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- Tenure Criteria
Tenure Criteria
April 2, 1993
IUK PROMOTION AND TENURE CRITERIA
Amended 10/22/01PURPOSE
The purpose of this document is to clarify the standards for scholarship, teaching and service that will be used to evaluate whether candidates meet the criteria for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at IUK. Candidates for promotion from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer will be evaluated using the same criteria for teaching and service as those for promotion to Associate Professor. Since a Lecturer's primary responsibility is teaching, teaching should be the area of excellence. Nothing in this document should be interpreted as contradicting the standards of the University as contained in the IU Academic Handbook. (See IU Academic Handbook for statement on promotion to Professor and references to Librarian ranks and Clinical ranks)
PHILOSOPHY
Academic promotion and tenure decisions should assure the campus community of sound teaching and learning opportunities by providing the most competent professionals. The promotion and tenure process should provide a developmental period in which new faculty members receive direct and systematic professional feedback for the purpose of improving their performance.
THE RELATION BETWEEN SCHOLARSHIP AND TEACHING
Scholarship and teaching are parts of the same general activity -- the advancement of knowledge. Improvements or advancements in one should lead to improvements in the other. Departments should therefore encourage faculty to engage in broad, deep programs of scholarly activity in order to enhance the quality of teaching. Departments should also recognize faculty teaching activities which promote scholarship. As models for their own learning, students need to have teachers who are in effect lifelong students.
Departments will appropriately have different expectations about the kinds of scholarship and teaching activities which best serve their distinctive missions. Scholarship and teaching can take many forms. Assessment of scholarship and teaching should therefore be sufficiently flexible to account for variations in the ways different faculty combine these activities. Assessment should also acknowledge the value of changes in emphasis and interests over the career of an individual faculty member.
DEFINING SCHOLARSHIP
Scholarship is an important and distinguishing feature of a faculty member's responsibility. Broadly conceived, scholarship entails systematic inquiry into a subject, attainment of a level of expertise, and communication of that expertise to others. Scholarship does not necessarily mean "new" in the same sense as a scientific discovery or technological breakthrough. Knowledge can be advanced through the synthesis or integration of existing knowledge or by more effective explanation and dissemination of concepts, interpretations, and information which originated with other scholars. The advancement of knowledge is achieved when it is shared with others.
EVALUATION OF SCHOLARSHIP
In evaluating scholarship, many kinds of activities and products should be given credit. Suitable measures of excellence should be developed, and credit should be given for non-traditional as well as traditional forms of scholarship. For some departments and faculty members, the ideal may be the publishing of a book or a refereed article. Authorship of textbooks and the development of course materials for distribution should be thought of as making public the result of one's scholarship. Developing innovative courses or new instructional programs and disseminating information about them in appropriate scholarly forums should also be recognized as scholarly work.
DEFINING EFFECTIVE TEACHING
Effective teaching includes imaginative, conscientious course design, and ongoing efforts to maintain and develop subject-area expertise. It requires respect for students which includes meeting professional obligations conscientiously (holding regular office hours, returning papers promptly, marking them carefully, etc.) as well as establishing a classroom environment in which students are valued.
Students learn by interpreting, synthesizing, and evaluating what they hear and read. Teachers should therefore strive for interactions with students that encourage these activities. They should respond to student’s ideas frequently, thoughtfully, and extensively both inside and outside the classroom. Effective teachers encourage student conferences, small group meetings, and informal conversations about students' ideas. Part of teaching is collaboration with counselors, tutors, colleagues, and administrators in programs to assist student learning both in and out of class.
EVALUATION OF TEACHING
Effective teaching evaluation should include multiple measures, not a single instrument or scale of success. Departments should develop programs of evaluation which involve a variety of measures which assess different strengths and weaknesses. In particular, faculty members should assemble portfolios to represent their work as teachers. In addition to the traditional student evaluations, portfolios should include records of systematic peer visits to classrooms, syllabi, course development plans, representative student work, and a reflective analysis of their teaching development.
DEFINING AND EVALUATING SERVICE.
Service is based upon a faculty member's professional skills and expertise as they benefit the university, professional organizations, or the community. From year to year a faculty member's service duties will vary in terms of the extent of involvement and the constituencies which are served. It is expected that the levels of faculty participation in such functions will vary directly with seniority. Junior faculty should have less responsibility in the service area than senior faculty for whom more responsibility is generally expected. Among senior faculty members, there may be variations in responsibilities so that service duties do not become consistently burdensome for any specific individual.
CRITERIA
TEACHING
A faculty member's teaching is SATISFACTORY when it can be demonstrated that taking into account the nature of the courses and their role in the mission of the university, the instruction is effective. A faculty member's teaching is EXCELLENT when it can be demonstrated that it is unusually effective or distinguished. The evidence to document excellent teaching must be based on a continuing record of effective instruction, and it must also demonstrate how the teaching is unusually effective or distinguished. Evidence of effective instruction must include items from each of the following categories:
Self Review
* A self-evaluation statement that articulates the connection between an instructor's goals and the means to achieve those goals and that describe the degree of achievement of those goals.
* Course materials (syllabi, assignments, tests, bibliographies, etc.) which reflect the current knowledge of the discipline and sound pedagogy.
* Active participation in workshops, seminars, or programs about relevant
instructional issues.
* Responses to feedback from teaching evaluations and from performance
reviews.
* Innovations in teaching and learning concepts, applications, etc.
* Written materials, workbooks, manuals, and other documents prepared by the instructor that enhance teaching in one's field.
* Activity in teaching-focused professional organizations.
* Results of procedures designed to measure student learning.
Student Review
* Evaluations by students via formal instruments and including accompanying
comments.
* Written testimony from former students.
* Achievements of past students directly related to the faculty member's influence as a teacher.
Peer Review
* Recognition by peers for teaching achievements.
* Local, regional or national teaching awards.
* Presentations and papers related to teaching in one's field.
* Written testimony by colleagues, based on personal observations. Non-tenured faculty should plan to be observed at least once each semester by colleagues of their choice.
Significant evidence from these categories is required to document proof of effective instruction. A faculty member who does not provide evidence cannot establish effective instruction. A faculty member can submit evidence of achievement other than specified here, but the faculty member must demonstrate how the evidence shows effectiveness or distinction.
SCHOLARSHIP
In order to be judged SATISFACTORY for the purposes of tenure and promotion to Associate professor, a faculty member must document a continuing program of discipline relevant scholarly activity which includes peer-reviewed publications or peer-reviewed creative efforts of superior quality or a single work of major significance. To be judged EXCELLENT for promotion and tenure, faculty members must meet the criteria for satisfactory and have several publications in refereed journals and other evidence which has been evaluated by peers in their disciplines for indication of superior quality. (See also the Indiana University Academic Handbook on research and creative activities.)
Effective scholarship may take the form of basic or applied research, creative work, or instructional development. Evidence for effective scholarship may include the following:
* Publication in refereed journals.
* Research monographs, scholarly books, and chapters in scholarly books.
* Proceedings from scholarly meetings.
* Papers presented at scholarly meetings.
* Publicly available research working papers and papers presented at faculty research seminars.
* Reviewing grant-proposals or manuscripts for a publisher.
* Publication in professional journals and public/trade journals.
* Papers presented at faculty workshops.
* Textbooks.
* Publication in pedagogical journals.
* Written case studies with instructional materials.
* Computer software.
* Publicly available materials describing the design and implementation of new courses.
* Creative efforts such as art work in juried shows, theatre productions reviewed by peers, published poems, or short stories.
Significant evidence from this list is required to document proof of an effective and continuing program of scholarship. A faculty member can submit evidence of achievement other than specified here, but the faculty member must demonstrate how the evidence shows a continuing program of scholarship of quality.
SERVICE
A faculty member's service is SATISFACTORY when it can be demonstrated that the faculty member has participated actively in departmental, divisional, campus, university, community, or professional life. A faculty member may claim that his/her service exceeds the definition of satisfactory and should be considered EXCELLENT if the faculty member provides evidence of leadership or participation with distinction.
Evidence of effective service to the University, the community, or professional organizations may include the following:
* Advising students.
* Mentoring colleagues.
* Serving as teaching observers.
* Initiating/coordinating campus-based functions of interest and importance to students, faculty, or members of the community.
* Serving on or acting in leadership capacities in committees and task forces.
* Holding office in professional organizations.
* Giving speeches, programs and presentations to professional and community organizations.
* Conducting continuing education activities, workshops, seminars, or surveys and studies for organizations.
Evidence of leadership or participation with distinction may include the following
* An award or recognition from a peer professional group.
* Initiating or effecting substantial change in curriculum, policy, procedures, or organization of the unit, campus, or university.
* Extensive, coordinated, fruitful activity in the service categories mentioned above.
A faculty member may submit other evidence of achievement, but the faculty member must demonstrate how the evidence shows active participation, leadership, or distinction.
STOPPING THE TENURE CLOCK
Approved by the Indiana University Kokomo Faculty Senate November 20, 2006
Under unusual circumstances, an untenured probationary faculty member or librarian may request in writing an extension of the time preceding his or her tenure review. This request must be made by the penultimate (next to the last) year toward tenure. Such an extension is ordinarily not to exceed one calendar year. Either a professuional or a personal emergency (e.g., a substantial change in one's health or work environment or in one's public service or care-giving responsibilities) may be an appropriate reason for requestiing such an extension. Any probationary period extension must be approved in writing by one's department chair (if applicable), one's academic dean, and by the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and is to be recorded as an addendum to the faculty member's or librarian's Notice of Terms of Initial Appointment. This policy is separate from policies regarding leaves of absence without pay or with partial pay.
