A tenure-track faculty member's performance in teaching, research, and service (as appropriate) is evaluated over the total time in the previous rank as compared to the criteria established by the Board of Visitors for the rank being considered and any other criteria established by the department or college.

A non-tenure track research faculty member's performance in research, service (as appropriate) and teaching (as appropriate) is evaluated over the total time in the previous rank as compared to the criteria established by the Board of Visitors for the rank being considered and any other criteria established by the center.

A faculty member who has held the rank of associate professor at another institution and was initially appointed to Old Dominion University at the rank of associate professor may be considered for promotion at the time of the award of tenure.

A faculty member of extraordinary merit may be considered for promotion to the rank of full professor before the sixth year as associate professor at Old Dominion University.

Each faculty committee and administrator considering a promotion case must specifically consider factors listed below as they apply to each case in the written recommendations that are submitted up the line to the provost and vice president for academic affairs. In the case of committees, the vote must be recorded in the recommendation, and the reasons produced by the minority members must be specified.

Each committee and administrator making a recommendation concerning promotion considers evidence of the faculty member's performance over the total time in which the previous rank has been held as compared to the guidelines for the rank being considered as established by the Board of Visitors and any other guidelines established by the department or college.

The total rank structure of the department should be considered.

At the least, the committees and administrators should examine faculty information sheets, chair evaluations, dean's evaluations, and any other evidence submitted by the faculty member, the chair of the department, or any other relevant source. It is the responsibility of the department chair and the departmental promotion and tenure committee to provide an assessment of the quality of the publications for the faculty being considered for promotion. It is the responsibility of the faculty member to ensure that all information submitted by him or her in support of promotion is factually accurate and valid, and to provide corroborating evidence (e.g., web links, complete citations, grant numbers, etc.) for all claimed accomplishments. The evidence should address the quality of the journals and the reputation of book and other such publishers. Fraudulent or non-valid claims can lead to faculty sanctions, including denial of promotion. The chair should work with promotion candidates to ensure the completeness and accuracy of their portfolios. The chair and the department promotion and tenure committee as a part of the regular review process should verify the accuracy of portfolio elements that are central to the promotion case. Should concerns be raised about the validity of a candidate's claims by external or internal reviewers, it is the chair's responsibility to verify those claims. The promotion process will be paused while the chair verifies those claims.

The responsibility for initiating the external review, securing the reviewers, and forwarding complete review files to the dean, provost and vice president for academic affairs, and the University Promotion and Tenure Committee belongs to the department chair. If the department chair does not have the rank of full professor, all chair responsibilities for promotion to full professor will be delegated by the dean to a full professor in the department or from another department within the same college who will assume all of the chair's responsibilities described below. This appointed full professor, acting in the role of chair, cannot take part in any deliberations or votes of the departmental, college or University promotion committees while the promotion case is being considered. In promotion of department chairs, the responsibility belongs to the dean.

External reviewers with academic positions must hold the same rank or higher than the promotion rank for which the faculty member is being considered; exceptions should be justified by the dean. The department tenure and promotion committee and the candidate will prepare separate lists of potential reviewers. The candidate will review both lists and will document personal and professional relationships with all potential reviewers, including potential conflicts of interest. This documentation will become part of the promotion file. The chair (or designee, see 1 above) will select three reviewers from the candidate's list and three reviewers from the department tenure and promotion committee's list; the chair (or designee) will provide the list of reviewers to the dean. The dean will submit an agreed upon list to the provost and vice president for academic affairs for final approval prior to initiating the review process. The final list of external reviewers, together with the documentation of personal and professional relationships by the candidate (as outlined above), should be included as part of the application package for all internal reviewers. External reviewers should not be close collaborators or (former) mentors of the candidate. In general, co-authors on publications should also be excluded as external reviewers, except as permissible under the departmental statement on evaluation of research (see the Policy on the Evaluation of Scholarly Activity and Research). The selection of potential external reviewers must be completed before the end of the semester prior to the submission of credentials for promotion.

External reviews will be confidential; reviewers will be so advised. Requests for exception to the confidentiality of external reviews should be made directly to the provost and vice president for academic affairs before the reviewers are asked to submit evaluations. If an exception is approved, candidates for promotion will be allowed access to the substance of external reviews, but the authorship of specific external reviews and other identifying information contained therein will remain confidential. All external reviewers will receive a standard letter sent by the chair but prepared by the provost and vice president for academic affairs in consultation with the deans and a copy of the policy on external reviews so their responsibilities will be clear.

A curriculum vitae will be required of each external reviewer. Each reviewer will be asked to describe any personal or professional relationship with the candidate. It is the responsibility of the chair to include a curriculum vitae of each reviewer. For promotion of department chairs, the responsibility belongs to the dean.

External reviewers will be asked to evaluate all submitted material mailed to them. Candidates for promotion are responsible for the preparation of the research portfolio and curriculum vitae to be sent to external reviewers. In the case of the arts, reviewers may be asked to consider works of art or performances. External reviewers will be asked to evaluate: a) the quality of the scholarship or creative work under review; and b) the scholarly reputation (regional, national, international) of the candidate.

All candidates for promotion to full professor will be required to have their scholarship evaluated by no fewer than four external reviewers. If fewer than four reviews are received, the chair will choose additional reviewers alternately from the lists of the department promotion and tenure committee and of the candidate.

The University and college administration will assist departments where reasonable expenses are necessary to obtain appropriate external reviews.

In the case of large departments, the faculty members in the rank being considered or above may select a committee from their ranks to consider and make recommendations concerning promotion. In that case, it is the responsibility of the committee to elicit opinions from all faculty members holding the rank being considered or above.

In departments where fewer than three members hold appointments in the rank being considered or above, the dean, in consultation with the chair (or designee; see section II.B.1.), will appoint enough additional faculty in the rank or above from other disciplines to form a committee of at least three.

Candidates for promotion should provide a statement of potential external and/or internal reviewers with whom there is a conflict of interest, e.g., co-authors, co-investigators, etc.

The group of faculty on the promotion committee elect a chair of the committee among their members. It is the responsibility of that chair to direct the committee members to consider and apply the relevant sections in the Teaching and Research Faculty Handbook and the departmental statement on research evaluation in their comments and votes.

No dean, full- or part-time associate dean, or assistant dean, or other full-time administrator or department chair (or designee; see section II.B.1.) shall attend or participate in the deliberation of either the departmental, college, or University Promotion and Tenure Committee. The deliberations of all three committees are confidential and must not be shared with anyone outside of the committee.

The college committees shall consist of one tenured faculty member from each department in the college. All members of the college promotion and tenure committees shall be elected directly by the faculties they represent for a one-year term renewable twice for a total of three years. This member shall be chosen by majority vote of all full-time, tenure-track teaching and research faculty members of the department, present and voting, by secret ballot before April 15 of each year for the ensuing year. Every reasonable effort should be made to ensure that there are at least three full professors on the college committee. If the elected representative of a department will not be able to attend college committee meetings for a significant time span, the department may elect a temporary replacement for that time span. No person shall serve on a college promotion and tenure committee for more than three years consecutively but is eligible for reelection after an absence of at least one year. Only faculty holding the rank of full professor are eligible to join the deliberations and the vote on candidates for promotion to full professor. If the home department of a candidate for promotion to full professor has no full professor representing it on the college committee, a member of the departmental promotion committee for that candidate (convened as described in section C.1. and C.2. above) shall be elected to serve as its representative only for the duration of the deliberations on that specific candidate. In any case, the representative from a promotion candidate's department will participate in deliberations in the candidate's case but will not cast a vote.

Any committee member who participates in the promotion process votes at most only once on any particular case.

In order to ensure transparency, fairness, and equity in the internal review process, a faculty member or administrator who participates in the promotion process must disclose any potential conflict of interest that might undermine the credibility of the process. The chair of the department (or replacement, see section II.B.1.) will work in consultation with the dean of the college to decide whether the person should be excluded from serving on the review committee.

The faculty member under consideration is informed whenever a committee is considering promotion and is given an opportunity to submit a statement (in electronic form) to the Provost's Office in support of their promotion case, or to correct any factual misinformation in previous recommendations. The Provost's Office will add such statements to the candidate's file.

In case of material new accomplishments before the conclusion of the evaluation process, additional documentation may be added to the portfolio with the concurrence of the dean. Such additional material must be clearly marked as such and dated at the time of addition to the promotion file by the Provost's Office. If such additional documentation is considered, this must be clearly documented in the recommendation letters by the committee or individual (e.g. dean) who first see this new material.

promotion

deferral