|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
The Unit Head (Chair or Dean) must inform the candidate by certified mail within two weeks of the date of the decision. The letter should state the faculty decision and the administrator’s decision and summarize briefly in general terms the reason for the denial. The letter should include the APT vote (policy reference). This letter should be available to voting faculty and the Chair of the APT Committee should review its accuracy.
For example, the summary letter might say:
The eligible voting members of the department met on October 25, 2008 to consider your case for promotion . The vote to endorse your promotion was 10 yes and 35 no with 2 mandatory abstentions. This vote, to deny your promotion, reflected concerns about your low scholarly productivity and failure to obtain external funding. Regrettably, I concur with the decision. I am forwarding your dossier to the Dean for review of the evaluative procedures.
The administrator at the next higher level (the Dean for departmentalized Colleges, the Provost for non-departmentalized colleges such as Journalism) must also write a letter (a) stating that the case has been reviewed to ascertain that there was no violation of substantive or procedural due process (policy reference), and (b) where appropriate, specifying the date of termination of employment. The letter should be sent by certified mail.
Sample letters:
| Dear........: As you know, the faculty and Chair of the Department of ... have recommended against promoting you to the rank of ... The University APT policy requires me, as Dean of the College of ... , to “review the case to ensure that the candidate has received procedure and substantive due process.” I have carefully examined your case and find no evidence of procedural or substantive due process errors during the review. For letters to Associate Professors (and Assistant Professors being reviewed prior to their mandatory year): I, therefore, accept the judgement of the departmental APT Committee and the Chair that you not be promoted to the rank of Professor at this time. I hope and trust that your continued efforts in teaching, research, mentoring, and service will warrant promotion at a later date. For letters to Assistant Professors and untenured Associate Professors undergoing mandatory review: I, therefore, accept the judgment of the Department APT Committee and the Department Chair that you not be (promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and) granted tenure. You will be granted an additional one-year contract and your appointment will terminate on _____......... Please accept my best wishes in your future endeavors. Sincerely, cc: Department Chair, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs |
A copy of these letters and the dossier should be sent to the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs. The Dean should retain the dossier in case there is an appeal.
If there was no substantive or procedural due process violation, the review process stops without consideration at higher levels. If there is a violation, the Dean (or Provost when the case began at the College level) must return the case to the first level in order to correct the error and rehear the case (policy reference). This may or may not lead to a different recommendation.
As long as there is one positive recommendation (from either the First-Level Head or First-Level APT Committee), the case will proceed to all subsequent levels for review (policy reference). The Chair is still obligated to write a brief summary letter to the candidate within two weeks of the APT deliberations, informing the candidate of the outcome of the APT decision including the vote, the Chair’s decision and a brief rationale. That letter is open to inspection by the eligible voting faculty and should be appended to the Chair’s letter.
The APT policy recognizes that members of the candidate’s Unit are usually in the best position to evaluate the candidate in terms of his or her discipline and in terms of the needs of the Unit (policy reference). However, higher levels exercise independent judgment and may disagree with the recommendation of the first level. In cases of disagreement at the College level, the College APT Committee is obligated to call in the Department Chair and Chair of the Department APT Committee before taking a final vote (policy references #1 and #2). The College Committee should provide a written list of questions in advance to serve as a basis for discussion. Whenever either or both faculty and administrator recommendations are negative at the second level of review, the Dean shall send the candidate a letter summarizing in general terms the nature of the considerations on which those decisions were based. The summary letter should be included in the file appended to the Dean’s letter. This “notification” letter, too, should be sent by certified mail and it should be reviewed by the College APT Chair.
Negative recommendations by the second-level APT Committee and/or the second-level administrator do not stop the review process. One role of further levels of review is reconciliation of divergent viewpoints on a case. Thus the case will proceed to a campus level review (policy references #1 and #2). As in college level reviews, when there is disagreement between the Campus APT Committee and one or more of the lower levels of reviews or a divergence of opinion about the case, the Committee will meet with the Dean, the Chair, and Chairs of their respective APT Committees and provide them with a written list of anticipated points of discussion (policy reference). Whatever the recommendation of the University Committee, the case will proceed to the President, who in conjunction with the Provost, makes the final decision (APT policy, lines 918-928). After the President’s decision, the University Review Committee will inform the candidate, Dean, the Chair, and Chairs of their respective APT Committees of the outcome of the campus APT review. The President will also inform the candidate of the final disposition of the case. If the decision is negative, the President will inform the candidate by certified mail (policy references #1) and #2. ).
Back to APT Procedures Manual main page.
 |
|||||||||