Memorandum
TO: Deans and DEOs
FROM: Mark Button, Executive Vice Chancellor Tiffany Heng-Moss, Vice Chancellor, Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources
RE: Promotion and/or Tenure in 2026-27
DATE: April 01, 2026
Tenure and promotion reviews are among the most important activities in the academy. The colleagues we advance this year will shape the University’s academic reputation for years to come. It is crucial that your reviews be conducted in accordance with University procedures and bylaws. These reviews should always be characterized by fairness, with appropriate and rigorous standards used in forming your evaluations and recommendations.
Every tenure or promotion decision should be judged against the same standard: a proven record of achievement that evinces a sustained career typified by true excellence and distinction. The promotion and tenure process across our campus is governed by the document Guidelines for the Evaluation of Faculty: Annual Evaluations, Promotion, and Tenure, which has been endorsed by the Faculty Senate. Like the Guidelines, this memo and its attachments apply campus-wide; your own units may have additional policies and procedures in place that supplement (but do not supersede) these. Every file must follow the guidelines specified in the Documentation Request. Once department/school and college level reviews have been completed, the file must be submitted electronically to the appropriate Vice Chancellor’s office.
All required forms and documents can be found and downloaded from our website:
https://executivevc.unl.edu/faculty/evaluation-recognition/promotion-tenure
As you prepare your promotion and tenure reviews, we ask that you attend to the following:
- Candidates have the right to request reconsideration of a negative vote or decision at each stage of the process. It is important that you build time for reconsideration into your process so that you can meet the deadlines in the attached schedule.
- All discussions, reviews, and evaluations must be based on the material contained in the file. Part of the task of constructing an appropriate file is making sure that all relevant information is contained in it. It is the responsibility of the chair/head/director to ensure that all the relevant documents and materials have been included in the file.
- Each internal group or individual making a recommendation on the file must submit a letter that addresses all aspects of the candidate’s work responsibilities and apportionment and provides reasons for the recommendation.
- Every tenure and/or promotion file[1] must include at least three external (to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and independent letters of review, from faculty holding appropriate rank[2] at R1 institutions. Note that “independent” should be interpreted to mean that the reviewers are chosen to be independent from the candidate as well as from one another. 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. 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.
Thank you for attending to these considerations and requirements. If you have any questions about the process, we encourage you to contact Christopher Marks, Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs in the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, or Rich Bischoff, Associate Vice Chancellor in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as appropriate.