Appendix F. Schedule and Procedures for Recommending Internal Promotions to the ATP

Appendix F-1. College's Standard Letter to Solicit Review by Referees (see 7f below for more information)


             This memo concerns internal promotions only, i.e. those from Associate or Lecturer to Senior Associate or Senior Lecturer and from Associate Professor to Professor.

             Generally, the ATP schedule in fall semesters concentrates on tenure cases that must go to Columbia for spring ad hocs. Most internal promotion cases, therefore, are dealt with in the spring. To ensure that we can handle and schedule the load, the ATP has now established an annual deadline of March 1st by which completed internal promotion dossiers (8 sets) must be submitted to the Provost's office in order to guarantee full consideration by the ATP and President before the end of the academic year. Any received thereafter may have to wait for the following year, with the attendant delay in effective date (and salary adjustment).

             Chairs must inform the Provost by January 15th whether the department is considering any promotions to Senior Associate, Senior Lecturer or Professor so a sufficient number of meetings may be planned for the spring term.

             The ATP has also clarified what sorts of documentation are expected to be included in dossiers for internal promotions, based upon, but modified from, what is expected for tenure dossiers. The following list is aimed at promotion to full Professor. Departments may recommend minor adjustments of procedure for promotions to senior status of off-ladder faculty.

             Internal Promotion Dossier Instructions

1) A complete cv in the general format as recommended by the ATP (Appendix G); it should be marked to indicate what has been published since the last promotion or appointment.

2) A statement by the candidate on elements of teaching, research and service and focusing on information since the last promotion or appointment.

3) A statement by the Chair on behalf of the tenured faculty of the department or the faculty committee appointed to consider the promotion focusing on information about teaching, research and service since the last promotion or appointment.

4) Copies of all scholarly or creative work published by the candidate since the last promotion or appointment; grant applications and reviews of published work should also be included.

5) Representative syllabi; other course material as appropriate.

6) Evidence of teaching ability since last promotion or appointment; consult forms of evidence approved by the ATP for consideration of tenure candidates for ideas of what constitutes acceptable evidence (Appendix E).

7) Copies of letters from external reviewers. These are desirable but not required for promotions to senior status; they are required for promotions to Professor. The following process should be followed:

a) at least three and up to five outside letters are required, with some from people who wrote for the previous tenure/promotion decision;

b) a letter from a person in the candidate's field from the Columbia department is desirable and may count for one of minimum three external letters;

c) the Chair may ask for suggestions of referees from the candidate, but should use the suggestions as a source, and not as the entire list; the Chair should gain other names, perhaps solicited from some of those identified by the candidate;

d) the dossier must include a notation from the Chair as to how the referees were selected and which among them, if any, were suggested by the candidate;

e) the Chair may call potential referees in advance of mailing the dossier to determine their willingness to review;

f) the letter soliciting review by the referees should follow the general format of the College's standard letter; if the Chair feels that substantial changes in wording are necessary for a particular case, s/he should consult with the Provost.