Mission Statement and Charter for the Tenure and Promotion Committee

Mission

The Tenure and Promotion Committee is the college-wide committee charged with the review of all departmental recommendations for faculty tenure and/or promotion. The committee submits its recommendations to the senior administration. In addition, the committee addresses other matters relevant to standards and procedures governing tenure and promotion at The Citadel. The committee also hears appeals to denials of probationary reappointment.

Charter

I. Membership

A. Representation

The Committee on Committees selects one tenured full professor from each academic department (including the library) to serve on the committee. Academic faculty membership is restricted to tenured full professors who have been employed at The Citadel for at least one full academic year at the time they begin committee service. If a tenured full professor is not available in a department to serve on the committee, a tenured associate professor shall be selected. The Committee on Committees selects one tenured full professor from each academic school (plus the library) to serve on the Tenure and Promotion Appeals Committee. In addition, it selects at large two tenured full professors to serve as alternates. Academic faculty membership criteria for these seven positions are the same as for membership on the Tenure and Promotion Committee.

B. Tenure

Academic faculty members serve three year rotating terms, staggered so that at all times two-thirds of the committee have a collective memory of past decisions. An academic faculty member may request a second consecutive term; no faculty member may serve on the committee for more than six years consecutively. If a faculty member cannot complete a term, the Committee on Committees will select another member to fill the un-expired term. Time spent filling the term of another faculty member will not count toward the "six-year rule" outlined above.

II. Structure

A. Chair

The committee, at an organizational meeting held before the end of the spring semester, shall elect a chair who shall serve a term of one year or until the election of a new chair. The chair schedules and presides over meetings and undertakes whatever other measures are necessary to facilitate the work of the committee.

B. Subcommittees

Subcommittees may be created at the discretion of the committee.

C. Executive Committee

The Executive Committee shall be composed of the chair and three additional members, one from each cluster, each elected by the committee members of the respective cluster. The Executive Committee shall act only in those circumstances when the committee membership cannot be assembled, normally between commencement in mid-May and the beginning of the following fall semester in mid-August. The Executive Committee shall perform appropriate duties as the chair or the full committee may designate.

III. Activities and Responsibilities

A. Meetings. Other than the organizational meeting noted in II.A., the chair in consultation with the committee shall schedule such meetings as necessary in order to fulfill the committee's responsibilities under the mission above. The chair must hold a meeting if requested in writing by at least one-third of the voting members. In matters other than those described in C. below, a quorum consists of two-thirds of the voting membership.

B. During the fall semester, in association with the Provost and the Undergraduate and Graduate Deans of the College, the committee makes available to the general faculty information about the College's standards and procedures relating to tenure and promotion.

C. In the spring semester, the committee fulfills the following responsibilities:

  1. The committee receives applications and departmental recommendations, through the deans of the college, for tenure and/or promotion. The committee reviews all such materials, inviting the appropriate department head or other appropriate departmental representative and each candidate to appear personally before the committee in executive session.
  2. The committee makes recommendations for tenure and/or promotion to the Provost by either approving or disapproving the applications. The representative of a candidate's department may participate in all committee discussions of the candidacy but does not vote. An affirmative committee recommendation requires approval by a minimum of two- thirds of the committee membership; all members (except for the candidate's departmental representative) shall vote. All votes shall be justified in writing.
  3. Through the chair, the committee shall formally report the vote and all written comments on each candidate to the Provost or his or her designee, who shall, in turn, make available to each candidate the vote and accompanying justifications pertaining to his or her candidacy.

D. The committee shall make recommendations, as necessary or desirable, on standards and procedures relating to tenure and promotion, such recommendations (in writing) to be formally submitted to the Provost with a copy to each of the following: Provost, Dean of Graduate Studies, the Faculty Council, and each member of the general faculty.

E. The committee may perform other tasks in accordance with the general Charter Elements for Standing Committees.

F. Annual report. The committee will prepare an annual report summarizing the committee's activities over the previous academic year. The report includes all non-confidential decisions of the committee. Copies of this report, both in hardcopy and in electronic form, will be made accessible to all Citadel faculty, staff and students.

V. Amending the Charter

The committee may modify its charter in consultation with the Committee on Committees. Proposals for changes in the committee charter come to the Committee on Committees, which negotiates the changes with the standing committee and with any affected administrative departments. Consensus requests are forwarded to the Faculty Council for approval. In case of a lack of consensus, competing proposals may be sent to the Faculty Council for consideration.

Revised May 2008