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Tenure and Promotion Guidelines

INTRODUCTION

We, the Faculty of the Department of Mathematics, enact the following guidelines for tenure and promotion decisions. These guidelines are intended to assist the faculty member who is seeking tenure and/or promotion, and to assist the Department in achieving its goals to attain excellence in teaching, research and service. We seek the establishment of a dynamic department with high visibility in the mathematical community.

PROCEDURES

Faculty members should familiarize themselves with the College, University and UFF procedures and guidelines.

  1. A faculty member considered for tenure and/or promotion must hold a Ph.D. or an equivalent degree in mathematics, or an acceptable related area, from an accredited university program.
  2. Evaluations regarding tenure, promotion and retention are made at two levels. The Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) and the Departmental Chair.
  3. The Chair shall collect relevant data for tenure and/or promotion of a candidate. This data shall be available to the candidate prior to deliberations by the FAC and the Chair. Also, the candidate shall review the recommendations of the FAC and the Chair before they are transmitted to the College of Arts and Sciences.
  4. The tenured faculty of the Department of Mathematics shall vote on the granting of tenure; all Associate and Full Professors shall vote on the promotion of a candidate to the Associate Professor rank; and, all Full Professors shall vote on the promotion of a candidate to the Professor rank. These departmental votes shall be part of the data collected for tenure and/or promotion.
  5. Untenured faculty shall receive annual feedback from the Chair regarding their progress toward tenure and/or promotion.

INFORMATION USED IN EVALUATIONS

  1. RESEARCH AND OTHER SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
    1. Articles in refereed professional journals
    2. Other support documents.
    3. Books, chapters in books, monographs.
    4. Grants and contracts applied for; grants and contracts received.
    5. Invitations to participate in symposia, colloquia or other research conferences.
    6. Organizing sessions or conferences in mathematics.

  2. TEACHING
    1. Classroom Teaching

      2. Commitment to and excellence in classroom teaching is expected. The Department views teaching and research as highly interrelated activities; it is assumed that often excellence in one can foster excellence in the other.

      1. Student evaluations, letters, etc.
      2. Instructional materials (syllabi, tests, etc.).
      3. The development of new or significantly revised courses.
      4. The development of new, innovative, and useful teaching techniques.
      5. Awards for teaching excellence.
      6. Awards of teaching grants.
    2. Participation in Honors and Masters Thesis and Dissertation Committees
      1. Supervision of students.
      2. Committee memberships.
    3. Other Teaching Related Activities
      1. Preparation of qualifying exams.
      2. Supervision of independent study courses.
      3. Other.

  3. SERVICE

    4. Service, both of a professional and public nature, is involved in evaluation of faculty performance, although typically the amount of assigned duties in this area is small in relation to other areas such as teaching and research and creative activity. Acceptable levels of performance are evaluated both in terms of quality and quantity. Regarding quantity, all faculty, unless specific exceptions are made, are expected to participate in the activities of departmental level committees and, to a lesser extent as appropriate, at college and university levels. Typically this would consist of some active committee assignments in the department plus college/university assignments as they might occur. For established faculty, a visible amount of professional service within the discipline of mathematics outside of the university is expected, such as contributing to professional associations at various levels, holding office in such organizations, reviewing scholarly manuscripts for publishers, and generally contributing to the overall well-being of the discipline.

    1. Departmental Service
      1. Departmental administrative activities.
      2. Student advising.
      3. Departmental committees.
      4. Departmental newsletter.
    2. University Service Outside of Department
      1. College-wide and university-wide committees.
      2. Collaborative programs with other disciplines.
    3. Professional
      1. Grant reviewing, journal refereeing and editing, program evaluation, and similar activities.
      2. Officer or committee work such as AMS, MAA, SIAM, AWM, at national, regional, state, and local levels.
    4. Community
    5. Public lectures or presentations relevant to mathematics.
    6. Other.

Criteria for Promotion/Tenure

The University requires that faculty be rated by the FAC and by the Chair on a five point scale in the three categories presented below plus “Advising.” The categories are: Outstanding, Strong, Satisfactory, Poor, and Unsatisfactory.

TEACHING -- There should be evidence of a sustained commitment to excellence in teaching by the candidate as reflected in student teaching evaluations and faculty/departmental evaluations. The College Guidelines state: “To qualify for tenure, faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences must have a consistent pattern of positive evaluations in teaching and have achieved a level of performance that is strong or outstanding.”

RESEARCH -- For tenure and/or promotion to associate professor, there should be evidence of a body of work of sufficient quality and quantity that has produced at least the beginning of a national reputation for significant and creative contributions to the candidate's field of research, and there should be evidence of the promise of continued growth. The College Guidelines state: “For a recommendation of tenure in the College, candidates must document that they have made a substantial contribution to research and/or creative activity in their discipline and have established a record of achievement that is strong or outstanding.”

For promotion to professor, an established national and international reputation is expected, as well as the indication of sustained high quality work. An outstanding record in research is required for promotion to professor.

SERVICE -- For promotion to associate professor/tenure, there should be evidence of a positive contribution to the Department, College, and/or University. For promotion to full professor, a candidate is expected to make a positive contribution to the university and to the profession.

These three areas of activity should conform to the annual assignment of duties, and the tenure and promotion evaluation should be a reflection of these annual assignments.

External Review

External review of the credentials of all candidates for tenure or promotion is required. The procedures for how such reviews will be obtained can be found in the promotion and tenure document for the College of Arts and Sciences. Accordingly, this review will comply with the guidelines promulgated by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost. This review will be available to the appropriate faculty units, FAC and the Chair.

Last revision: 3 June 1999.
Copyright 1994, USF Department of Mathematics.