UNCW Faculty Handbook: Faculty governance: Policies of Academic Freedom & Tenure: Policies on appointment, promotion, and tenure

Policies of Academic Freedom and Tenure

The University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Approved by the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina - May 14, 1976, effective June 11, 1976; revisions approved July 20, 1979, effective July 20, 1979; revisions approved May 10, 1982, effective July 1, 1982; revisions approved November 11, 1994, effective December 9, 1995; revisions approved January 2001, effective July 1, 2001; revisions approved August 2007; effective August 2007.

This document sets forth the official policy of The University of North Carolina at Wilmington regarding academic freedom, rights, and responsibilities, promotion, and tenure of its faculty. Fundamental in this policy are the concepts of academic freedom, rights, and responsibilities as stated in Chapter VI of the Code of The University of North Carolina. Equally fundamental is an explicit policy of promotion and tenure.

Section IV. Policies on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure

Eligibility for permanent tenure
Probationary service
Procedures for evaluation and documentation
Continuing evaluation of faculty

Eligibility for Permanent Tenure
All faculty and staff members who hold the rank of assistant professor, associate professor, or professor shall be eligible for permanent tenure. Nevertheless, Section 602(7) of The Code of The University of North Carolina applies.
The appointment, reappointment, or promotion of a faculty member to a position funded in whole or in substantial part from sources other than continuing state budget funds or permanent trust funds shall specify in writing that the continuance of a faculty member's services, whether for a specified term or for permanent tenure, shall be contingent upon the continuing availability of such funds. This contingency shall not be included in a faculty member's contract in either of the following situations:

In a promotion to a higher rank if, before the effective date of that promotion, the faculty member had permanent tenure and no such condition was attached to the permanent tenure.
If the faculty member held tenure in the institution on 1 July 1975 and his/her contract was not then contingent upon the continuing availability of sources other than continuing state budget or permanent trust funds.

Probationary Service
1. Definition and Length of Probationary Service
       Probationary service is that period of employment from the commencement of a faculty member's initial contract with The University of North Carolina at Wilmington to the time that he/she is notified of either reappointment with permanent tenure or nonreappointment. However, years served in a special faculty appointment (Section 604C of the Code) shall not be counted as years of probationary service. Moreover, leaves of absence shall not count as probationary service.
       Except for full professors (Section IV.B.2.d), no one may be granted permanent tenure who has not completed at least two (2) years of probationary service.
       In all cases, the maximum number of years of probationary service shall be nine (9). This provision takes precedence over all subsequent references to the contract years in which decisions regarding permanent tenure shall be made.^[1]
2. Length and Number of Appointments in the Probationary Period
  With respect to the various academic ranks, the tenure policy of the university is as follows:
  1. An assistant professor shall be appointed to an initial term of four years. Before the end of the third year of this appointment, the department chairperson^[2] or school dean, shall recommend that the assistant professor be either reappointed for a second term of three years or not reappointed. Before the end of the second year of the second three-year appointment, the department chairperson or school dean shall, in the same manner, recommend that the assistant professor be either reappointed with permanent tenure and promoted to associate professor, or not reappointed.
  2. An associate professor promoted to that rank from within this institution shall have permanent tenure. One coming to that rank from outside the institution shall be appointed to an initial term of five years; and in such cases, before the end of the fourth year, his/her department chairperson or school dean, after reviewing the evidence provided by the evaluation process and consulting with all assembled senior departmental or school members based on rank, shall recommend that the associate professor be either reappointed with permanent tenure at the same or higher rank, or not reappointed.
  3. A professor shall have permanent tenure.
  4. Paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) shall not apply to a visiting faculty member; a faculty member, regardless of stated rank, who is employed for a limited period in the staffing of any special project; or any special faculty appointee as defined by Section 604 C of the Code. The Chancellor shall call to the attention of the appointee that, because of the visiting or special status of the appointment, the provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), (c), and (d) do not apply to his/her appointment.
  5. Non-teaching professional personnel who hold professorial rank shall be eligible for promotion and permanent tenure and shall be subject to standards equivalent in rigor to those standards that apply to the teaching faculty.
  6. If the department chairperson is being considered for promotion and/or permanent tenure, the appropriate dean shall evaluate his/her performance after consulting with and taking an advisory vote of the assembled senior members of the department. A recommendation, with written justification, is transmitted by the dean to Academic Affairs, and by Academic Affairs to the university-wide faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion (CRTP). The CRTP forwards its recommendation directly to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
  7. A faculty member may be promoted at any time.
  8. The terms and conditions of each faculty appointment shall be written. A copy of the terms, signed by the Chancellor, shall be delivered to the faculty member, and a copy shall be retained by the Chancellor. Full information on the tenure policy of the university and on a faculty member's employment status shall be readily available to the faculty member.
3. Timely Notice
  For full-time faculty at the rank of assistant professor, and associate professor without permanent tenure, the minimum requirement for timely notice of reappointment or nonreappointment shall be as follows:
  1. During the first year of service at the institution, the faculty member shall be given not less than 90 calendar days notice before his/her employment contract expires;
  2. During the second year of continuous service at the institution, the faculty member shall be given not less than 180 calendar days notice before his/her employment expires; and
  3. After two or more years of continuous service at the institution, the faculty member shall be given not less than twelve months' notice before his/her employment contract expires.
4. Notice of Nonreappointment
  1. The decision not to reappoint a faculty member when a probationary term expires shall be made by the appropriate dean^[3] after receiving the recommendations provided above and in Section IV.C. The dean's decision not to reappoint, if it accords with negative recommendations by both the department's chairperson and the majority vote of the department's senior faculty, is final except as it may be later appealed in accordance with the provisions of Section V. The dean shall notify the faculty member of the decision by a simple, unelaborated written statement that the faculty member will not be reappointed. Each decision not to reappoint shall be communicated for information through the administrative channels prescribed for review had the decision been to reappoint.
  2. Notice of nonreappointment shall be written. Failure to give timely notice of nonreappointment, whether the reappointment decision was timely made or made after it should have been made as required by Section IV.B.1 and IV.B.3, will oblige the Chancellor thereafter to offer a terminal appointment of one academic year.
Procedures for Evaluation and Documentation
1. The gathering of information for an evaluation for reappointment, promotion, or tenure shall be the responsibility of the department chairperson or appropriate dean. If the department chairperson is being considered for promotion, the appropriate dean shall be responsible for evaluating his/her performance after consulting with and taking an advisory vote of the assembled senior members of the department.
2. A Faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion to be composed of eight permanently tenured faculty members shall be elected by the faculty to review requests for reappointment, tenure, and promotion. The committee members shall be elected for three-year terms, which terms shall be staggered. The committee shall be composed of two members from each of the four divisions designated in the "Official Senate Election Procedures for Autonomous Faculty Committees." The committee will elect its own chairperson. A quorum is a simple majority of the total committee membership. If a member of the RTP Committee is a candidate for review by that committee or has a spouse who is under review by that committee, he or she shall be replaced on the committee by a substitute during that semester. The Senate Steering Committee shall name a substitute.
3. It shall be the responsibility of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the deans of the professional schools to review the departmental recommendations for reappointment, promotion, and tenure following the evaluation process as required by Section IV.B.2. The deans forward their recommendations to Academic Affairs.
4. The Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs shall convene the Faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion for the purpose of organization and shall present the submitted recommendations for reappointment, promotion, and tenure. The Faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion may seek additional information from appropriate sources for the purpose of clarification. All such requests for information shall come through the chairperson of the Faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion. Such requests, with justification, and any responses shall be written, and the chairperson of the Faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion will ensure that any such correspondence and/or other documentation is inserted into the candidate's dossier before it is forward to the Provost and VCAA.
5. The chairperson of the Faculty Committee on Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion shall submit the committee's recommendations to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
6. If the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs recommends reappointment, tenure, and/or promotion of a faculty member, he/she shall forward the recommendation to the Chancellor. If the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs decides that the faculty member should not be reappointed when a probationary term expires, that decision must be reported to the Chancellor and Board of Trustees and is final except as it later may be appealed in accordance with the provisions of Section V and 604 D. If he/she recommends that promotion or tenure not be given, he/she shall forward the recommendation to the Chancellor.
7. If the Chancellor receives a negative decision on reappointment from the Provost and VCAA he/she shall report this decision to the Board of Trustees at the same time that positive recommendations for reappointment are forwarded to it.
       If the Chancellor concurs in a recommendation not to grant permanent tenure, he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place a copy in the dossier, and report this decision to the Board of Trustees at the same time that positive recommendations for tenure are forwarded to it. The decision not to tenure is final except as it may later be appealed in accordance with provisions of Section V and 604 D of the Code.
        If the Chancellor concurs in a recommendation for tenure he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place a copy in the dossier, and forward the recommendation to the Board of Trustees for final approval.
        If the Chancellor does not concur in a recommendation not to grant tenure he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place an elaborated written statement of the decision in the dossier, and forward the recommendation to the Board of Trustees for final approval.
        If the Chancellor does not concur in a recommendation to grant tenure he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place an elaborated written statement of the decision in the dossier, and report the decision to the Board of Trustees for final approval. The decision not to tenure is final except as it later may be appealed in accordance with the provisions of Section V and 604 D of the Code.
        If the Chancellor concurs in a recommendation not to promote from associate professor to professor he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place a copy in the dossier, and report this decision to the Board of Trustees at the same time that positive recommendations for promotion are forwarded to it.
        If the Chancellor concurs in a recommendation to promote from associate professor to professor he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place a copy in the dossier, and forward this recommendation to the Board of Trustees for final approval.
        If the Chancellor does not concur in a recommendation not to promote from associate professor to professor he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place an elaborated written statement of the decision in the dossier, and forward the recommendation to the Board of Trustees for final approval.
        If the Chancellor does not concur in a recommendation to promote from associate professor to professor he/she shall send the faculty member being considered written notification of the decision, place an elaborated written statement of the decision in the dossier, and forward the recommendation to the Board of Trustees for final approval.
Continuing Evaluation of Faculty
1. In the interest of fostering continued professional growth for all faculty members, a full evaluation shall be completed at least once every four years for each faculty member with permanent tenure. It is the responsibility of the department chairperson or school dean to initiate and conduct the evaluation process for all members of the department or school with permanent tenure as they come under this requirement. Appropriate recommendations resulting from this evaluation shall be formulated by the department chairperson or school dean.
2. An evaluation of a faculty member with permanent tenure may be done in any year at his/her request.
3. An evaluation of a department chairperson shall be the responsibility of the appropriate dean who shall consult with the full membership of the relevant department.
4. When circumstances warrant, an evaluation may be initiated by the department chairperson, the appropriate dean, the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, or the Chancellor.
5. Copies of the evaluation and recommendations shall be given to the faculty member being evaluated, with copies forwarded to the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (and the appropriate dean when evaluations are prepared by departmental chairpersons).


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