Tenure File
(Accepted October 2002; Amended February 2005)

When promoting from the rank of Assistant Professor to Associate Professor: the tenured faculty of French and Italian comprise the Departmental Committee on Promotion and/or Tenure (DCPT) to prepare the candidate’s promotion and tenure file (Blue Form). A minimum of at least five (5) faculty members is necessary to conduct an evaluation. Normally the chair of the Department will serve as the chair of the DCPT.

When/if there is not the minimum number of five (5) department members available to serve on the DCPT, the tenured faculty will ask the Dean of the College to appoint an appropriate number of outside members from KU’s faculty in order to reach the number of five (5).

The Dean will select the outside member(s) mentioned above from a pool of five (5) tenured professors to be selected by the DCPT. In order to form that pool, the candidate will be invited to suggest up to 3 outside members of KU’s faculty which the DCPT may take into consideration.  The candidate will also be allowed to indicate up to 3 names s/he would not like on the list; the DCPT will honor that indication. The candidate will not vote on the membership of the pool to be submitted to the Dean.

When promoting from the rank of Associate Professor to Professor: consistent with the principle that at least five (5) faculty members are necessary to conduct an evaluation, the DCPT will be comprised of those holding the rank of [full] professor and the Chair of the Department of French and Italian (regardless of rank). If the DCPT does not number at least 5 members from that constituency, then an appropriate number of associate professors from French and Italian will be chosen by witnessed, random draw. If an appropriate number of associate professors can/will not serve, then outside members from KU’s faculty will be appointed to bring the total to five. All members of the DCPT will have full voice and vote. (When the department is able to form a committee of five (5) holding the rank of professor, it is understood that the associate professors and outside members from KU will not be needed to serve.) The committee will elect its chair from among the departmental members serving on the DCPT.

The Dean will select the outside member(s) mentioned above from a pool of five (5) [full] professors at KU to be selected by the DCPT. In order to form that pool, the DCPT will invite the candidate to suggest up to 3 outside members of KU’s faculty which the DCPT may take into consideration.  The candidate will also be allowed to indicate up to 3 names s/he would not like on the list; the DCPT will honor that indication. The candidate will not vote on the membership of the pool to be submitted to the Dean.
 
Three subcommittees, corresponding to the three areas of teaching, research and service, are then formed from the membership of the DCPT. (There may be some overlap in membership among these committees.) The chair of the DCPT discusses the membership of the three subcommittees with the candidate whose suggestions may be taken into consideration, but are not binding upon the DCPT’s final decision.

Schedule of Activities

January or February of the calendar year in which the candidate plans to go up for promotion and/or tenure: the candidate meets with the chair of the DCPT to review and discuss all procedures, including but not limited to:

  • the membership of the three DCPT sub-committees
  • the eventual deadline for the candidate’s submission of a list of up to four (4) outside reviewers (with biographical information, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses), and up to two (2) names of those whom s/he does not want contacted (NB: departmental practice will follow the rules set forth by the College and Provost’s Office)
  • the eventual deadline for the candidate’s submission of copies of all publications and relevant materials to be evaluated by outside evaluators and DCPT
  • the need to schedule regular class visits by the DCPT 
  • the eventual deadline for the candidate’s preparation of the statements on teaching, advising and research to appear on the Blue Form
  • the eventual deadline for the candidate’s submission of all student evaluations and comment sheets for all courses relevant to the period of time under assessment
  • the eventual deadline for the candidate’s preparation of a list and description of all service activities relevant to the period of time under assessment

End of February:

  • Subcommittee on Research meets to draw up a list of outside candidates and to draft a letter to outside evaluators
  • Subcommittee on Teaching meets to set up schedule of class visits
  • Subcommittee on Service meets to discuss criteria for service evaluation

March: DCPT meets

  • to agree upon a final list of outside evaluators
  • to agree upon which published materials to send to which evaluators
  • to compose final letters which are sent to outside evaluators under the name of the chair of the department
  • to monitor activities of the subcommittee on teaching
  • to monitor activities of the subcommittee on service

End of April: three sub-committees meet independently if necessary to discuss progress in their areas of evaluation

End of June:

  • candidate submits to subcommittee on teaching all course evaluations with typed summaries of all student comment sheets for courses taught at KU to date, as well as all grade sheets
  • candidate submits to all three subcommittees: drafts of teaching, research and advising statements to appear eventually on the Blue Form

August: chair of DCPT drafts the position description for the Blue Form and meets with members

  • to approve position description
  • to discuss candidate’s drafts of three statements and set a deadline for the candidate’s final copy
  • to monitor return of outside evaluations
  • to hear sub-committee reports of formal evaluations
  • to schedule additional class visits if necessary

Six Weeks Before College Deadline:

  • Meeting of the subcommittees to draft all narratives to be entered on the Blue Form

Four Weeks Before College Deadline:

  • Final subcommittee drafts due to the chair of the DCPT

Three Weeks Before College Deadline:

  • Meeting to vote on the subcommittees’ drafted evaluation statements and to vote on the ratings (exceptional, very good, good, adequate, poor) in each category for the Blue Form

Two Weeks Before College Deadline:

  • Final evaluation statements for the Blue Form submitted to the chair of the DCPT by the subcommittees
  • Candidate signs relevant areas of the Blue Form

One Week Before College Deadline:

  • Chair of DCPT prepares final Blue Form leaving at least four (4) days before the College deadline for the DCPT to read and approve the final version before submission to the College.

Two Days Before the College Deadline:

  • DCPT meets if there are any final matters to be resolved from the final reading of the Blue Form

After CCPT and UCPT complete their work:

Upon notification of a check-back from the CCPT and/or the UCPT, all the following steps should take place.  
The Chair will:

  • immediately inform the DCPT and summarize the contents of the check-back letter for the DCPT,
  • immediately inform the candidate that the check-back has taken place and as soon as possible will officially summarize by letter the nature of the CCPT/ UCPT’s concerns, affording the candidate the maximum feasible amount of time for a response,
  • make all materials pertinent to the check-back available to the DCPT,
  • call a meeting of the DCPT to be held in a timely fashion, using as a general guideline two working days before the DCPT’s response is due, in order to allow for ample time to draft and polish an answer acceptable to the constituency of the DCPT.

NB: All regulations are subject to change based upon changes in university procedures.