An Overview of the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee

1
An Overview of the Appointment, Promotion, and
Tenure Committee

• For presentation to the
• Executive Faculty of the School of Nursing and
  Health Studies

2
Who serves on APT?

• Currently, NHS Constitution specifies committee
  composition and how members are elected (NOTE
  changes can always be proposed and voted upon)
• APT Committee this year has 3 tenured faculty
  members (2 full prof, 1 associate prof), 1
  assistant prof/tenure track, 1 professor/tenure
  track, 2 associate professors/educator track
• Departmental representation 2 Human Science, 1
  International Health, 3 Nursing, 1 Health Systems

3
What APT does?

• Provides advice to Dean, GUMC, and University
  Committee on Rank and Tenure (UCRT) regarding
  decisions about faculty members vis a vis
  criteria for rank and tenure
• Provides advice to faculty members related to
  seeking advice re their record of teaching,
  scholarship, and service
• Deliberates about how committee operates and
  reports to Executive Faculty about suggestions
  for improving APT procedures, modifying criteria,

4
APT Committee Code of Honor

• Discussions about faculty members held in strict
  confidence, recognizing that
• the Dean serves ex officio and receives minutes
• all tenured faculty members in NHS are engaged
  in decisions (even when not on committee)
• Committee decisions are shared with NHS/GUMC
  administrators (including departmental chairs),
  the University Committee on Rank and Tenure (if
  advanced), and the President of Georgetown
  University (if advanced)
• Committee summary of discussions about faculty
  member must accompany the package that advances
  to other levels

5
Are the criteria in our School the same as other
places in the university?

• Yes (!)
• And remember that rank and tenure decisions
  always are intended to reflect appropriate and
  evolving understanding of different disciplines
  and the indicators of excellence and achievement
  within particular fields

6
What the Committee should not consider in
applying the criteria are

• Personality per se
• Popularity per se
• Amount of outside funds generated per se
• Outside or internal pressure to keep, advance, or
  terminate someone
• Individual factors such as age, gender,
  lifestyle, religion, politics, etc.
• Personal friendships or disputes

7
Identifying outside reviewers

• Faculty members and departmental chairs are
  encouraged to nominate individuals who are
  neutral, have high status in same/related field
  as candidate, have strong CVs they submit
• Excluded are previous bosses, previous faculty
  mentors/supervisors, close friends and relatives,
  current colleagues on scholarly/research
  projects, most (but not all) co-authors
• APT Committee may nominate additional reviewers
  and makes the final selection and sends out
  letters. There must be a written justification
  for each reviewers in terms of his/her
  qualifications.

8
Committee timetable and priorities

• The University has an official calendar for rank
  and tenure decisions that affects some of the
  timing for submission of materials to our
  committee
• Biggest and most important deadline October 1
  full dossier for promotion and tenure for regular
  faculty
• Important other decisions can occur anytime
  throughout the year, including
• Promotion of educator and reserach faculty
  members
• Appointment and/or promotion of adjunct
  (part-time) faculty

9
Why cant the criteria for teaching and
scholarship be a lot more specific?

• Because different fields have different types of
  evidence that comprise recognition of excellence
• Because scholarship and teaching are evolving
  activities
• Because a composite record of accomplishments
  necessitates and benefits from judgment (with an
  assumption that multiple perspectives from senior
  faculty members discussing a candidate is a good
  thing)

10
What are the safeguards to protect and support
faculty members?

• Final decision has engaged peers and senior
  individuals at multiple levels
• Home department recommendation
• School committee recommendation
• Outside reviewers
• NHS Dean and GUMC Dean
• University Committee on Rank and Tenure (all
  schools are supposed to be represented, although
  NHS has not been in past 2 years)
• University President
• Potential legal course if possible bias or
  violations suspected

11
What really matters the most?

• Strong and multi-year evidence that teaching is
  judged excellent by both students and fellow
  faculty
• Strong evidence of solid scholarly contributions,
  such as reflected in substantive professional
  discoveries and/or products, in peer-reviewed
  high quality outlets, recognition, and/or
  citation from respected peer-review entities
  (adjusted for specialty area), and obtaining
  peer-reviewed competitive funding
• Ongoing teaching and scholarship/research
  activities appropriate for the rank and tenure
  decision being considered (i.e., future
  projection of continued excellence)

12
What about Service? Is this taken seriously?

• Service includes within the university and to the
  community
• Service is not totally on par with teaching and
  scholarship/research -- and excellence in
  service can never be substituted for the other
  areas
• Service does matter, is considered in balance,
  along with other achievements, weighing somewhat
  more heavily for tenure decisions. Often service
  facilitates the university's overall mission and
  the faculty members own opportunities to be
  engaged in worthwhile endeavors often
  complementing teaching and scholarship, as well
  as having their own merit

13
Important sources of guidance and feedback

• Annual reviews which are to be sent to the
  Committee when promotion and/or tenure is
  considered
• Working with one or more faculty mentors who are
  senior and capable of understanding your field
  and your faculty professional activities and
  goals
• Other faculty members who recently have gone
  through promotion and/or tenure here

14
Useful suggestions about submission to APT

• PLEASE do not neglect full attention to details,
  because reviewers (inside and outside our
  university) are going to be looking at lots of
  materials organization and accuracy are very
  helpful to promote the best evaluation of
  everything being submitted
• Please be sure you are communicating with your
  departmental chair and the Dean, when
  appropriate, both early and throughout the
  process. These people are part of the
  decision-making and will be as open and helpful
  as they can be to you.