Pathway to Promotion Planning
August 31, 2015
Colleges and universities thrive in fulfillment of their research, teaching and service
missions when senior faculty make timely progress toward their next promotion. In order
to further the progress we have made in this respect over the last several years, all
College departments should institute a process, codified in their by-laws, whereby faculty
not yet at the highest available rank (typically, Professor or Hurst Senior Professorial
Lecturer) regularly report on their progress toward promotion.
The precise form of such planning remains a departmental prerogative. Some
departments may choose to ask faculty to submit a short memo and up-to-date CV, to be
reviewed by the chair and/or rank and tenure committee. Others may opt to schedule
formal conversations between promotion candidates and the department chair and/or rank
and tenure committee chair. Still others may choose some combination of written
submission and dialogue (arguably, a best practice). However a department might choose
to conduct its reviews, they should take place at least every other year. (Annually is
preferable.) Any written feedback provided to the promotion candidate will not be
forwarded to the College dean or included in future promotion files.
As a general rule, Pathway to Promotion reviews for faculty on the Assistant
Professor/Associate Professor/Professor track, tenure-line or term, will be conducted by
faculty at the rank to which the colleague aspires and will focus on the area or areas of
future scholarly work, the prestigious fellowships and/or grants to be sought, expectations
of future activity in the area of professional service, and a timeline for achieving
promotion. Reviews of Senior Professorial Lecturers will normally consider the faculty
member’s future innovations, both inside and outside the classroom; leadership in the
areas of mentoring, assessment and/or research in the field; and significant service to the
department, college, university and/or external organizations.
It is understood that research plans change for many good reasons. A faculty member’s
adherence to, or deviation from, a prior plan will thus not be a factor in promotion
decisions. As always with promotion decisions at American University, the decision to
grant or deny promotion will follow a holistic analysis of the file informed by the
expectations outlined in the department’s tenure and promotion guidelines.
Pathway to Promotion planning is an important step in ensuring that colleagues make
steady progress toward promotion and file for promotion at a time when they have every
likelihood of success.