Law School Faculty Appointment, Tenure, and Promotion Procedures

     These procedures govern decisions in the Law School on Faculty appointment, tenure, and promotion. They reflect our commitment, as a Faculty, to make these decisions with fairness and professionalism and in a spirit of trust and common purpose. University-wide procedures governing appointment, tenure, and promotion apply as well, except to the extent inconsistent with these procedures.

• Appointment Decisions
• Term and Rank of Tenure-Track Faculty Appointments
• Faculty Support and Evaluation in the Pre-Tenure Period
• Time of Tenure Consideration
• Tenure Evaluation and Standards
• Tenure Committee
• Faculty Vote on Tenure
• Promotions in Rank

     A. The Faculty Appointments Committee is responsible for reviewing applications for Faculty appointments, and inviting to the campus for interviews those candidates it believes should be considered by the Faculty for appointment and for advising the Dean on Visiting and Adjunct appointments.

     B. Appointment to the Faculty in the tenured or tenure track-position of Professor, Associate Professor or Assistant Professor requires two-thirds affirmation vote of the members of the tenured and tenure-track Faculty present at a meeting called to consider appointments. The vote shall be by secret ballot. The chair of the Appointments Committee shall be the teller; he or she shall be assisted by another person present designated by the chair. The teller shall announce the result, but not the vote.

     C. Appointment to a Visiting or Adjunct position does not require a Faculty vote. The Dean shall seek the views of the Faculty with respect to proposed Visiting appointments.

     A. An initial tenure-track Faculty appointment normally shall be made at the rank of Assistant Professor for a term of two years.

     B. Appointment reflects a Faculty judgment that the appointee possesses the qualities that should enable him or her to satisfy the standards for tenure of Section V of these procedures no later than the sixth year of service. Reappointment for a three year term beyond the initial term is the norm; however, if the Dean, with the concurrence of a majority of the tenured faculty, determines that an appointee's performance during any term would preclude a later grant of tenure, he or she shall recommend to the President against reappointment.

     C. At the time of initial appointment, the Dean may contract with the appointee for appointment at a higher rank, for a different term, or both, if approved by a majority vote of the Faculty.

     D. At the time of initial appointment, the Dean may contract for appointment with tenure subject to the approval of the tenured Faculty in accordance with Section VII of these procedures and the standards set forth in subsection V.A. The Dean, upon consultation with the Appointments Committee, shall determine the appropriate scope of the tenure report, set the procedures to be followed in its preparation and distribution to the tenured Faculty, and appoint a Tenure Committee. The Tenure Committee may consist of some or all of the tenured members of the Appointments Committee.

     A. The Tenure standards of Section V of these procedures provide a form of guidance to tenure-track appointees in the pre-tenure period. They also reflect the commitment of the tenured Faculty to the maintenance of high standards in implementing the educational mission of the law school. An important component of that commitment is providing on-going support and evaluation to tenure-track appointees in their progress toward tenure. This effort serves to give fuller expression to our institutional aspirations than do the words of the tenure standards alone. It also provides a basis for sharing, as colleagues, the benefit of our experience in common pursuits. The commitment is best fulfilled when all members of the tenured Faculty are actively involved. We seek in this Section to promote that involvement by providing a mechanism for reasonably distributing the various tasks it entails.

     B. At the beginning of the second semester following the appointment of a Faculty member to a tenure-track position, the Dean, in consultation with the new Faculty member, shall designate two or more members of the tenured Faculty to have particular responsibility for providing support to and evaluation of that Faculty member's development in teaching, scholarship, and community service. With a view toward balancing the value of continuity with that of diversity of perspective, the Dean shall, as he deems appropriate, make changes in the tenured Faculty members designated during a particular Faculty member's pre-tenure period. At the request of the Faculty member, the Dean may appoint substitutes for tenured Faculty members on leave.

     C. The Dean shall maintain a file that reflects the Faculty member's development. Beginning no later than the academic year following the Faculty member's appointment, and as appropriate thereafter, each member of the tenured Faculty designated shall visit the Faculty member's classes, discuss these visits with the Faculty member and submit written comments to the file. The Faculty member shall supply for inclusion in the file and review by the designated members of the tenured Faculty copies of completed research and writing, and if desired by the Faculty member, works in progress, teaching and other material that may serve as the basis for discussion of the Faculty member's goals and progress in teaching, scholarship, and community service. One or more of the designated members of the tenured Faculty shall submit written comments to the file on completed research and writing of the Faculty member.

     D. The file assembled in this process shall be available to the Faculty member and to all members of the tenured Faculty and is intended to facilitate communication among the tenured Faculty concerning the Faculty member's development. Members of the tenured Faculty may review the Faculty member's file and should offer support and evaluation independent of the designated Faculty members.

     E. Annually, the Dean shall call a meeting of the tenured Faculty to review the progress of each tenure-track appointee. The tenured Faculty members who have been designated to provide support and evaluation to a Faculty member shall be available during this meeting to discuss with the other members of the tenured Faculty their views concerning the Faculty member's development. The substance of the discussion at the meeting concerning a Faculty member shall be reported to that Faculty member by the dean.

     A. Except as provided below, a Faculty member shall be considered for tenure during the fifth year of service in a tenure-track position.

     B. The Dean may contract with an appointee at the time of initial appointment for a shorter period of pre-tenure service, if approved by a majority vote of the Faculty.

     C. A Faculty member may ask to be considered for tenure as early as the fourth year or as late as the sixth year. The Dean shall grant or deny the request after consultation with the tenured Faculty. If the Faculty member is to be considered in the sixth year, the Faculty member shall be appointed for an additional one-year term to follow the conclusion of the fifth year.

     A. The tenure decision is based upon an evaluation of teaching, scholarship and community service. The decision to grant tenure is a predictive judgment that a Faculty member will be an effective teacher, a productive scholar, and participating member of the professional community throughout his or her career. The Faculty member's record of teaching, scholarship and service serves as evidence upon which this forward-looking judgment is made.

     B. Teaching Effectiveness

          1. Importance of Attribute and its Components

     The primary mission of the Law School is educating its students. Consequently, it is essential that a tenure candidate demonstrate a capacity and a commitment to be an effective teacher in the classroom and be interested and willing to spend significant amounts of time outside of class working with students. Different individuals are effective teachers for different reasons; it is not possible to define each of the essential components of teaching effectiveness. The following factors, however, shall be considered when we evaluate a candidate's teaching: ability to communicate; preparation for class; breadth and depth of knowledge relevant to the fields of teaching; thoughtful organization of individual class sessions and overall course content; ability to stimulate students; ability to direct student word inside and outside the classroom; ability to devise methods of determining a student's progress and achievement appropriate to the courses taught; and accessibility to students and demonstrated interest and involvement in their welfare.

     We will require evidence of solid achievement in these areas as well as reason to believe the candidate's teaching will develop to and continue at a level at least equivalent to that attained by tenured members of the Faculty.

          2. Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness

     Teaching effectiveness shall be measured by both collegial appraisal and the appraisal of students.

     Our own evaluation of a candidate's teaching effectiveness based on class visitations is of great importance. We have the experience to assess a candidate by comparison with a wide range of teachers, and we are judging persons in a calling in which we are expert. Moreover, we are able to judge the breadth and depth of a teacher's substantive knowledge and his or her development over a period of time with greater competence than students.

     Another important measure of teaching effectiveness are the regular student course critiques. Those student course critiques, and any other relevant written expressions of opinion by students or former students shall be included in the file developed by the Tenure Committee.

     C. Scholarly attainment

          1. Importance of Attribute and its Forms

     Beyond teaching, the educational mission of the Law School includes a responsibility to contribute generally to the understanding and development of the law.

     Consequently, a candidate must demonstrate through completed work the capacity and commitment to participate meaningfully in scholarly activity. Not only does scholarly attainment provide a basis on which to predict that the candidate will share in the fulfillment of this institutional responsibility, but also it affords some assurance that the candidate will continue to function as a challenging and knowledgeable teacher.

     As with teaching effectiveness, there is no precise definition of what constitutes scholarship. We think, however, that a scholar should have a wide and critical command of his or her field of study and that the highest indication of scholarship is an original- contribution to that field. We also believe that, since legal scholars may seek to accomplish a wide range of purposes in their scholarship -- ranging from the highly abstract to the eminently practical -- their work may appear in diverse forms.

     Illustrations of appropriate forms of scholarship include the following: books; articles; monographs; book reviews of significant length and scope; research project reports such as those under the auspices of the American Bar Foundation or under contract research; publications of learned societies such as ALl, ABA, bar associations, the AALS, or the various judicial and administrative conferences; publications resulting from professional service, including the briefs in law reform litigation as might result, for example, through participation with legal aid or similar welfare services, the conduct of arbitrations, court appointments, or acting as a master; publications stemming from governmental appointments; and teaching materials that are substantial and original.

     However diverse the forms in which scholarship is manifested, and however varied the purposes of scholarship, the end product must (a) be a completed writing, (b) have been the result of thoughtful labor and (c) have been disseminated to numerous people who are working in the area.

          2. Evidence of Scholarship

     Not all written work meets the standards of quality for legal scholarship. A scholarly piece, in whatever form or length, should reveal an active and inquiring mind. It should reflect the author's attempt to impose his or her own views or sense of order on the existing materials and to explain and justify those personal positions. Whether it be a new way of perceiving established thought or a proposal for new directions, the scope of a scholarly work should be sufficiently ambitious to justify the substantial commitment of time that the candidate should have invested in the work. Scholarship, in sum, is informed, reflective, analytical, and in some substantial part a personal statement. By way of contrasting example, a book that simply collects the views of others, an article that merely reports the holdings of a number of judicial opinions an analysis of a current legal issue that is content to summarize the contentions already made by others is not sufficient evidence of scholarship.

     There is no bright line that delineates the quantity of written work necessary to constitute sufficient scholarly attainment. There is no requirement that a candidate produce a specified minimum number of printed pages. Ordinarily, at least one piece of substantial scholarship and one other writing that reflects at least a significant scholarly effort, although of lesser scope, will be required in order to meet the standard for scholarship. It is possible that a single scholarly product might be a highly significant contribution to the legal literature and itself satisfy the standard. At the same time, multiple products that do not meet the definition of scholarship would not be sufficient.

     D. Service to the Institution and the Community

     We will also consider a tenure candidate's service to the Law School, the University, and the wider community through means other than teaching and scholarship. The most common examples within the institution are: service on Law School and University committees, service as an advisor to student organizations, assistance to co-curricular activities, and participation in Law School and University sponsored programs and organizations. When we consider activities outside the University, we will only look at activities that draw on one's professional abilities in service to the community and the profession. These may be manifested through activities of a bar association or another professional organization or governmental or community organizations. What is important in measuring such activities in relation to tenure is the quality of service and the depth of involvement. Membership itself or peripheral involvement cannot be a significant positive factor.

     Despite the long-term value and importance of community activities, we emphasize that full-time membership on a Faculty involves a commitment of teaching and scholarship as one's principal activities. We do not intend to discourage wider professional involvement, but we expect that the task of meeting tenure standards, particularly for one not a veteran teacher or an accomplished scholar, will ordinarily require a major devotion of one's time to Law School and University work.

     E. Balancing of Standards

          1. Each of the standards must be satisfied in order for a candidate to be entitled to tenure.

          2. It must be recognized that close judgmental questions may arise as to the satisfaction of a particular standard. In such cases especially strong performance in teaching or scholarship may tip the scale favorably.

     A. In the academic year in which the Faculty member is to be considered for tenure, the Dean shall appoint a committee of three members of the tenured Faculty to serve as a Tenure Committee for the Faculty member. The Committee should include at least one member of the tenured Faculty who was designated to provide support and evaluation to the Faculty member in the pre-tenure period. The Tenure Committee, on a schedule established by the chair in consultation with the candidate, shall assemble a file of evidence concerning the candidate's teaching, scholarship, and service to the institution and community, and prepare and submit to the tenured Faculty a written report evaluating the evidence in light of the tenure standards of Section V. The Tenure Committee shall serve until a candidate is either granted or denied tenure.

     B. The Tenure Committee is responsible for evaluating the evidence, but the Tenure Committee may solicit the views of other tenured Faculty and appropriate and qualified individuals from outside the School of Law, in both cases, including, but not limited to, those identified by the candidate. In evaluating the evidence, the Tenure Committee shall state as clearly and candidly as is possible the reasons it has for making either favorable or unfavorable evaluations in light of the evidence. The Tenure Committee shall specify the evidence or other materials on which it is relying for each conclusion reached.

     C. The completed file shall include the material previously assembled through the support and evaluation process in the pre-tenure period and any other relevant material concerning the Faculty member provided to the Tenure Committee. The file shall be subject to inspection by the candidate and by members of the tenured Faculty.

     D. The Tenure Committee shall provide a copy of the report to the candidate no fewer than 7 days before submitting the report to the tenured Faculty. The meeting to consider tenure shall be held no sooner than 7 days after the report of the Tenure Committee is submitted to the tenured Faculty. The candidate may submit written comments to the tenured Faculty in response to the Tenure Committee's report any time before the meeting called to consider tenure.

     A. The electorate for a tenure decision is all members of the tenured Faculty present at the meeting called to consider tenure.

     B. The decision to recommend a grant of tenure requires a two-thirds affirmative vote of the electorate. Upon presentation of the report of the Tenure Committee, the form of the motion before the Faculty shall be " [candidate] shall be granted tenure."

     C. The vote shall be by secret ballot. The chair of the Tenure Committee shall be the teller; he or she shall be assisted by another person present designated by the chair. The teller shall announce the result but not the vote.

     D. A request to reconsider the vote may be made by any member of the electorate and does not require a second. If reconsideration is requested, the motion will again be discussed and another vote taken. This vote shall be by a show of hands and shall be final. The Dean will announce the result.

     E. If the motion carries, the recommendation of the Faculty shall be to grant tenure; if the motion fails, the recommendation of the Faculty shall be to deny tenure. The Faculty recommendation shall be forwarded to the President along with the recommendation of the Dean. The report of the Tenure Committee and any written comments submitted by the candidate to the Faculty in accordance with subsection D of section VI of these procedures shall also be forwarded to the President, along with a summary prepared by the Dean of significant matters discussed in the meeting to consider tenure that are not contained in the Committee report.

     F. Post-tenure Faculty members may attend the meeting to consider tenure, but shall not be members of the electorate.

     A. Promotion to the rank of Associate Professor shall accompany the grant of tenure.

     B. A tenured Faculty member is eligible to be considered for promotion to the rank of Professor without regard to time in current rank.

     C. The Dean shall assemble and maintain a file of evidence as to each eligible Faculty member's teaching, scholarship and service to the institution and the community. The Dean, in consultation with the Faculty holding the rank of Professor, shall recommend to the President promotion at such time as that evidence shows sufficient further development in those areas to warrant promotion of a Faculty member.

     D. An eligible Faculty member may request that the Dean recommend promotion, and the Dean, in consultation with the Faculty holding the rank of professor, either shall recommend promotion or provide the Faculty member a written statement of reasons for denial of the request.

Effective July 1, 1994

Revised May 2003