Promotion & Tenure Guidelines

Recommendation for Promotion Form
Recommendation for Tenure Form
Promotion and Tenure Checklist

Information concerning tenure and promotion is found in the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees policy 405.1 (revised 3.29.18) and in the Faculty Senate’s Faculty Roles and Rewards I: Tenure Track Faculty or Faculty Roles and Rewards II: Full-Time Non-Tenure Track documents and the Promotion and Tenure Policy.

Chronology for Promotion and Tenure Recommendations

Activity Completion Date
1. Recommendations for tenure and promotion shall originate with the Chair who will inform the faculty members who are being considered for tenure or promotion and shall give them the opportunity to submit material in support of the change in status for which they are being considered. (See Board of Trustees policy 405.1, Sections III and IV A5.) An Annual Memo, with specific due dates, is sent out in the fall to all Deans and Associate Deans.
2. Faculty submit Promotion and Tenure materials to Department Promotion and Tenure Committee. 10/02/2023
3. Department Promotion and Tenure Committee submits recommendations to Department Chair/School Director. 11/03/2023
4. Department Chair/School Director forwards recommendations to Dean. 11/30/2023
5. Dean forwards recommendations to Provost. 12/20/2023
6. Provost forwards recommendations to Chancellor. 01/26/2024
7. Chancellor forwards recommendations to President. 02/16/2024
8. President reviews recommendations for tenure. Tenure awarded or denied.
9. President submits recommendations for promotion to Board of Trustees.
10. Board of Trustees acts on recommendations for promotion. Promotion awarded or denied.

Notes:

  1. Information concerning criteria and procedures regarding tenure and promotion is found in the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees policy 405.1 (revised 3.29.18) and in the Faculty Senate’s Promotion and Tenure Policy document.
  2. With the exception of mandatory review for tenure, the faculty member may withdraw his/her materials at any time.

Preparing Promotion and/or Tenure Materials

Think of your presentation as divided into two categories: summary material (Volume 1), which appears first, and supporting material (Volume 2). Your summary material should be extensive enough to make a compelling case for the action you are seeking but concise enough and presented in such a way that reviewers can easily discern the professional highlights of greatest significance. Supporting material should be collected in carefully organized loose-leaf binders, files, etc.

Summary material includes the “Recommendation for Promotion and/or Tenure” form and a thorough resume or curriculum vitae. If your resume or curriculum vitae is not fully responsive to the teaching, research, and service issues asked for on the form, then a simple way to respond is to add one or more addenda to your resume or curriculum vitae, e.g. “Teaching: Additional Documentation.” (Incidentally, the citations of written works in the curriculum vitae should conform to an accepted style and should be complete, including page numbers.)

It is this summary section and the evaluative statements of those who have reviewed your material which are forwarded through all campus levels of review unless you withdraw at some point. Therefore, you should prepare your summary section as a clear, succinct, self-contained, separable unit so that it will not fall to someone else to try to select key elements to be forwarded to other reviewers.

(Note: You must keep a copy of your summary material because it will not be returned to you.) Supporting material often includes samples of the actual products of one’s work (such as books, articles, papers, musical compositions), teaching evaluations, grant proposals, etc. This material is of most importance at the department and college/school levels, and it should be separable from the summary section described above. The supporting material is held in the office of the chair or dean, subject to call by later reviewers. (On occasion the supporting material of a candidate is requested by and reviewed at all levels. However, supporting material is not forwarded past the dean’s office unless requested.)

In all cases, prepare your materials thoughtfully with your audience in mind, remembering that those who review your materials will include both colleagues who know your discipline well and those who do not.

Preparing a Nomination for Distinguished or University Professor

By signing the promotion form, the chair and dean certify that the faculty member has received a superior/outstanding/excellent rating in the department’s annual review five out of the last ten years in the service category for university professor or in the scholarship/research category for distinguished professor and satisfactory or above in each category during the ten year period.

The approved faculty senate legislation can be found here Guidelines for Distinguished or University Professor.