Tenure Process

Workflow Process

Tenure dossiers are collected and processed electronically through Workflow, within the Faculty Activity Reporting system.

Workflow schedule for Tenure & Promotion

Submission Deadlines

Submit tenure for review:

To the Chair's Office by September 10
To the Dean's Office by October 10
To the Provost's Office by November 14

Find tenure information in the Faculty Handbook

Evaluation Criteria

The principal criteria, listed in the Faculty Handbook, to be applied in the evaluation of a candidate for tenure are as follows:

Teaching competence, as witnessed by student evaluations (B3.b2), colleague evaluations and letters of support from students, colleagues and other persons who are sufficiently knowledgeable to make a professional judgment
The predicted ability of the candidate to remain successful as a teacher and scholar or artist in the years ahead based on previous performance
Effectiveness in serving students outside the classroom
Demonstrated leadership abilities in the department and on the campus
Contribution and commitment to the mission, goals and objective of the college

The third-year review by the dean and the provost's letter to the faculty member in response to that review is also part of the evaluation.

In addition, the evaluators must consider the impact of the tenure decisions on the viability and flexibility of the department's program in the years ahead.

Responsibilities of the Candidate

Provide the department chair with:

A list of up to twelve students qualified to assess your performance as a teacher over the past five years
The names of campus colleagues who have an adequate basis for evaluating your performance and your qualifications for tenure (e.g., the person might have team-taught a course with you or may have chaired or served on a committee with you)
The names of outside references who can judge your professional competence. These persons should be in the same or a related field or scholarship as you. Indicate the nature of your personal and/or professional relationship with the outside reference. Your department chair and dean will determine references to contact, and letters of request will be sent out by the department chair.
Syllabi of the courses you teach
Course evaluation reports (formerly "SIRs") from previous three semsters
A five-year plan for teaching, research, publication, artistic performance or other professional development
A statement describing your contributions and commitment to each element of the College's mission statement
A current curriculum vitae (sample)
Optional: other artifacts such as copies of articles, reviews and books or exhibition catalogs or programs of concerts and other performances to illustrate creative activity; avoid personal notes and other forms of "fan mail"

Do not discuss your tenure candidacy with students so as not to diminish the integrity of the process.

Responsibilities of the Department Chair

Solicit letters from tenured members of the department (including yourself in your capacity as a departmental colleague), other members of the college faculty, and external referees; solicit letters from 12 students randomly selected from class lists, and solicit letters from 12 students selected by the candidate.

Guidelines for letters of recommendation and support for tenure and promotion dossiers

Note: These letters must be non-directive (sample letters).

Please give special attention to the note appended to the sample letter to external references (#IV). Send one follow-up letter to anyone who has not replied to the first request by your deadline. Do not telephone or contact in any other way; if they do not respond to the second letter, allow them the right to remain silent on the subject.

Arrange a meeting with the dean of the division and the tenured members of the department to discuss the candidate's qualifications for tenure.

Organize all materials according to the sequence outlined below and submit to the Dean’s Office.

Review a draft of the dean’s letter before it is finalized. If the chair does not concur with the dean’s recommendation and the disagreement cannot be resolved through discussion, he/she may write a rebuttal letter to the Status Committee to be included in the notebook.

Guidelines for letters of recommendation and support for tenure and promotion dossiers

EXTERNAL LETTERS

What should the relationship be between the external letter writers and the applicant?
This question allows for some gray area. Letter writers need to be objective, so letters from professional colleagues with close personal relationships with the applicant are discouraged. Specifically, letter writers should not be dissertation advisers, post-doc advisers, co-authors (close personal colleagues), co-PIs, personal friends or family.

Should my letter writer disclose the nature of our relationship?
Letter writers must disclose their relationship (including if there isn’t one) in the letter.

Who will be selected to write these external letters and by whom?
Deans will work with the chair, department (or committee) and applicant to come up with a short list with attention paid to the quality of the school at which the letter writer works, the professional stature of the letter writer and the expertise of the letter writer that qualifies him or her to write for the applicant, etc.

What should the external letters address?
These letters are to provide discipline-specific insights. The letter writer is expected to assess the quality (not quantity) and significance of the applicant’s scholarly or artistic work. The letter writer should attend to the following aspects:

Does the work break new ground?
Is the work responsive to the current state of the discipline?
Does the work either confirm or disconfirm other work in the area (sciences)?
If the author has several case studies, are there other works that are more analytical in nature?

INTERNAL/LOCAL LETTERS (WITHIN HOPE COLLEGE OR HOLLAND)

What should the relationship be between the internal/local letter writers and the applicant?
There are no relational restrictions other than typical conflicts of interest.

What should the internal letters address?
These letters are to provide information regarding the nature and quality of the engagement with the college and local community, especially as it is related to service. The letters should address whether the applicant comes prepared to meetings, participates regularly, can give and take criticism appropriately, displays Hope’s Virtues of Public Discourse and willingly does his or her portion of the work.

Responsibilities of the Dean

Write a thorough statement of evaluation on the candidate's performance, addressing each of the following categories:

Teaching effectiveness and creativity: Include an evaluation of factors such as planning course objectives and goals; effectiveness in communication, counseling, and motivation of students; effectiveness in evaluating student progress; and ability to related course work to overall curricular goals of the department and college (provide supporting evidence as available)
Advising: Include the overall scope of the candidate’s advising responsibilities and an assessment of their advising quality, knowledge of the curriculum, availability, etc.
Scholarly or artistic achievement, and professional activities
Service to the department, College, and community
Contributions and commitment to each element of the college’s mission statement
The impact of the tenure decision on the viability and flexibility of the department's program in the years ahead

Note: You may quote from student/faculty/colleague letters, but do not include names when referencing these quotes – this violates confidentiality policies.

Submit a draft of your statement to the department chair in a timely manner. If the chair does not concur with the dean’s recommendation and the disagreement cannot be resolved through discussion, he or she may write a rebuttal letter to the Status Committee to be included in the dossier.

After the tenure decision, send a brief announcement to all writers of letters of reference, informing them of the decision and thanking them for their assistance in the process.

Organization of the Tenure Notebook (in the following order please)

Dean’s recommendation
Department chair’s rebuttal letter, if any (skip this section if chair agrees with dean)
The letters of support (provide a list of names of the individuals to whom letters were sent and place samples of the form letters in front of the letters received for each category):
- Randomly selected students from class lists of past five years;
- Students (including alumni) selected by the candidate;
- Tenured members of the department;
- Members of the College faculty;
- Outside referees;
- Unsolicited letters.
Supporting data on the effectiveness of the candidate as a teacher:
- Course syllabi
- Student Instructional Reports (SIRs) of the previous three semesters
- Any other material deemed pertinent
Supporting data on scholarly or artistic and professional activities of the candidate (avoid personal notes and other forms of “fan mail”)
A copy of both the third‑year review evaluation written by the divisional dean and the provost's letter to the candidate in response to that review
The statement of the candidate on teaching, research, publication or artistic goals for the next five years
The candidate’s statement describing her/his contributions and commitment to each element of the college’s mission statement
The candidate's current curriculum vitae

Confidentiality Policies

The dean's recommendation, the candidate's CV, five-year plan and statement of support for Hope’s mission will be submitted to the Board of Trustees after the Status Committee makes its recommendation.

The candidate shall receive a copy of the dean’s recommendation, the department chair’s rebuttal letter (if any) and the SIR report forms when they are forwarded to the Status Committee.

Letters from students, tenured members of the candidate's department and other professional colleagues either from within or from outside the college will be kept confidential.

Tenured members of the department will be entitled to see the candidate's CV, course syllabi and all publications or similar evidence of professional accomplishments.

It is assumed that all other supporting materials placed in the candidate's tenure notebook are available for inspection by the candidate.

If you have questions or comments, please contact your Dean's Office.