Dean

You should already be familiar with the Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Permanent Tenure Policy. This document resides in the university’s Policies, Regulations and Rules (PRR) system. It can be accessed in that system or from the Provost’s web site under Promotion and Tenure. 

This policy describes the procedures at NC State by which decisions are made concerning appointment, reappointment (term for a 1st term Assistant Professor to 2nd term Assistant Professor), promotion, and conferral of permanent tenure. 

The remainder of this guide will not address initial appointments, but only:

• reappointment to Assistant Professor 2nd Term
• promotion to Associate Professor with conferral of tenure
• conferral of tenure to an Associate Professor (hired at this rank without tenure from outside NC State)
• promotion from Associate Professor to Professor

Make sure you have reviewed the list of mandatory cases provided to you by the Provost’s Office. Review the list with your department heads to assure that no cases have been overlooked and all contract end dates are accurate. 

Your Department Heads have the primary responsibility for assisting your faculty members going through the process, particularly developing their dossier. You can help them by making sure the Heads get adequate information and training on the process and you make it clear that you expect them to inform their faculty. The Provost’s website has much of the information, but you need to make sure the practices used in your college and particularly the schedule of deadlines is communicated and understood. Encourage your Heads and faculty to attend university sessions about RPT, which are announced via the website. You are encouraged to provide a college information session about RPT. 

If you determine or are informed by the College RPT Committee that a dossier in incomplete, it must be returned to the Department Head for completion. The dossier must then repeat the review path through which it has already come, i.e. the DVF and Head must act on the completed dossier.

Refresh your understanding of the Statement of Faculty Responsibilities and the standards and procedures documented in your College RPT Rule and all your Department RPT Rules. You must have a process in place that assures an SFR already exists for each faculty member; you will be required to certify this each year.   

When you receive the dossiers, have them checked for completeness. Section 3 of REG 05.20.20 RPT Dossier Format Requirements describes the required sections. If any essential items, such as the Statement of Faculty Responsibilities or summary of peer evaluations of teaching, are missing, the dossier must be sent back, completed and then processed back through each step leading to you.   

Make sure your written recommendation follows the RPT Dossier Format outline, i.e. record the section header number and name followed by the recommendation. It is not to be in memorandum format addressed to anyone.  It must be in paragraph form. Do not include a repetition of the dossier. Your evaluative insight is most important. Provide an assessment that will be a valuable contribution to the decision by the Provost. It will help to review the information on Written Assessments, Recommendations and Responses in RPT. If an early action for an Assistant Professor is sought, give an explanation why. If the faculty member is being considered for promotion to Professor after being at the Associate rank for a long time, include a statement addressing the reason for submission at this time. If your assessment and recommendation differ from the DVF, Head and/or College RPT Committee, you must explain why in your written assessment. You are encouraged to acknowledge in your assessment any additional input or corrections that are provided in a candidate’s optional response to the department level review if you deem it appropriate and relevant to promotion/tenure standards. 

Share your written assessment and the written assessment and tally of votes by the College RPT Committee and Head, and with the Head’s assistance the DVF and the candidate. Let the candidates know they have five business days to submit to the department head an optional written response to the review by College RPT Committee and you. If a candidate response is submitted, you are to share it with the College RPT Committee and the Head, who subsequently shares it with the DVF. Finally, submit the dossier to the Provost by the deadline unless it is a positive reappointment, in which case your decision is final.  

At the university level, the Provost provides coordination of the review. If the University Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee provides a written assessment upon the request of the provost, with the assistance of the dean and department head, the provost shares the assessment with all reviewers and the candidate in a timely fashion to permit an optional candidate response within five business days. Any response by the candidate to a University Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee written assessment is submitted by the candidate to the department head who provides it to the department voting faculty and the dean, who shares it with the College Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee and transmits it to the Provost, who shares it with the University Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee. The Provost adds the assessment and response to the dossier prior to completion of the review.

You may request an opportunity to present your college RPT standards and productivity expectations to the Provost. The Provost will provide opportunities for dialogue between the Provost and dean prior to the Provost’s final decision.

In addition to the items mentioned above, FAQs are designed to help answer your questions. However, these may not answer all of your questions, so please contact Katharine Stewart or Amy Jinnette for any additional information you need.