Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• The Teaching Triad: Teaching, Research/Scholarship, and Service
• The Boyer Model
• Faculty Evaluation
• Promotion

NRSG 794 - Introduction to the Nursing Faculty Role

Module 3: The Nursing Faculty Role

PROMOTION

When hired into a faculty role, you will be interested in what the opportunities are for you to advance and how promotion actually works in an academic setting. If you seek a part-time appointment, you likely will be called a clinical or adjunct instructor at entry. Opportunities for advancement/promotion at this level are limited as faculty are focused mainly on teaching one or more courses, and don’t have the opportunity to fully address their scholarship, teaching and service responsibilities.

If you enter the faculty role as a full-time faculty member, you will be ranked according to your expertise, experience, productivity, and in some cases, your potential – another place that CV comes in handy! If your entry is your first faculty position, you may be an Instructor. The actual “ranks” for faculty at most colleges and universities are Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor. The latter is sometimes referred to as “full Professor”, but is not written that way.  There are very specific criteria for accomplishments at each of these ranks that are set by an elected or appointed committee of faculty members on what is frequently called something like the “Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee” (APT).

The criteria for promotion are lengthy and very specific. For example, often those with a master’s degree cannot be appointed above the rank of Assistant Professor in a university setting. Newly appointed faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor or above may be termed as “tenure track” or “non-tenure track”. Those on the tenure track have a specified period of time (usually 6 to 7 years) to meet the criteria for promotion and tenure. If the criteria are not achieved, the faculty member may be terminated from their position or moved to a non-tenure track position. Both types or positions (tenure and non-tenure) bring value to the faculty and are often a matter of choice for faculty, based on their career goals and timeline. Hopefully, they will be achieved and the faculty member becomes eligible to apply for promotion and tenure if they so choose.

Tenure

What is tenure? Typically it is a near-lifetime contract between the individual and the institution. It is rarely broken unless there is a dramatic and critical reason for doing so. Those faculty granted tenure earn it by meeting criteria for the position that is typically focused on research productivity and dissemination of results via publications and other venues. The UMSON has two tenure tracks for faculty, commonly known as the research tenure track, and the teaching excellence tenure track. Again, you will have a choice upon hire in an academic position as to which track (tenure or non-tenure) and which focus (research or teaching) you will be appointed to. Each school, college, or university has its own policies governing promotion and tenure.

The Dossier

Since each rank has specific criteria that faculty members must meet, there is a process for applying for promotion. Typically it involves consultation with the person to whom the faculty member reports – usually this is a department chair. If that person is supportive and feels the faculty member has sufficiently met the criteria for the desired rank, the faculty member begins to prepare a dossier.

A dossier is a packet of information required for review of the application. Much of the content is provided by the faculty applicant. Typically confidential letters and other materials are sent to a Department Administrative Assistant who collates and assembles the dossier in print and electronic formats. The UMSON APT Committee has prepared a timeline/overview of the faculty responsibility in preparing the dossier by October 1st of each year.
Documents required:

• Cover Letter
• Letter of support from Department Chair                              
• CV
• Self-evaluation (6 page narrative)
• Publications (5 most recent)
• Official teaching/course evaluations x 5 years
• Peer and administrative teaching reviews
• Letters from 3 students/alumni
• Funded research evidence
• Letters of service
• Certifications
• Letters from 2-3 faculty peers
• Letters from 2-3 recognized experts in field (optional)
• Suggestions for at least 5 external reviewers of similar rank at similar schools, unknown to applicant

As you review this list, you can see that it requires a considerable amount of time and effort to create the necessary materials for this important application!
The preparation of the dossier is the same for both non-tenure and tenure applications for promotion. It is the criteria for promotion are different with the tenure application criteria more heavily focused in the area of research/scholarship and/or teaching effectiveness.

The Review Process

The dossier is a highly confidential document and is treated as such throughout the application and review process. Copies of the dossier are provided to all members of the APT Committee. In addition, copies are provided to (usually five) external reviewers who are faculty with expertise in the field or focus area of the applicant’s work who are at, or above, the rank the applicant is seeking. These people carefully review the material and write a comprehensive review of the applicant’s achievements in teaching, research/scholarship, and service. They write a review letter and indicate whether they would recommend the applicant for the promotion and/or tenure sought. The APT Committee also reviews the dossier and then votes on the application for promotion and/or tenure. They consider the reviews of the external experts in this process. The APT Committee members collaborate in writing a summary letter to the Dean with their recommendation. The Dean then considers the APT Committee recommendation and moves it forward to the UMB President for final action. There are procedures for the applicant to use if they do not agree with the final decision.

As you can see, this is a very serious and lengthy process. Applicants typically do not know the outcome of the application until June of the year following the submission of the application in the previous October. Hopefully it is a positive outcome!