APPENDIX 7
Promotion from Assistant or Associate Professor without Tenure
to Associate Professor with Tenure
PROMOTION RECOMMENDATION (aka three-page document)
(positive cases only)
See below for an outline of the format for the three-page document, which may be no more than
three (3) pages in length. Originals should have a one-inch margin all around and nothing in the
header or footer; i.e., no page numbering, dates, names, or titles. The promotion
recommendation for an instructional faculty member is presented to the Regents each year in
May.
All instructional appointments and the tenure status (with or without) are listed in the first
paragraph. Any other titles that do not need the approval of the Regents, such as adjunct
professor, research scientist, etc., are listed under the section entitled “Professional Record.”
Sample First Paragraph
Jody L. Fisher, associate professor of English language and literature, with tenure, College of
Literature, Science, and the Arts, and associate professor of information, without tenure, School
of Information, is recommended for promotion to professor of English language and literature,
with tenure, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and professor of information, without
tenure, School of Information ([note any instructional titles that are not being considered for
promotion at this time; i.e., also associate professor of history, without tenure, College of
Literature, Science, and the Arts).
Do’s and Don'ts
 Do refer to unit chair as “chair” or “chairperson”; not “chairman”.
 To protect anonymity of reviewers, do not use university-specific quotes; substitute [at
my institution] or something similar.
 Do not use the word “young,” even when quoting a reviewer. Substitute [of his cohort]
or [of her generation].
 Do not use the phrase “full professor.” Omit the word “full.”
 When using quotation marks, do put them outside of commas and periods; inside of
semi-colons and colons.
 Do be consistent in punctuation of journals, articles, and book titles. Put quotes around
titles of articles and book chapters; italicize book and journal titles.
 Do provide signature lines for deans of all units where there is an instructional title
 Do not include a signature line for the Provost.
FORMAT FOR THE THREE-PAGE DOCUMENT
(positive recommendations only)
PROMOTION RECOMMENDATION
The University of Michigan
College of Literature, Science and the Arts
[Name], [Current Instructional Rank], [Complete Instructional Title(s)], with [or without] tenure,
[Unit], [School/College] is recommended for promotion to [Recommended Instructional Rank],
[Complete Instructional Title(s)], with [or without] tenure, [Unit], [School/College].
(NOTE: Please include all joint instructional titles within LSA and in other schools or colleges.
This first paragraph would not include any adjunct, supplemental, or professional/administrative
titles that the candidate might hold.)
Academic Degrees:
Ph.D.
1992
University of California, Los Angeles
Professional Record: [Include all titles held at the University of Michigan, at other universities,
and other professional affiliations since PhD.]
Summary of Evaluation:
Teaching:



Provide a broad assessment of teaching.
Describe the variety of non-classroom teaching venues that are part of the instructional environment.
Explain the significance of the candidate’s role in curriculum innovation, initiatives, and design.
Research:


Carefully explicate the disciplinary and interdisciplinary culture within which the scholarly work is
produced.
Include a prediction as to the candidate's future productivity and contributions to the discipline, the
unit, and the University.
Recent and Significant Publications:

List four significant, recent publications (since last promotion).
Service:


Provide a general description of the contribution.
Include specific examples.
External Reviews: [Summarize the comments of at least five external reviewers. Do not skip
any letters. To maintain the confidentiality of the external reviewers, identify each reviewer
using the following designation:]
Reviewer (A)
“Insert quote here”
Reviewer (B)
“Insert quote here”
Reviewer (C)
“Insert quote here”
Reviewer (D)
“Insert quote here”
Reviewer (E)
“Insert quote here”
Reviewer (F)
“Insert quote here”
Summary of Recommendation: Provide a brief overall assessment of performance and
achievements in the context of the mission of the unit. Repeat the titles to which the candidate is
being promoted.
__________________________________
______________________________
Susan A. Gelman
[Name, if joint]
Heinz Werner Distinguished University Professor, [Title of chancellor/dean]
Professor of Psychology and Interim Dean,
[School or College]
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
May 2014
APPENDIX 8
Promotion from Assistant or Associate Professor without Tenure
to Associate Professor with Tenure
SAMPLE
(reproduced with permission)
PROMOTION RECOMMENDATION
The University of Michigan
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Richard Cándida Smith, associate professor of history, with tenure, College of Literature,
Science, and the Arts, is recommended for promotion to professor of history, with tenure,
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
Academic Degrees:
Ph.D.
1992
M.A.
1990
B.A.
1969
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
Professional Record:
1997 – present
Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Michigan
1997 – 2000
Director, Program in American Culture, University of Michigan
1993 – 1997
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Michigan
Summary of Evaluation:
Teaching – Professor Cándida Smith is a serious and committed teacher of graduate and
undergraduate students. He has chaired fourteen Ph.D. committees and directed twelve honors
theses in history, American culture, and other departments at the University of Michigan. He has
also extended himself beyond the bounds of formal classroom teaching to work with students in
the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and involve them in the excitement
of primary research. His classroom teaching has been wide ranging. He has taught twelve
different courses, ranging from graduate research and methods seminars to large introductory
courses. He has demonstrated his pedagogical commitment both by taking on the enormous
burden of teaching survey courses and by working hard at making his teaching more focused and
more accessible to his students.
Research – Since promotion to tenure, Professor Cándida Smith has published his second book
in intellectual history, Mallarmé’s Children: Symbolism and the Renewal of Experience, and he
has written and edited important works in a second field, oral history. He has become a major
figure in the art museum world and art history world in California, and an internationally
recognized leader in the study of oral history. His new book brings together poetry and painting,
psychology and philosophy in a tour de force of analysis of how nineteenth century writers and
artists came together, on both sides of the Atlantic, to shape an avant-garde that would greatly
influence public life in France and the United States. Professor Cándida Smith is embarking on
yet another book and a series of projects on artistic life in California.
Recent and Significant Publications:
“Analytic Strategies for Oral History Interviews,” in Handbook of Interviewing, J. F. Gubrium
and J. A. Holstein (eds.), Beverly Hills: Sage, forthcoming.
“Vectors of Emergence, Lines of Descent,” in Jay DeFeo and ‘The Rose’, J. Green and L. Levy
(eds.), University of California Press, forthcoming.
Mallarmé’s Children: Symbolism and the Renewal of Experience, University of California
Press, 1999.
Utopia and Dissent: Art, Poetry, and Politics in California, University of California Press, 1995
Service – Professor Cándida Smith directed the Program in American Culture (1997-2000)
during a period of rapid expansion, of curricular reorganization, and of intellectual realignment.
He performed creatively and vigorously this task. Within the Program, he chaired several search
committees, the graduate committee, and the undergraduate honors committee. He also served
on the Executive Committee of the Museum of Art and committees in the Department of History.
Nationally, he has been a consultant of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a member of
several artistic boards, a President of the Oral History Association, and member of the editorial
board of Oral History Review.
External Reviews:
Reviewer (A)
“With this book [Mallarmé’s Children], Smith joins the company of those ‘Americanists’ who
are comfortable working in the larger intellectual history of the North Atlantic West, and who are
thereby both transforming the particular sub-field of US intellectual history and participating in
the de-provincialization of modern US history as a whole. … It is into cross-disciplinary
discussions of such questions as these that this new, remarkably learned and probing book by
Smith will be incorporated.”
Reviewer (B)
“Mallarmé’s Children...brilliantly develops key ideas upon which the earlier book is based.
Richard has, in my view, an almost unparalleled ability to synthesize material from different
fields, periods, and locations.”
Reviewer (C)
“Professor Cándida Smith’s field of expertise is quite wide. I have known him primarily in his
capacity as a practitioner of oral history, through the time in which this field of study has moved
from the margin to a central position in historical research. Professor Cándida Smith has been
instrumental in this development, by articulating the methodological implications of oral history
along with practical aspects of collection, elaboration, and analysis.”
Reviewer (D)
“I have often found myself arguing to my French colleagues...that American cultural history has
much to teach us. It seems to me that Richard Candida Smith illustrates perfectly my thesis, not
only by his impressive erudition but also thanks to his inventive handling of the theoretical
aspects of cultural studies.”
Reviewer (E)
“His work also gives me a new sense of the interconnectedness of people and ideas across fields
of cultural practice, beliefs, and social status in artistic communities, educational institutions, and
networks of friendship… Mallarmé’s Children demonstrates his extraordinary mastery of the
major issues, schools of intellectual thought, social movements, and institutional structures on
both sides of the Atlantic that represented the field of his inquiry about the impact of ideas on
society, politics, and culture.”
Reviewer (F)
“He has been President of the Oral History Association, but more importantly, he is seen as one
of the most intellectually questioning and creative oral historians in North America.”
Reviewer (G)
“First, he is the most accomplished American intellectual historian who received his Ph.D. in the
last decade. Second, his writings already put him on a level ‘outranked’ only by a few of the
most distinguished American intellectual historians. Third, he is himself a leader in the
movement to integrate American and European intellectual history, a movement that is justly
regarded as the cutting edge within the field. Fourth, in integrating art and poetry into
intellectual history, he is beyond the cutting edge...”
Reviewer (H)
“I had always assumed Richard Candida Smith was already a full professor, given the quality
and breadth of his work. … While reading his book I was amazed by its erudition, intuition, and
intelligence. It is profoundly original. … There is no doubt in my mind that Utopia and Dissent
and Mallarmé’s Children put Candida Smith at the very top of his field.”
Summary of Recommendation:
Professor Cándida Smith has played a key role in refashioning the Program in American Culture,
while remaining at the center of the Department of History's teaching of American intellectual
history and efforts to bridge the traditional continental frontiers in history teaching. The
Executive Committee of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and I recommend that
Associate Professor Richard Cándida Smith be promoted to the rank of professor of history, with
tenure, in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.