Promotion and Tenure
Nebraska strives to hire a talented faculty that produces important work and builds noteworthy careers. Those colleagues who are invited to join the senior faculty each year shape the University’s academic reputation for years to come.
Each time a faculty member is considered for promotion or tenure, they are held to the same high standard: a proven record that suggests a sustained career typified by true excellence.
Deadlines
Below are the due dates for submission of promotion and/or tenure files to the appropriate Vice Chancellor; please note that colleges, departments, and other administrative subunits may have additional deadlines to be observed.
| November 15, 2021 | Deadline for all nominations for tenure and/or promotion for IANR faculty. |
|---|---|
| January 31, 2022 | Deadline for nominations for tenure with or without promotion to go into effect July 1, 2021 or August 16, 2021 |
| February 28, 2022 | Deadline for nominations for promotion only to go into effect July 1, 2021 or August 16, 2021 |
Submissions before the deadlines are appreciated. Please aim for a target date of one week prior to the deadline if possible.
Promotion & Tenure Workshop
This workshop is intended for faculty who will be going through the promotion and tenure cycle in 2021-22 or 2022-23 and the academic leaders (associate deans, DEOs, P&T committee chairs, etc.) that support the process.
Event Details:
Thursday, September 23
3:30 – 5 p.m.
The workshop will be available virtually and in-person. Please note which way you plan to participate on your registration form.
Documentation Request
The Documentation Request outlines the materials to be included in every promotion and tenure file. Please note that this Request has been updated. Every file must be organized with clearly labeled sections in “Documentation Request” order.
Course evaluations and COVID-19: Instructors have the option of not having evaluation results for spring 2020 semester considered in merit decisions, including annual evaluations, reappointment, promotion, and tenure. If instructors choose to opt-out of having their student course evaluation results being included in their evaluation portfolios, they need to notify their dean or department chair of that decision.
COVID-19 Impact Statement and Fact Sheet: Faculty may wish to include a COVID-19 Impact Statement and/or the UNL Institutional Pandemic Fact Sheet in their files. Including either or both of these items is entirely optional and at the discretion of the candidate. If included, these items could be placed in the Appendices, or as part of the Candidate Statement (and in that case would not count towards the 15-page limit on the Candidate Statement). Faculty may find this list of prompts helpful in writing a COVID-19 Impact Statement.
Forms
The following forms must be completed by all candidates and included in your nomination file.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Transmittal Forms for:
- Promotion and/or Tenure - Tenured or Tenure-Track Faculty
- Promotion for Research Faculty
- Promotion for Professor of Practice Faculty
External Reviewers
Every tenure and/or promotion file must include at least three external and independent letters of review, from faculty holding appropriate rank at R1 institutions. Any exceptions to this standard must be approved, in advance and in writing, by the cognizant dean and vice chancellor or their designees; exceptions are intended to be very rarely granted. Generally, external reviewers should have full professorial rank, and in any case they must hold at least the rank being sought in the promotion process. Note that it is the responsibility of the department chair/head/school director, the chair of the departmental promotion and tenure committee, or the dean – not the candidate – to solicit these letters.
Reviewers must be chosen who are qualified to judge the quality of the candidate’s work because of their own knowledge of the field. These letters are to be "independent" in the sense that they will be from individuals who have had at most limited professional or personal relationships with the candidate and who have been chosen by the department chair/head (or chair of the promotion and tenure committee, or dean, as appropriate) for their ability to provide an objective assessment.
As such, external reviewers should not include dissertation advisors, current or former collaborators, former colleagues, personal friends, or others who have any special relationship to the candidate. In cases where the extreme prominence of a candidate makes independent letters impracticable, special care should be taken to solicit letters from exceptionally prominent reviewers.
Below are sample templates for soliciting external reviews in the most common situations:
Special Circumstances
Personal circumstances may prevent a faculty member in a tenure-leading position from performing at the level that is necessary to reach the high expectations of tenure within the timeframe of the probationary period. In such cases, an extension in the tenure clock may be appropriate.
Occasionally a faculty member might, for various reasons, request a change in home department. This process begins with the Request to Change Tenure Home Department form in the case of tenure-track faculty and the Request to Change Department Home form for non-tenure-track faculty.