Promotion and/or Tenure Review

During fall term of the academic year prior to which the promotion and/or tenure review will take place (file preparation year, also referred to as year five), the Dean’s Office will contact the faculty member with their official review notice. Material is due to the Dean’s Office in stages during year five; see below for the material to submit and the deadline for each step. Please plan ahead and mark these deadlines in your calendar. Note: If the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, materials are due the next business day.

To get started, please read through the information below, look at the templates provided by SOMD and the Office of the Provost (OtP), and review the instructions for assembling your portfolios and submitting the material.

If you have questions or would like to see examples of past faculty submissions, please contact Tiffany in the Dean’s Office.

A complete overview of the review timeline is listed at the bottom of this page.

Step 1: List of External Reviewers | Due February 15 (year 5)

The faculty member is responsible for preparing the following material during the winter term:

1. List of Potential External Reviewers

Create a list of 3-5 potential external reviewers. The list should include details such as the reviewer’s name, title/rank, institution, email, website URL, and your relationship with the reviewer.

Consult with your department head and review section 21 of the CBA and the Provost’s Office guidelines for selecting appropriate reviewers.

Note: you are only providing a list of potential reviewers and you should not contact these individuals in advance; the Dean’s Office is responsible for contacting external reviewers.

2. Curriculum Vitae (signed and dated)

A comprehensive and current curriculum vitae that includes the faculty member’s current research, scholarly and creative activities, and accomplishments, including publications, appointments, presentations, and similar activities. The CV must distinguish between peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed work. Use text highlighting to help identify the accomplishments since arriving at UO (or accomplishments since tenure, for promotion to full professor reviews).

The OtP CV template is not required to be used, but the principles and formatting suggestions are important to follow

3. Waiver Statement (signed and dated)

A signed and dated document establishing the candidate’s chosen waiver status for the dossier. This statement must be completed before the Dean’s Office’s initial contact with external reviewers. More information about the waiver statement

Step 2: Compile Summer Review Material | Due April 30 (year 5)

The faculty member is responsible for preparing the following material during the spring term:

1. Candidate’s Statement (signed and dated)

A 3-6 page statement developed by the faculty member describing and evaluating their performance against the applicable criteria for tenure and promotion. The statement should expressly address the subjects of teaching; scholarship, research, and creative activity; and service contributions to the academic department, center or institute, school or college, university, profession, and the community. The statement must also include a discussion of contributions to institutional equity and inclusion.

2. Evidence of Scholarship 

Comprehensive evidence of the candidate’s professional activity—scholarship, research, and creative activity—and appropriate evidence of the candidate’s national or international recognition or impact. The portfolio typically includes such evidence as complete copies of published books and articles, recordings of performances or productions, photographs of works of art, installations or exhibits, program notes, etc. It is permissible and advisable for the candidate to include evidence of work in progress in order to assist reviewers in ascertaining the likelihood of future productivity and success. Such materials will typically be at an advanced stage. The most commonly included materials are manuscripts currently under review.

The SOMD table of contents template is not required to be used, but it will give you an idea of how to organize your material.

The summer review material (CV, candidate’s statement, scholarship portfolio) and the unit’s tenure and promotion guidelines are shared with external reviewers; this includes reviewers solicited from the candidate’s potential list of reviewers plus reviewers selected by the dean. There will be a total of at least five external reviewers.

Step 3: Compile Fall Review Material | Due September 1 (year 6)

The faculty member is responsible for preparing the following material (due late summer/early fall term):

1. Awards

This section is optional if the candidate has already listed awards in the CV or statement.

List of Teaching, Research, Service/Administrative, and/or Other Awards. For each award identify applicable information including the granting organization (internal/external), title, duration of award period, and amount, if carrying a monetary component.

If no awards have been received, include a page with the simple notation, “None.” This should be a separate document and not included in any of the portfolios.

2. Student Mentorship

This section is optional if the candidate has already included this information in their CV.

List of all supervised dissertations, theses, and undergraduate honors papers.

If no students have been mentored, include a page with the simple notation, “None.” This should be a separate document and not included in your teaching portfolio.

3. Candidate Teaching History 

If the candidate has not already provided a list of courses taught (listed year by year) during the review period in their CV, please complete the Candidate Teaching History form.

This form is especially important for documentation of course releases each year from reduced teaching loads specified in their offer of appointment, buyouts, leaves, sabbaticals, and administrative appointments.

4. Evidence of Teaching

The teaching evidence, which is provided by the candidate, should be representative, not comprehensive. Candidates often include sample course materials such as syllabi, exams, and homework assignments in order to illustrate their innovative approaches to teaching. Other materials, such as course websites, may also be included.

The SOMD table of contents template is not required to be used, but it will give you an idea of how to organize your material.

5. Evidence of Service

The service portfolio, which is provided by the candidate, should provide evidence of the candidate’s service contributions to their academic department, school, university, discipline, profession, and the broader community. Note that a candidate is not expected to have contributed service at all of these levels. The portfolio should not be comprehensive but rather provide representative evidence of the candidate’s service.

The SOMD table of contents template is not required to be used, but it will give you an idea of how to organize your material.

6. Equity and Inclusion Portfolio (optional)

The Dean’s Office will add the following material to the fall file:

  • Summer Review Material – CV, candidate statement, waiver statement, and scholarship material.
  • SOMD Promotion Review Criteria – Faculty may select which version to use if there has been a change in criteria since the time of hire.
  • External Evaluation Material – external evaluation letters, reviewer bios, and reviewer curriculum vitae.
  • Conditions of Appointment – original offer letter and faculty MOU, if applicable.
  • Evaluation of Teaching Material – peer reviews and tudent experience surveys.
  • Instructor Reflection Report – This is optional. If you would like it included, please indicate so when you submit your materials to the Dean’s Office. If you do not indicate this preference, the report will not be included automatically.
  • For Tenure reviews, the result of the midterm review – copy of the Provost’s notification letter and dean’s report.
  • For promotion to full professor reviews, copies of post tenure review reports and sabbatical reports, if applicable.

Assembling and Submitting the Review Material

Organize Your Material – evidence of teaching, scholarship, and service

  • Create a table of contents that outlines the contents of your material (use the templates linked above or create your own).
  • Save your table of contents as a PDF.
    • Repeat this process so you have three separate table of contents PDF files; one for each category – teaching, scholarship, and service.
  • Gather your example material/evidence and save each document as a PDF.
    • If your material is viewable online include a document with URL links to access the material.
  • Open the table of contents PDF and use the “organize pages” feature in Adobe Acrobat to add the material/evidence to the PDF behind the table of contents, in order. Save.
  • Open the bookmarks tab and create bookmarks to navigate to each section of your PDF.
  • Repeat; you should now have three complete PDF dossiers for each category (teaching, scholarship, and service).

Read the review instructions document for more details on organizing and assembling the dossier material if needed.

Material Submission

Submit your material as PDF files. You should have several individual PDFs once you are complete. Email your material to Tiffany in the Dean’s Office or share via OneDrive or DropBox if the file size is too large to email.

Please note that individual PDF files submitted by the faculty member, along with material from the Dean’s Office, will be combined into dossier templates provided by the Office of the Provost. The Dean’s Office will help with the final dossier organization to make sure the most up-to-date OtP dossier templates are being used. To help understand what the final submission will look like, please look at the OtP dossier templates (material is organized into primary and supplementary files):

If any of the OtP template links above are broken, visit the Faculty Personnel Processes: Guides, Forms, & Templates page.

Step 4: SOMD Review and Teaching Observation (fall year 6)

Send your fall teaching schedule (course name, location, date/times) to the Dean’s Office prior to the start of the fall term.

As part of the SOMD review and balloting process, the faculty eligible to review your file will also have the option to observe you teach (typically during weeks 2-3 in fall term) to aid in their evaluation of your teaching.

The fall review material is reviewed internally by SOMD tenured faculty (or full professors for promotion to full reviews), your Department Head, SOMD Personnel Committee, and the Dean.

Step 5: Meeting with Dean and University Review (winter year 6)

Candidates for promotion will receive a copy of the Dean’s report and recommendation. They will be invited to meet with the Dean before the material is forwarded to the Office of the Provost for review by the university-level Faculty Personnel Committee and the Provost.

Candidates may provide a written response to the Dean’s report within 10 days of the meeting with the Dean. This response should be submitted by the candidate to the Dean and will be included in the candidate’s primary dossier.  The Dean may reconsider the case and their own recommendation in light of the candidate’s response, and this process should be reflected in the file.  However, the Dean is not required to respond to the additional material from the candidate.

While a written response is typically provided only by candidates whose tenure and/or promotion is not supported by the Dean, all candidates have the option to respond in writing at this time.

Step 6: Formal Notification (spring year 6)

The Provost has plenary authority to award or deny tenure. Whenever possible, the candidate will be notified in writing of the Provost’s decision by June 1. The letter accompanying the decision will explain the reasons underlying the provost’s decision if the decision is to deny tenure or promotion.

Successful candidates are granted tenure and/or promotion and assume their new classification and rank (as applicable) at the start of the next academic year, or sooner at the discretion of the provost. Candidates who are denied tenure will receive a notice of appointment, which expires at the end of the academic or fiscal year following the one in which the application for tenure was submitted.

Overview of Review Timeline

Early Fall of Year 5 faculty receive official review notice
Winter of Year 5 faculty compile requested material and prepare summer dossier
Winter of Year 5 faculty meet with department head regarding potential external reviewers, as needed
February of Year 5 list of potential external reviewers (step 1) due to Dean’s Office by Feb 15
Spring of Year 5 summer dossier material (step 2) due to Dean’s Office by April 30
Spring of Year 5 final organization of summer material completed by Dean’s Office
Spring of Year 5 summer material sent to external reviewers by Dean’s Office
Summer of Year 5 summer material reviewed by external reviewers
Late Summer of Year 5 external reviewer letter due to Dean’s Office
Late Summer of Year 5 faculty submit additional fall dossier material (step 3) to Dean’s Office by Sept 1
Fall of Year 6 faculty share fall teaching schedule with Dean’s Office during week of welcome
Fall of Year 6 dossier is shared with eligible SOMD faculty for review and balloting (typically during weeks 2-3)
Fall of Year 6 review by Department Head, SOMD Personnel Committee, and Dean
Fall/Early Winter of Year 6 meeting with the Dean to discuss the review
Winter of Year 6  Dean’s Office submits final dossier to Office of the Provost by Jan 15
Winter Year 6 dossier reviewed by the University Personnel Committee and the Provost
Spring Year 6 faculty notified in writing of the Provost’s decision by June 1

Additional Resources

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Updated 9/10/2024