Section II: Standards

The Guidelines require every major administrative unit to have written standards that should be used in making tenure and promotion decisions (4.5). The standards may be applicable to the entire administrative unit or to appropriate subdivisions (e.g., colleges and departments). After a unit's standards have received the necessary approvals, the standards must be published and disseminated to faculty and provided to each new faculty member when appointed (4.5). Thus, every faculty member must be given a copy of his/her unit's and the College's standards regarding tenure and promotion decisions; and every newly hired faculty must be given copies of these standards. The A&S Handbook notes that

In order to assure that this important process [i.e., the tenure and promotion process] be carried out in a fair and equitable manner, each department or school should have a systematic, well-defined procedure, known and understood by all faculty members, through which all faculty who are untenured and/or who have not reached the full professor rank are evaluated and considered as candidates for tenure and/or promotion.(p.27)

The Regents Bylaws require that written standards be relevant to teaching, extension work, research, scholarship, creative activities, and service. In addition, "[i]ntegrity, academic responsibility, and professional development should be included as they relate to these major areas" (4.5). The Guidelines add that individual faculty will be evaluated according to norms established for them related to the faculty's collective responsibility to teach, advise, engage in research and creative activity, make research findings and new knowledge known through publication or equivalent demonstration, and provide public and institutional service (III.B.). Individual faculty members will vary in the extent to which their responsibilities emphasize one or more parts of the University's mission and the criteria used to assess faculty performance must reflect these varying assignments (Guidelines, III.B.).

The chair is responsible for spelling out the general apportionment of a faculty member's major responsibilities in the letter of appointment (Guidelines, p. 4). The apportionment of responsibilities is to be reviewed periodically and may be changed by mutual consent (Regents Bylaws, 4.3) Within this general apportionment of responsibilities, the details of a faculty member's specific assignments or job description are subject to joint consultation but are to be determined by the chair, unit administrator, or director concerned (Regents Bylaws, 3.4.4). Every unit will refine the criteria by which it assesses teaching, research, and service in ways that reflect its mission and appropriate disciplinary considerations. The refined criteria will be applied to all faculty members equitably and reflect each member's particular responsibilities and assignments. How unit criteria apply to each faculty member's own set of duties should be clarified at the time of appointment and reviewed in the annual evaluation. Adjustments in the expectations for individual faculty may occur over time in keeping with changing institutional and personal priorities. Such adjustments shall occur in a timely fashion and with reasonable effort to assure mutual understanding, in line with changing institutional and personal priorities. However, no adjustments of unit or individual faculty norms must alter the University's fundamental criterion: all faculty must do scholarly or professional work that demonstrates creative achievement (Guidelines, III.B.).

Excellence in creativity and in significance of contribution is the most important standard by which to judge the extent of a faculty member's achievement (Guidelines, III.C.). Since what constitutes excellence in particular cases is a matter of judgment that varies from discipline to discipline, faculty members must be given reasonable assistance to understand the components of judgments of excellence. The A&S Handbook refers to the need to apply criteria flexibly because the importance of teaching effectiveness, research productivity, or creative activity and service varies among disciplines (p. 25). However, it requires all faculty members to show evidence of satisfactory teaching or associated activities, intellectual or creative activity related to their disciplines, and responsible participation in service or associated activities (pp. 25-26).

See Section III under "Faculty by Evaluation" for a statement on promotion and tenure standards in Arts and Sciences.

II.A. Standards for Tenure

"A 'continuous appointment' [i.e., a tenured appointment] is an appointment terminable only for adequate cause, bona fide discontinuance of a program or department, retirement for age or disability, or extraordinary circumstances because of financial exigencies. No person shall acquire a Continuous Appointment until official written notice has been received from the University that such an appointment has been awarded. Continuous Appointment as defined herein means academic tenure." (Regents Bylaws, 4.4.3) Regental policy also states that "tenure should be recommended only on the basis of demonstrated and documentable academic achievement, rather than on promise." (Regents Policies, R-P-4.3.1.)

The Guidelines define tenure as a long term institutional commitment to a faculty member that "requires a rigorous, in-depth assessment of the faculty member's accumulated accomplishments and a determination of whether the performance is likely to meet expectations for the indefinite future." (VI.A.) Typically, tenure is "based on the quality and quantity of work accomplished during the probationary period and is an expectation and prediction of the quality and quantity of a faculty member's future performance." However, it is important to note that a candidate’s "accumulated accomplishments" may not always occur in his or her official probationary period. For example, dual career situations often mean that a partner may not be in a tenure line position but may still be productive in a way (s) relevant to a tenure decision in the future. In addition, the "tenure clock" of a faculty member in his or her probationary period may be stopped for a personal reason (e.g., having a child and illness) but the faculty member may still be productive in a way (s) relevant to a tenure decision. (See Executive Memorandum No. 18 in the Appendix regarding University policy on interruption of the tenure clock in cases of maternity, disability, or family/medical leave.)

The candidate for tenure is required to demonstrate that an institutional commitment of tenure is justified. The A&S Handbook affirms that "tenure is the most important commitment the institution can make" and directs that recommendations to award tenure be made only if the candidate's contributions meet these standards and if the contributions are sustained over time, thereby demonstrating a clear promise of continuation. (p. 26)

In some cases, deficiencies in a candidate's record may not be apparent until near the end of the probationary period, especially with respect to scholarly activity. In cases where there has been a mutually agreed upon change of responsibilities, the quality of performance in a new area of focus may not be fully assessable until near the end of the probationary period. Changes in University priorities may "dictate" a higher minimum standard of performance than existed when a faculty member was first hired. However, "[a]djustments in standards or responsibilities...must not dramatically change in ways that make it impossible for the able and responsible candidate to meet them." (Guidelines, VI.A.)

Positive annual performance reviews that justify reappointing probationary faculty may not be cumulatively sufficient for tenure. Likewise, promotion is a positive recognition of one's work and reflects a level of personal achievement but is not a guarantee of tenure. (Guidelines, VI.A.)

II.B. Standards for Promotion to Associate Professor

The UNL Guidelines state that

the candidate should be an accomplished teacher, where teaching is an assigned responsibility, and have a significant record of scholarly and creative work in teaching, research, and service in keeping with the individual's job responsibilities. Time-in-rank as an assistant professor is ordinarily at least five years, and typically is six years. Earlier promotion is quite unusual and implies that a candidate has accomplished in the shorter time period what normally would be expected in the longer one.

In all but unusual circumstances, promotion of tenure eligible faculty to the rank of associate professor takes place at the same time as or before the tenure decision. However, since the decision regarding tenure is based upon broader criteria, the two actions take place separately and require separate decisions. While it is assumed that a faculty member who has earned tenure should also have earned promotion to associate professor, promotion in rank carries no guarantee regarding granting of tenure. (V.B.3.)

The A&S Handbook states that there should be clear evidence of significant contributions to the department, College and University in teaching, research, and service significantly beyond the level of accomplishment for promotion to assistant professor.

II.C. Standards for Promotion to Professor 

After noting that professor is the highest academic rank in the University, the UNL Guidelines state that the rank of professor is "reserved for those faculty members whose achievements are sufficient to merit recognition as distinguished authorities in their field and who hold the professional respect of their colleagues. Usually, the candidates have been awarded tenure." While the University wants all faculty to qualify eventually for promotion to full professor, no time requirements force faculty to seek this rank. Tenured faculty who are not professors may stay in rank for the rest of their careers. (V.B.4)

To reach the rank of professor, most aspects of a candidate's work must be judged excellent, i.e., there must be evidence of "a level of sustained creativity in the salient areas of the candidate's work." (Guidelines, V.B.4.) While the focus of this creative work may be national or local in scope, its quality should be sufficient to merit significant and national recognition. (See discussions concerning the use of candidate statements and external reviews in the preceding section and in the section on candidate files.) The successful candidate's record will show evidence of "sustained excellence over an extended period of time." (V.B.4.)

In a memo dated April 21 1998, SVCAA Edwards addresses expectations regarding recommendations to promote to full professor based primarily on excellent performance in teaching and/or service or outreach. In it, Dr. Edwards writes that the department "should take care to develop evaluation criteria, ways of measuring quality, and external validation that reflect standards as rigorous as (though different from) the standards applied in cases with a more traditional faculty profile." He notes that he reads the UNL Guidelines to permit consideration of such cases and that "sustained excellent performance that contributes to meeting any of the University's principal missions should be recognized through the promotion-to-full process." Finally, he stresses that the candidate for promotion and the department recommending it have the responsibility to provide "convincing evidence that these standards have been met."

The A&S Handbook requires "clear evidence of continued contribution in the areas of teaching, research, and service significantly beyond the level of accomplishment expected for promotion to associate professor." (p. 26) The Handbook goes on to note that promotion to professor will occur after the faculty member has attained a high level of achievement in scholarly or creative activity.

II.D.Standards for Promotion within Practice Ranks

The College of Arts and Sciences has adopted the University's criteria, available at http://www.unl.edu/svcaa/documents/prof_of_practice_policy.doc, as the minimum standards for promotion to and amoung the ranks of Assistant, Associate, and full Professor of Practice. The faculty of departments may add to these criteria as appropriate to thei own disciplines.