TPRC Procedures
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The purpose of the TPRC is to insure that each candidate receives a review by a body
representing all of the tenured faculty.
While individual members of the TPRC are selected on the basis of the campus’s respect for
their experience and commitment to the university, the TPRC is also bound by the guidelines
established by each unit, which have been approved by the unit’s members, the University
administration, and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly. These guidelines should be
in dossiers, but can also be found at
http://hilo.hawaii.edu/uhh/vcaa/PersonnelPoliciesandProcedures.php. Instructions to
candidates indicate that they should consider putting them in their dossiers, but we cannot
mandate any specific content. So please do not hold the absence of the document in the dossier
against the candidate.
The primary question posed to the TPRC is whether the candidate has received a fair,
appropriate and comprehensive review by the DPC, Division Chair where appropriate, and Dean.
To determine this, a full review of the candidate’s record and of the DPC’s and Dean’s
evaluations must be undertaken and considered.
Evaluations written at every level are recommendations to the Chancellor, who in turn provides
a recommendation to the Board of Regents.
The process of evaluating a faculty member for tenure is also governed by Article XII: Tenure
and Service of the 2009-2015 Agreement between the University of Hawaii Professional
Assembly and the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii. http://uhpa.org/uhpa-borcontract/100129-2009-2015-agreement-for-website.pdf/view
Dossiers are highly confidential. They should never be left in a reviewing space when the
reviewer or committee is finished. Dossiers need to be returned to the office so they can be
locked away properly after each review.
Each TPRC will need to determine how it wishes to handle notes and ballots so that they are
held in strictest confidence among reviewing members. When the committee is confident that
their review and evaluation of a particular candidate’s record is completed, these materials
should be shredded by the Chair.
Voting should be by secret ballot.
If any communication needs to take place beyond the confines of the TPRC panel itself, the TPRC
chair is charged with that task. Only the TPRC chair should speak to any outside entity about
matters pertaining to the TPRC.
Faculty appointed to TPRCs have the obligation to make decisions about the cases brought
before them. Abstentions should be used only in extraordinary situations that could not have
been predicted. A faculty member who believes he/she has a conflict of interest should recuse
him/herself in favor of an alternate who will be appointed by the Vice Chancellor.
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An “abstention” vote is a record of a review’s declining to vote and should not to be
considered as a “no” vote. The majority opinion is calculated on the basis of the number of “yes”
and “no” votes. Candidates will be invited to review their dossiers if there are majority negative
votes by committees or negative recommendations by Deans (Division Chairs).