Promotion and Tenure Guidelines

The SUNY Board of Trustees adopted emergency rulemaking to allow an extension of a portion of the April 20, 2020 SUNY-UUP Memorandum of Understanding, "Possible Adjustments to Tenure Clock Timelines and Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Review Materials," through June 30, 2021. The MOU extension recognizes the impact of Covid-19 on research, scholarship, and university service.

Read the MOU

The MOU grants an automatic tenure clock stop of one year without change in title or full-time equivalent for tenure-track faculty. In the extension, there was not a further expansion of the system-wide option to exclude student or peer evaluations in candidate files for this academic year. Faculty who wish to opt out of the extension may request to do so.

Eligibility

Faculty on the tenure track between May 6, 2020, and June 30, 2021, who have not yet achieved tenure and who were not under review during that time will receive an automatic one-year extension of their clock. Faculty who have previously received the May 2020 automatic extension are not eligible.

Those who wish to remain on their current schedule may request to opt out of the automatic tenure clock stop. Employees who have already been provided with a notice of non-renewal are not eligible to submit an opt-out request.

Procedure

No action is required for those who wish to accept the extension.

East Campus faculty who would like to opt out of the extension must submit a written request to their department chair, with a copy to the Dean's Office. The Dean's Office will review requests and notify the faculty member and chair in writing.

West campus faculty who would like to opt out of the extension must submit a written request to their department chair, with a copy to the Provost's Office. The Provost's Office will review requests and notify the employee and chair in writing.

The extraordinatry circumstances caused by the public health emergency will be taken into account when evaluating tenure files in the Provost's Office. Though cases are considered independently by departments and colleges/schools, we urge these bodies to similarly account for these circumstances when evaluating personnel cases. Additional guidance is below.

1. We recognize that the transition to remote instruction required faculty to rapidly learn and implement new teaching technologies and innovate in their instruction in multiple ways. This represents a substantial development of curricular materials by faculty. Faculty are encouraged to note these educational innovations and development of new materials in the teaching section of their files.
2. Faculty may list relevant research and creative activities that were planned for spring 2020 to spring 2021 (e.g., papers and presentations that were accepted to conferences, seminar invitations, etc.) in the appropriate sections of their file, and include a footnotes or parenthetical that the activity was cancelled due to Covid. Faculty may also include a general statement where appropriate that, for example, activities were impacted during spring/summer/fall 2020 due to Covid and describe the impact to their research and scholarship.

The impacts listed here are not intended to be comprehensive, and we recognize there have been differential impacts on academic disciplines and varying personal situations. Faculty may wish to include a separate section of their biofile with a more detailed and comprehensive list of the impact of the pandemic on their scholarship, teaching, and service activities.

A one-page letter is typical.

Usually, letters begin with a brief statement of who you are and how you know the professor (for how long and in what capacity), and a clear statement of support for the professor (e.g., I am pleased to strongly recommend the Professor for promotion to the position of [position title]).

Brief Guidance

In your letter, you can discuss:

• How do you rate their overall performance as a teacher?
• How effectively do they present their course material?
• Do they require a high standard of excellence from their students?
• How available have they been for questions and extra help?
• How fair is their grading?
• How effectively do they supervise research and/or projects?
• If applicable, how effective are they as an adviser or mentor?

End with a paragraph that includes a summary of your review and that reiterates your recommendation. In other words, briefly restate 1-3 key points, experiences, or interactions with the professor and how they demonstrate why it is important to keep them on campus.

Guidance in Greater Depth

If you can describe some particularly memorable examples about the Professor's teaching, advising, and/or mentoring, they will give your letters more substance and support your opinions. Examples do not need to be elaborate.

This list offers examples that, if relevant to your experience with the professor, you may want to consider. You need only pick a few.

• If you worked with the professor on research or creative projects, how did they encourage you to explore different and challenging research projects or directions? Describe that experience and what you learned from your involvement.
• Explain how the professor's teaching activities and/or course content helped you immerse yourself in the subject and/or develop your knowledge, comprehension, conceptual understanding and/or new skills.
• Explain how the professor provided opportunities to practice important skills and concepts through meaningful assignments (e.g., that connect to real-world applications, prior knowledge, and/or future course applications), and welcomed and encouraged students' feedback and incorporated that feedback to improve the learning environment.
• In what ways did the professor adequately prepare you for exams (and other assessments)? For example, did their classroom instruction align with exam content; did their answers to questions help you better understand the content; did their feedback help you improve?
• What has the professor done to enhance your sense of belonging and create an inclusive, respectful environment in and outside of the classroom (e.g., team projects, advising, etc.)? How did they communicate that they believed you could succeed?
• How has the professor made an impact on who you are as a student, your understanding of hwat you want to do after graduation, and your future career path?
• Highlight unique activities that positively impacted students (e.g., guest lectures, planning and attending research conferences, etc.).