Progress Toward Tenure Review Procedures, Department of History

I. Purpose and Principles

The purpose of the Progress Toward Tenure Review (PTTR) is to provide faculty members with a meaningful appraisal of their cumulative progress to date toward earning tenure. A secondary purpose is to orient the tenure-track faculty member toward basic aspects of the tenure process. The review is conducted at the department and College levels.

The review assesses the faculty member’s cumulative accomplishments and pattern of progress in research, teaching, and service at the University of Kansas. The reference point for this assessment is the History Department’s and University’s criteria for promotion and tenure and departmental and University goals for pre-tenure faculty. Neither the record of the review nor its results shall be included in a faculty member’s promotion and tenure record and recommendations for or against promotion and tenure should not be influenced by favorable or unfavorable results of the Progress Toward Tenure Review. This limitation does not prevent consideration during the promotion and tenure review of the same documents and information considered by the Progress Toward Tenure Review.

Guidelines for “Pre-Tenure Matters” are covered by Article VI, Section 4 of Faculty Senate Rules and Regulations (FSSR), available at https://policy.ku.edu/governance/FSRR#art6sect4.

II. Period for Review

The Progress Toward Tenure Review is a formal review conducted approximately midway through the probationary period for tenure-track faculty. The review normally occurs during the third year of the tenure-track appointment. The start date of the tenure-track appointment is the base for calculating the timing of the progress toward tenure review. A faculty member’s credited years of prior university service (as determined by the Provost Office at the time of initial appointment) are also counted when determining the Progress Toward Tenure Review date. For example, a faculty member with one year of credited prior service will be reviewed during the second year of their KU appointment. A faculty member will be exempt from the Progress Toward Tenure Review if they have received three or more years of prior service credit. Changes in the mandatory tenure review date under the policy for interruption of the tenure clock do not automatically affect the timing of the progress toward tenure review.