Tenure and Promotion Handbook
Item M: Initiator's Recommendation and Dossier Summary
See Faculty Manual §4.XI.4.(m).
1. Individuals who have access to this item:
- All those granted access to the dossier:
- The initiator
- The Associate Dean
- Members of the Tenure and Promotion Committee
- The Dean of the College
- The President
2. Participants in preparing this item, and role of each participant:
- Initiator – reads contents of dossier and provides summary and recommendation. In cases of joint appointment, the two initiators may collaborate in preparing a single document or may write independently.
3. Guidelines and suggestions for the content of this item:
- The initiator’s recommendation should be stated explicitly in the document.
- The initiator’s recommendation and dossier summary should be a document that is separate from other documents the initiator may contribute to the dossier (a letter as a tenured member of the department; the peer review of teaching; in cases of joint appointment, a letter referencing the joint statement of departmental expectations).
- The narrative summary should address the “Standards for Faculty Evaluation” as provided in 4.VII.A.1-3 of the Faculty Manual.
- The summary should include a variety of evidence and provide concrete examples and illustrations to support the evaluation. The most common sources of evidence for each category of faculty performance include the following:
- Effective Teaching: Peer reviews of teaching, student evaluations, comments of tenured faculty in the department, and letters from alumni.
- Professional Activity: Letters from external evaluators and comments of tenured faculty in the department.
- Service to the College and Community: Letters from St. Olaf colleagues outside the candidate’s department and comments of tenured faculty in the department.
Some letter-writers may be familiar with the candidate’s work in other categories as well. For example, a colleague in another department may have team-taught with the candidate, or a former student may have collaborated on a research project with the candidate. The initiator should include this information wherever appropriate.
- The summary is also to include “the opinions of all full-time, non-tenured members of the candidate’s department who have completed at least two years of service at the College.”
- Faculty members in this category include those who are full-time during the year of the review, and who have completed at least two years of full-time service prior to the year of the review. The years of service need not be consecutive, but they must have occurred during the candidate’s years of service, to allow sufficient opportunities for observation of the candidate’s work.
- While the non-tenured members are not expected to provide a systematic review of the candidate’s performance, they should be referred to the Faculty Manual Standards for Faculty Evaluations, and encouraged to review the candidate’s CV and portfolio of teaching and professional materials, available from the department’s Academic Administrative Assistant.
- Opinions may be provided either orally or in writing.
- Those providing opinions are not required to make a recommendation; they may elect to convey no opinion.
The Faculty Manual does not prohibit chairs from soliciting opinions of the candidate’s work from other knowledgeable department members, such as faculty members on phased-in retirement who have resigned tenure and are not currently full-time, or other part-time instructors with many years of experience in the department.
4. Additional resources:
- Sample Initiator’s letter to full-time non-tenured faculty in the candidate’s department (Appendix 2)
5. Contact for questions or concerns:
- Associate Dean
- Assistant Provost (x3004)
