Tenure
2.27 tenure
The following statement is the policy of Syracuse University with regard to tenure for instructional, research, and administrative personnel. This statement of tenure policy is also intended to include any persons who have served as full-time faculty members regardless of their specific titles.
2.28 tenure: an expression of University values
The granting of tenure to faculty members at Syracuse University supports
several values at the core of our academic enterprise. First, the values of faculty excellence should be demonstrable in the activities and strengths of the tenured faculty. Second, tenure is an integral part of sustaining the University’s commitment to the concepts underlying academic freedom. Third, tenured status establishes the mutual expectations of the continued pursuit of excellence on the part of both the faculty member and the institution.
The importance of tenure for the academic quality of the University means that the granting of the status is neither automatic nor a function of years of service. The earned privileges of tenure simultaneously convey a vested interest in the University, the expectation of continuous service as a faculty member, and the obligation to render continuing service to the University in pursuit of knowledge and impact. The presentation by the Vice Chancellor & Provost to the Board of Trustees of recommendations for tenure should be a culmination of a multi-level review process that embodies these core academic values.
2.29 tenure: processes and limitations
Tenure may be granted only by the Vice Chancellor and Provost, with the concurrence of the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees. Such an appointment may be extended only to members of Syracuse University with faculty rank. Tenure is not attached to appointments to administrative positions nor to appointments as department chairpersons in the University. Appointment to or relinquishment of such positions, however, will not deprive faculty members of tenure in the highest instructional rank they have attained at the University.
Tenure is granted in one of two ways: First, faculty appointed to a full-time tenure-track position without tenure are reviewed for tenure following a probationary period. This review is conducted by the department(s) or appropriate unit(s), and school/college, in accordance with each unit’s governance procedures. Each case is forwarded to the Vice-Chancellor and Provost for a decision, and to the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for concurrence. Candidates must be considered for tenure before the end of the sixth credited year, but may be considered any time before that date. Candidates are considered for tenure only once and tenure cannot be granted through any process other than those described here. Second, faculty may be appointed to the University with tenure through a recommendation for such action from the department(s) or appropriate unit(s), and school/college(s), in accordance with each unit’s governance procedures. Each case is forwarded to the Vice Chancellor and Provost for a decision, and to the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for concurrence.
The formal review process for faculty in the probationary period will begin with the signed and dated irrevocable request on the standard form from the individual to initiate the tenure review. A request must be submitted to the office designated by the respective school and college prior to the solicitation of external evaluations of the candidate's qualifications for tenure. After the formal review process has begun, candidates for tenure may not withdraw from consideration and subsequently reapply for tenure. If an eligible faculty member fails to submit a formal request for a tenure review prior to the college or school deadline for completing the tenure review before the end of the sixth year of the probationary period, the University will consider the faculty member to have waived all claims for consideration for tenure.
Even if a tenure candidate’s school or college accepts a request for tenure review, such acceptance shall not constitute a waiver of the deadline set forth above in this section 2.29 and the consequences specified for failing to meet the deadline.
Whereas the tenure process ends with the recommendation of the Vice Chancellor & Provost to the Board of Trustees, the departments and schools/colleges play a significant role in this process, from initial recruitment and appointment, annual evaluation, reappointments, development of candidate dossiers, conduct of tenure review and associated voting processes. Each school/college that holds tenured appointments has the responsibility to develop and to communicate widely the processes, procedures and criteria for appointments, pre-tenure reviews, promotion, and tenure. The departmental and school/college processes, procedures and guidelines regarding tenure should be clear and transparent, as well as congruent with the University processes, procedures and guidelines set forth herein.
2.30 considerations for tenure
While the activities and accomplishments to be evaluated for tenure will vary between programmatic and disciplinary areas of the University, as well as among individual faculty, the base criteria for tenure are themselves reflective of the academic and intellectual values of the University, as commonly held:
a. The candidate would contribute significantly to the overall quality of the unit’s tenured faculty, as measured by the record of accomplishment at the time of consideration.
b. The candidate has made, and is likely to continue to make, high-quality and valuable contributions in teaching, scholarship, and service to the extent that tenure is in the best interest of Syracuse University.
2.31 areas of expected faculty achievement: teaching, research, and service
As a research university, Syracuse University expects that faculty members will be actively engaged in an intellectual and creative life that enhances the knowledge base and/or otherwise extends the boundaries in their chosen areas of concentration. The University also has a tradition of permitting various allocations of effort across research and teaching. Schools and Colleges are expected to provide guidance to all faculty regarding allocations of effort. In particular, Schools and Colleges must provide guidelines for those individuals whose teaching, research, and service do not sharply divide into distinct categories so that they can present integrated dossiers and accounts of activities.
Teaching:
Syracuse University recognizes success in teaching among its tenured faculty to be of vital importance and values innovation and intellectual pursuit embedded within teaching. Teaching involves the art and skill required for the diffusion of knowledge and guidance toward its effective and independent use. The successful teacher, among other things, instructs in consonance with the School/College mission, has knowledge of subject matter, skillfully communicates and contributes to student learning and development, acts professionally and ethically, and strives continuously to improve. Quality teaching includes providing substantive feedback to students, revising curriculum to reflect developments in the field, and mastering appropriate pedagogical approaches. In addition to the instruction of individual courses, activities under the heading of teaching may include supervising independent study projects; advising; arranging and supervising internships, clinical placements or student research; serving on graduate examination committees and thesis, dissertation, dossier, and portfolio review committees; providing professional development for teaching assistants; involving students in community engagement projects; and instructing non-SU students or community members in a variety of venues.
Research/Scholarship/Creative Accomplishment:
Faculty members belong to scholarly and professional communities and are expected to advance these communities by contributing to knowledge through research or other forms of creative work. The Syracuse University faculty is strong in part because it engages in scholarship that comprises a spectrum of excellence from disciplinary to cross-disciplinary, from theoretical to applied, and from critical to interpretive.
Scholarship means in-depth study and learning and inquiry and experimentation designed to make contributions to knowledge in specific fields or relevant disciplines. Scholarship, as measured by peer recognition of its originality, impact on, and importance to the development of the field(s) or relevant disciplines, is demonstrated most typically by refereed publications—in journals, books of high quality, or other influential venues. It can also be demonstrated by high quality publications in other non-refereed but influential journals. Scholarship and research accomplishments are also demonstrated by the design and execution of basic or applied research in the laboratory or in the field; through the presentation of papers at organized scholarly meetings, usually at the national or international level; through the attraction of external support or competitive fellowships and awards appropriate to the faculty member's field(s) of study or relevant disciplines; through such activities as editing, translation, the acquisition of significant patents, the compilation of information, and the development of materials that make information more accessible to researchers, other scholars, practitioners, and the public; and lecturing in professional and other public forums.
The appointment of a faculty member in the creative or performing arts may permit the primary assessment of efforts to be on scholarship, on artistic accomplishment, or on a balance between the two that is appropriate to the artist/scholar's appointment. For faculty members with such appointments, artistic accomplishment is most often demonstrated by dissemination of the artist's work through performance, publication or exhibition in professionally recognized settings. The artist's work will have an intrinsic value equal to scholarship and will be subject to equally rigorous evaluation.
Syracuse University is committed to longstanding traditions of scholarship as well as evolving perspectives on scholarship. Syracuse University recognizes that the role of academia is not static and that methodologies, topics of interest, and boundaries within and between disciplines change over time. The University will continue to support scholars in all of these traditions, including faculty who choose to participate in publicly engaged scholarship. Publicly engaged scholarship may involve partnerships of University knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, creative activity, and public knowledge; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address and help solve critical social problems; and contribute to the public good.
One can contribute to these goals in many ways —individually through each of teaching, service and scholarship or in an integrated form—all highly valued by Syracuse University-.Such activity counts as scholarship, however, only when it makes a contribution to knowledge in specific field(s) or relevant disciplines. Such scholarship is to be evaluated with the same rigor and standards as all scholarship.
All scholarship will meet common expectations in terms of (1) ways of doing the work (e.g., formulating problems, choosing topics of inquiry, framing questions, using systematic processes or methods, setting goals, making and carrying out plans, sustaining a scholarly agenda, observing ethical standards; (2) means of legitimating the work (e.g., providing theoretical foundations, making reasoned arguments, documenting the work, representing the work in various media, disseminating it to appropriate audiences and users, assessing outcomes or projects through review by appropriate evaluators); (3) connections to prior/current scholarship and to an intellectual community or communities (e.g., drawing on other scholars’ work, contributing to current work, building on a scholar’s previous work, placing work in an intellectual tradition); (4) qualities of the work (e.g., rigor, objectivity, caution, currency, originality, generativity, independence of thought, critical stance, commitment); and (5) significance (e.g., audiences addressed, importance of goals, relevance beyond immediate project, effect on field, contribution to the public good).
Service:
Syracuse University asserts the importance of faculty service for the vitality of its academic community, for the professions it represents, and for society at large. Significant accomplishment in the area of service alone is not sufficient for the attainment of tenure. However, significant accomplishment in service, when in conjunction with or integrated with high quality teaching or research, strengthens the candidate’s dossier. Service includes membership or leadership on committees at program, department, School/College, or University levels as appropriate to the faculty member’s rank, as well as administrative functions or other leadership roles. In addition to formal assignments of duties, faculty individually can prove valuable in efforts such as recruiting and mentoring students, faculty, and staff. Service also includes contributions to professional societies, governmental and academic institutions, and the community at large when these contributions reflect faculty members’ professional expertise or standing. The expectation regarding the quantity of service activities for faculty in the probationary period may vary by unit, according to its size and norms. All service activities should be of high quality.
Approved by the University Senate March 2009
2.32 setting expectations and assessing progress
2.33 principles and general guidelines for tenure decisions (Vice Chancellor and Provost's Guidelines)
The importance of tenure decisions to the quality of the University, and the impact of such decisions on the lives of tenure candidates, demand that the preparation of a tenure dossier be a matter of the highest priority for the individual and the appropriate academic unit (most often the department).The dossier makes the case for the candidate’s accomplishments—and ultimately for his or her continuing appointment—and thus the academic unit has an ethical responsibility to conduct as thorough and as balanced a review as possible.
Because the dossier should contain extensive evaluative documentation as well as the presentation of materials, the candidate is not responsible for the assembly of the dossier in its final form or its transmission to the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Provost, although it is expected that the candidate will work closely with the academic unit to provide high-quality materials.
The process for selecting the membership of department and School/College tenure and promotion committees should be set out clearly in the department/School/College bylaws. Those bylaws should respect three principles:
a. The deliberative bodies should be independent across levels (i.e., no individual should actively participate or vote in two levels of the process, such as at both the department and School/College level, for any single individual).
b. Committees for tenure and promotion should exclude individuals with potential conflicts of interest. In these committees, potential conflicts of interest occur when individuals who may directly or indirectly derive a personal benefit are in a position to influence a decision (e.g., tenure of a spouse or partner). Individuals may also recuse themselves from service in cases in which participation or voting might pose a substantial conflict with the performance of their primary duties in the University.
c. The process of evaluation, deliberation, and voting leading to academic unit recommendations regarding tenure is the responsibility of tenured members of the faculty. At the departmental level, the voting body should be comprised only of tenured members. In no voting body should untenured members constitute a substantial portion of those eligible to cast ballots. All Schools and Colleges should provide a description and justification of unit practices regarding voting to the Vice Chancellor and Provost before May 15 prior to any academic year in which a candidate for tenure is expected to be presented.
It is the responsibility of the appropriate unit head to fulfill all established professional responsibilities appropriate to the position for all tenure candidates, including helping the candidate to make the strongest possible case for tenure, given accomplishments to-date, talent, and promise. It is the candidate, however, who bears responsibility for providing information about his/her academic accomplishments using the Form A document, which includes two parts: (1) Outline of Professional Experience and (2) Candidate’s Professional Statement.
The appropriate unit head (department/School/College) is responsible for providing a detailed executive summary of the evaluative processes and statements made by individuals and committees. The unit head should then include his or her own evaluative comments, addressing and clarifying any conflicts in materials presented; adding information that would be helpful in subsequent evaluative processes; and addressing any negative aspects of the candidate’s record or the external reviews—explaining any mitigating factors that should be considered
The use of external evaluators and critics is an essential feature of a thorough tenure review process. Reviewers should be chosen from the relevant publics and audiences for the candidate’s achievements. Reviewers should be of sufficient rank, status, and accomplishment to make the judgments asked of them. Those qualities should be assessed by such factors as institutional affiliation, academic rank, prestige in a non-academic enterprise, or membership and knowledgeable participation in a relevant community of experts. Outside reviewers will be selected as appropriate to, and in accordance with, the conventions of the candidate’s discipline(s) and School/College(s). For example, in the professional schools it is not unusual for some of the outside evaluators to be non-academic professionals and some to be senior-rank academics in comparable professional schools. In the liberal arts and sciences it is more typical that all or most of the outside reviewers be senior-rank academics. Generally, reviewers’ programs or departments should be of at least comparable quality to the candidate’s program/department. The reasons for selecting all reviewers should be explained in the dossier, and any divergence from the conventions of the academic discipline should be explained.
The candidate should be given the opportunity to nominate external reviewers, and that list should include sufficient names to allow choice for the committee and anonymity for the final roster of reviewers. The committee should nominate its own separate list of potential reviewers, and the final roster of outside evaluators should feature a majority of reviewers from the committee’s list. In order to minimize conflicts of interest, letters from close colleagues/collaborators, former professors or graduate advisors, or other similar individuals are discouraged. If such individuals are included in the roster of reviewers, their presence and impartiality must be explained in the dossier.
At each level in the tenure process, all information generated by the appropriate evaluative bodies, including any formal votes, should be transmitted to subsequent evaluators.
2.34 tenure clock flexibility
The term "credited year" shall mean a year of service at Syracuse University identified in the faculty member's appointment letter as a full-time tenure-track appointment. Under certain circumstances, the tenure clock can be stopped when the request is made by the faculty member through the department and/or school/college and approved by the Office of the Provost. Events for which the clock may normally be stopped, after the submission of documentation, include life events that would, in most circumstances, have generated a request for parental, family medical, military or disability leave, disrupting one or more semesters of work during the probationary period. Other situations that may warrant consideration of stopping the tenure clock include fulfillment of extraordinary institutional service, such as teaching in SUAbroad or serving in an administrative position during the probationary period, where these circumstances interrupt or substantially slow progress toward tenure. The year(s) approved by the Provost's Office through this process will not count as credited years toward tenure when reported to the school/college promotion and tenure committee.
Approved by the Senate, April 2008
2.35 notice of tenure decision
Written notice of the tenure decision, whether positive or negative, will be given to faculty members at least one year prior to the expiration of the seven-year probationary period. If the decision is negative, the written notice will indicate that the appointment for the remainder of the probationary period becomes terminal. A negative tenure decision will be accompanied by a terminal one-year appointment. If the decision is affirmative, tenure formally begins on the date the Board of Trustees confers tenure.
It is the right of every faculty member when informed by the University of a denial of tenure, to appeal this decision on the basis of a procedural violation before the Senate Committee on Appointments and Promotions or on the basis of denial of academic freedom or violation of professional ethics before the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Professional Ethics. Also, Syracuse University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer and, in accordance with law, maintains a grievance procedure whereby any employee believing himself or herself to have been subject to discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, status as a disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era is encouraged to seek a resolution through informal or formal means. (See Affirmative Action Grievance Procedures, Section 3.23.)
2.36 effect of promotion on tenure status
Faculty members who are promoted prior to the completion of their seventh year of academic service do not by virtue of the promotion thereby receive tenure.
2.37 temporary appointments
Individuals may hold full-time non-tenure track faculty appointments no more than six years. Should their appointment be converted to a tenure track appointment, the years in the full-time non-tenure track position are not credited toward the completion of the probationary period. Tenure track and non-tenure track appointments are identified as such in the appointment letter. Individuals who are initially appointed to a tenure track position at Syracuse University are not eligible subsequently to receive full-time non-tenure track faculty appointments.
2.38 annual written contract
Faculty members without tenure shall receive an annual written contract unless they have entered into a contractual agreement with the University which specifies a period longer than one year. The institution will normally notify faculty members of the terms and conditions of their renewals prior to commencement, but in no case shall such information be given later than May 15.
2.39 nonrenewal of probationary appointment
Regardless of the stated term or other provisions of any appointments, written notice that probationary appointments are not to be renewed will be given to faculty members in advance of the expiration of their appointment, as follows:
- not later than March 1 of the first academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year; or, if a one-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least three months in advance of its termination;
- not later than December 15 of the second academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year; or, if an initial two-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least six months in advance of its termination;
- at least 12 months before the expiration of an appointment after two or more years of service at the institution.
2.40 annual report on non-tenured faculty members
Deans shall submit to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs an annual report and recommendation on all regular faculty members not holding tenure.
2.41 no other means of acquiring tenure
No person has tenure except as provided herein; that is, by direct grant in writing from the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs with the concurrence of the Board of Trustees. No person is appointed with tenure unless it is expressly stated in the letter of appointment or other official writing to that effect.
2.42 limitations of tenure
Tenure is not synonymous with a life appointment. Serious disregard of duties, incompetence, or moral turpitude on the part of the individual, or bona fide financial exigency on the part of the institution constitutes grounds for separation. No removal shall take place without adequate warning and without compliance in full faith with the procedures described herein, which are based upon the principles and practices set forth in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, formulated by the Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors.
Approved by the Senate, November 2005
The Faculty Manual; Edition 18; January 1995 - Revisions made February 2006
The Faculty Manual is an official bulletin of Syracuse University and is published by Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244.
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