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Promotion and Tenure Committee Guidelines

Purpose:

1. Prepare dossiers for faculty members seeking courtesy joint appointments, three-year reappointments, tenure, and promotion.

Duties of Committee:

1. Inform the CS faculty of their eligibility for promotion and tenure consideration.
2. Inform the CS faculty of the procedures and relevant timelines.
3. Evaluate requests for new and existing courtesy joint appointments in CS and make recommendations to the Chair of the Department (the CS policy on such appointments is attached).
4. Conduct three-year evaluations of faculty members seeking reappointment.
5. Complete dossiers for faculty members seeking promotion or tenure.
6. Conduct evaluations for faculty from other departments who are being considered for courtesy joint appointments.
7. Conduct yearly review of the Guidelines for the Promotion and Tenure Committee (this document), and if necessary, propose changes.

Committee Membership:

1. The P&T Committee will be composed of all tenured faculty members in the Department and the Chair's Administrative Assistant.

Committee Procedures:

1. A subcommittee is formed for each case, appointed by the chair of the P&T Committee.
2. Subcommittee chairs coordinate the evaluation and ensure that it is done in accordance with RPI policies.
3. The subcommittee will complete preparation of dossiers 3 weeks prior to the Dean's due date.
4. The P&T committee will convene to discuss cases 2 weeks prior to the Dean's due date.
5. A vote of the P&T committee members will be completed within two business days of the full committee meeting.
6. The P&T Committee and its subcommittees meet as frequently as necessary to do their work in a timely fashion.

Specific Charges for AY 2004-2005:

1. Inform affected faculty of tenure review schedule and process.
2. Review joint faculty appointments.
3. Process joint appointments for faculty who have requested them.

May 29, 2003
 

Faculty in other Rensselaer departments may request a courtesy joint appointment in Computer Science.  We expect such appointments to facilitate the advising of Computer Science graduate students and to generally promote interdisciplinary research activities.  Jointly appointed faculty should be required to serve in limited, but substantive roles in important departmental decisions.  They will not serve on the Computer Science Department P&T committee (all tenured faculty in CS) and thus they will not vote on P&T decisions.

The initial courtesy appointment for a given faculty member will be for no more than three years.  To apply for a joint appointment in Computer Science, a candidate must provide a complete RPI-style biographical sketch that will be evaluated by the Computer Science faculty.  The candidate will be required to give a talk and meet with the faculty, as would occur during an interview for a tenure track position.    The Computer Science Department will provide all documents relating to graduate student policies, including qualifying and candidacy exams, to the prospective joint faculty member.  He or she will be required to read over the materials and agree in writing to advise Computer Science doctoral students accordingly and to be present at doctoral examination meetings of their CS advisees and at the semi-annual reviews of students.  They must also agree to attend any other Department meeting that involves graduate student issues, if notice is provided.  A faculty vote will then be taken to determine if the appointment should be offered.  A majority vote is required for approval.

At the end of the initial three-year period the P&T Committee will make a recommendation for the renewal of the appointment based on the annual reviews from the faculty member's home department, his or her up-to-date RPI-style biographical sketch, and feedback provided by all faculty members working with the joint faculty member. This renewal can be for another limited term of three year or greater (to be specified by the P&T Committee) or for an indefinite period if the person is tenured in their home department.  A majority vote by the faculty is required to renew any appointment.  The P&T Committee will have the power to give exemption for reevaluation of joint faculty doing outstanding work with CS faculty and/or students.

Current courtesy joint faculty appointments will be honored, but will be subject to the renewal procedure detailed above three years from the date of this document (5/29/03).

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