New criteria for promotion and tenure will take effect with the fiscal year 2009-2010. The changes are detailed in Provost’s Communication No. 9, which is posted on Provost Linda Katehi’s Web site and recently was revised by the Promotion and Tenure Reform Implementation Committee after an extensive cross-campus review process.
The committee met with unit executive officers from all colleges, the Council of Deans, the Urbana-Champaign Senate, the Faculty Advisory Committee, the Teaching Advancement Board and various other groups around campus to gather recommendations and feedback.
“The whole objective was to make sure that the promotion and tenure process for our faculty was as transparent as possible and that the metrics used for the evaluation of the contributions of our faculty were responsive to the emerging interdisciplinary and translational nature of scholarly activities on campus,” said Andreas Cangellaris, interim head of electrical and computer engineering and chair of the Promotion and Tenure Reform Implementation Committee.
The bulk of the changes affected three of the provost’s Communications – Communication 9, Promotion and Tenure; Communication 10, Guidelines and Procedures for Notice of Non-reappointment for Non-tenured Faculty Members, which addresses the appeals process; and Communication 23, Appointment and Review of Faculty Members with Budgeted Joint Appointments.
A key change to Communication 9 is the expanded interpretation of the word “research” to encompass creative artistry and research that is interdisciplinary and/or translational.
Guidelines also were inserted for solicitation of internal letters to evaluate a candidate’s interdisciplinary or translational research activities.
Evaluators are asked not only to assess the quality of the scholarly activity itself, but also to address its consequences and broader impact, Cangellaris said.
“Public engagement is an important component of our university’s mission. Therefore, public engagement inspired scholarly activity needs to be properly documented and evaluated for promotion and tenure,” Cangellaris said. “So we introduced a new section in Communication 9 to make sure that when public engagement is the primary criterion for promotion, the documentation of evidence of excellence in pertinent activities and its evaluation are conducted with the same rigor as those used for review of research.”
Another significant change in Communication 9 is the identification of patents as an important outcome of creative work.
As for Communication 10, the changes involved extensive revision of the language aimed at making the process clear, transparent and uniform across campus.
The changes in Communication 23 were motivated by the desire to establish meaningful guidelines for the hiring and mentorship of faculty members interested in interdisciplinary research that crosses departmental and even college boundaries.
“We tried to have the language address all the issues that may come up in managing a joint appointment of a faculty member doing interdisciplinary research,” Cangellaris said. “We wanted to convey to faculty members who are considering coming here, as well as to our peers, Illinois’ long-standing tradition of nurturing interdisciplinary scholarship, and our commitment to providing the administrative infrastructure necessary for attracting human talent that thrives on creating new knowledge and opportunities through the fusion of ideas and knowledge from different areas and disciplines.
“As these changes take effect and are tried out, there are things that will come up that will need rethinking and refining. Change is good, and it is my experience with the members of the committee and with the rest of the campus that we are comfortable with change that is informed by the commitment to put forward the best policies and the best culture, in order to promote, foster, support and reward scholarly activities of all the types that are needed for our university to be successful in its mission.”
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