September

Quick Overview

  • Collect AP Leave reports and AP leave proposals from Assistant Professors
  • Submit staffing reports on assistant professors for whom no decision is pending and your unit’s evaluation procedures
  • Coordinate evaluation of non-tenured colleagues with appropriate interdepartmental program chairs
  • Hold meetings for tenured colleagues to discuss reappointment and tenure decisions
  • Schedule class visits and exchanges for the fall semester, as appropriate
  • Plan or finalize fall programming and events for your unit
  • Accompany new colleagues to the first faculty meeting

Hiring

If your unit is conducting a search, see Hiring Guidelines for steps to take in the search process.

Evaluation

September 1 –  Due date for AP leave reports to chair from assistant professors returning from leave.   This AP Leave Report will be assessed as part of the evaluation of scholarship for tenure.

Wednesday after Labor Day – Due date for assistant professors to submit leave proposals to chair.

September 15 –  CAP deadline: Due date for reports on assistant professors for whom no decision is pending; submit to the dean of the faculty’s office. This report is an assessment of the unit’s or evaluation committee’s judgments regarding the performance as a teacher, scholar, and member of the college community. The final version of the report submitted to the CAP should be initialed by all the tenured members of the unit who participated fully in the discussions leading to that final version. Along with the report, please include a copy of the assistant professor’s CV.

September 15 – CAP deadline: Whether or not you are submitting any “no decision pending” reports on this day, please submit a copy of your unit’s statement on methods of evaluation to the Dean of Faculty office.

Contact the chair(s) of any interdepartmental program to which non-tenured faculty being evaluated in Part II of the staffing report have contributed. According to the Faculty Handbook: “For faculty with a departmental home, the program chair sends a written report to the department chair in the early fall of the year in which the faculty member is up for a renewal, reappointment, or tenure decision. The department chair incorporates this report into Part II of the department’s annual report.” A copy of the original program report should be appended to the departmental staffing report and may be commented on as your department sees fit.

Hold meeting(s) of tenured members of the unit. The exact number will depend on the number of major decisions—usually reappointment and tenure—to be included in Part II of the Staffing Report. You should have received instructions for Part II of the Staffing Report earlier in the summer. This report must ultimately be read by all tenured members of the unit participating in the deliberations. Senior faculty members on leave must either participate fully in the evaluation process of all candidates for reappointment and promotion in that year, or submit a letter evaluating the work of each candidate. Such a letter shall specify what materials the author has considered in preparing the letter.

What constitutes a good staffing report? To begin, please read Section II:G Academic Program Governance in the Faculty Handbook. Also see memo from the CAP.   Although the CAP does have access to portions of the data you may be working with (e.g., SCS scores), in general it is a good idea not to assume that they have everything at their fingertips. It is advisable to include more rather than less data along with your unit’s interpretation of that data. In making reappointment and tenure recommendations to the CAP, it is important to remember that you are making not only a decision but also a case to the CAP. The arguments you present are at least as compelling as any judgments being rendered. Thus, where the tenured members of a unit assess a non-tenured faculty member differently, it is important to make those differences explicit in reporting to the CAP, and to make sure that arguments on all sides are clearly and fairly represented. In rare instances, individual faculty members or groups of faculty members may wish to submit a minority report, if they feel the chair has been unable to represent their views properly.

The overwhelming majority of units and evaluation committees use class visits or class exchanges as part of their evaluation of non-tenured faculty.  These class visits should be arranged now for the fall semester. Since coordinating schedules is often a challenge, these arrangements should be made early in the semester. Guidelines for the visits are outlined in the Faculty Handbook, Section II-M.

Curriculum

During your first or second unit meeting, plan or finalize event programming such as outside speakers, films, events with prospective majors.

Monitor course enrollment figures for the fall semester.

Mentoring

Encourage your new colleagues, tenure-track, visitors, and any fellows, to attend First3 lunches.  Many units also assign a faculty mentor to their new members; discuss this with your colleagues or devise alternative ways to mentor new faculty from inside your unit.

Arrangements should be made for “hosts” at the President’s reception for new faculty and staff. Though not required, many units use this occasion to schedule a dinner, dessert, or other event.