Section III. Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion of Regular Faculty
The process of evaluating a faculty member for reappointment, tenure, or promotion is by necessity complex. The individual faculty member’s own performance and capability must be judged by the high standards of the Faculty and must also be viewed in the context of the College’s overall mission to provide superior liberal arts education, as well as the College’s assessment of its needs, directions and resources. This process calls for full cooperation between the Faculty and the Administration—both groups responsible to the Board of Trustees—acting in the best overall interest of the institution.
Each faculty member, through individual performance, helps determine the weight and importance of various factors relevant to assessing performance and contributions to the College. While other factors may become important in some cases, those generally recognized as relevant are:
Formal preparation—the Ph.D. or advanced degree generally considered the terminal degree in the faculty member’s field;
Effectiveness in teaching;
Effectiveness in advising and mentoring;
Evidence of scholarly productivity and potential;
Contribution to institutional renewal through program initiative and inventiveness;
Effectiveness in service, including committee and administrative assignments;
Contribution to the educational mission of the College, including fostering an inclusive learning environment; and
Relevance of the individual’s specialties, interests and talents to current and projected programmatic emphases and needs.
Changes in the importance of the above factors or in other expectations as specified in an initial appointment letter or in subsequent performance reviews shall be communicated to the faculty member in a timely manner. However, this should not be construed as limiting the Administration’s ability to change institutional direction or to respond to changing needs and circumstances.
Reappointment or tenure cannot be determined by individual competence alone, as the institution must also determine where it can best commit its limited resources. The Faculty, through its procedures, is principally responsible to provide information and to make its evaluation regarding the individual’s performance and the relevance of the individual’s skill to the present and anticipated programmatic needs of the College. In making its decision on reappointment, the Administration makes its evaluation based upon the individual’s performance and skill, but also must consider allocation of available resources to best accomplish the overall mission of the College.
While the same factors are to be considered in all reviews, the weighting of these factors and the specific criteria applied may vary as a function of the kind of review and other circumstances. In particular, tenure decisions, which represent long-term commitments by the College, require a prudent long-range perspective on institutional conditions and directions.
