Post Tenure Review

Policies and Requirements

In 1992, the Board of Regents adopted guidelines requiring review of all tenured faculty at least once every five years (see Board of Regents Policy Document 20-9). "The purpose of the plan is to ensure continuing growth and development in faculty professional skills, encourage faculty to explore new ways to promote academic excellence and to identify areas for improvement and provide solutions for problem areas." Thus, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences requires academic departments to review the work of all tenured faculty members once every five years in accordance with Faculty Document 1001b. The purpose of this review is to help faculty members grow and develop.

The UW-Madison faculty developed criteria and procedures requiring all department executive committees to establish written criteria procedures, within specific guidelines. See FPP Faculty Legislation II-106 or a summary of the requirements. The faculty policy emphasizes that the review should be appropriately linked to the merit process.

The five-year review may be incorporated into the annual merit review process or combined with promotion or other reviews, such as nominations for chaired professorships, major teaching awards, etc. Where reviews are combined, the department executive committee may require supplementary documentation to ensure that the alternate review meets all the criteria required for the post tenure review.

In their criteria and procedures for post-tenure review, departments may decide not to conduct post-tenure reviews for department chairs and faculty members with substantial administrative appointments. However, faculty members should be scheduled into the five-year review cycle after returning to normal faculty responsibilities. If a department decides to conduct reviews of these faculty members during the period of chairmanship or administrative responsibilities, the review should take into account the impact of these other responsibilities on the normal faculty responsibilities.

CALS Post-Tenure Review Policy

The post-tenure review should be based on a current curriculum vita, annual activity reports, teaching evaluations and other evidence of the faculty member's accomplishments and contributions that the department or the faculty member deems appropriate.

The executive committee of each department is responsible for reviewing the faculty members designated to be reviewed in a given year.¹ The work of each designee will be reviewed in detail by at least two members of the committee. These reviewers will draft a brief report describing and evaluating the performance of the designee. The Post Tenure Responsibilities² of CALS faculty worksheet provides a list of responsibilities that may serve as a guideline for the review.

The report will include professional accomplishments and recommendations for growth and development. If deficiencies are noted, the report should include specific recommendations on ways of improving performance. After acceptance of the report by the full committee, the report will be given to the designee for comment. Please note that acceptance does not mean approval; it simply means that the committee accepts the report as finished and complete. The comments of the designee will be considered by the committee.

As identified in section IIIB of faculty document 1001b, for a faculty member with appointments in more than one department, the department chairs of the affected departments shall agree on procedures for conduct of the review.

Submission Requirements

The following should be forwarded to the senior associate dean and the appropriate program assistant of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences:

1. Cover letter, indicating acceptance of the report by the full executive committee
2. Final draft of the report
3. Comments of the designee
4. CV of the designee

Accountability Requirements

1. Written criteria and procedures for each department must be filed with the CALS Dean’s Office.
2. Departments must maintain records of reviews completed, including the names of the reviewers conducting the review.

Confidentiality

The post-tenure review is subject to the same confidentiality as other evaluations or reviews of faculty performance, subject to the Wisconsin Records of Open Law.

Please contact the senior associate dean with questions.

¹ Departments should ensure that all tenured faculty members are reviewed every five years after promotion to associate professor. Faculty members being promoted from associate to full professor may be included in the group being reviewed and the promotion process may be substituted for this review process.

² The nature and relative weighting of responsibilities for individual faculty vary according to disciplinary area, career stage and relative role played in fulfilling the mission of the employing unit, college and university.

CALS 11/15/2012