Promotion From Associate Professor to Professor

This page provides a information on the process for promotion from associate professor to professor at UW-Madison with each expandable panel providing information. The promotion from associate professor to professor process is outlined in Faculty Policies and Procedures 7.16. Department policies should align with the campus policy and any existing school/college policy. In addition to your department chair and associate deans in your school/college, Beth Meyerand, vice provost for faculty and staff,  and Heather Daniels, secretary of the faculty, welcome your questions as you move through this process.

Promotion from the rank of associate professor to that of professor should be guided by a clear, written policy on the criteria and process for promotion within each department. Schools and colleges may determine parameters for departmental policy. While the departmental policy need not establish absolute metrics of scholarship, it should define types of scholarly work (teaching, service, outreach/extension and research/scholarly productivity) that are expected for promotion.

Faculty Policies and Procedures requires that departments provide newly hired or promoted Associate Professors with the guidelines. (FPP 5.21.D.2)

In applying its professional judgment to the decision of whether to recommend promotion, the Council of Full Professors (typically consisting of full professors within the department; see the panel below called Departmental Promotion Review Process) must follow the departmental policy in the interest of improving the academic and professional quality of the department.

The Council of Full Professors may not decline to recommend promotion for any reasons which are legally impermissible or which violate principles of academic freedom.

The basic standard for review will be whether the faculty member under review has met criteria consistent with the rank of professor as established in its departmental guidelines. Special care should be taken to ensure that the scholarly productivity of jointly appointed and interdisciplinary faculty is appropriately evaluated.

The articulated standards in each department should be consistent with disciplinary conventions. Department standards for promotion should consider any additional documentation of responsibilities. In general, promotion should be based on the record of scholarly work (teaching, service, outreach/extension and research/scholarly productivity) and should not be taken solely for reasons of salary, status, retention, or years of service. These criteria and standards should be consistent with, and may be a subset of, those established under section Faculty Policies and Procedures 7.17.B. (“Post-Tenure Review: Criteria”).

Notwithstanding the responsibility of the department executive committees to provide for the guidance and mentoring of all faculty members, it is the faculty member’s responsibility to meet the criteria for promotion as determined by the department.

Faculty Policies and Procedures 5.21.D requires that department executive committees consider each associate professor’s progress toward promotion to professor either during its periodic review of tenured faculty (including post-tenure review described in FPP 7.17) or separately.

Promotion must be considered no later than the first post-tenure review (performed in the fifth year). If promotion is not sought or granted at that time, the associate professor and department chair may mutually agree upon a timeline for reconsideration, not to exceed five years between reviews. If no agreement is made, the default reconsideration schedule will be once every year. An associate professor may direct the Council of Full Professors to consider them for promotion any time after their initial fifth-year post-tenure review.

If an associate professor being considered for promotion has a joint appointment, the department designated as the principal sponsor of the appointment will take the primary role in the evaluation process. The involvement of other department(s) in the review should follow the process outlined in the faculty member’s appointment letter or other agreement between the departments.

A minimum of three professors is required for a Council of Full Professors. Any department that does not have at least three professors must appoint, by a vote of its executive committee, enough professors from other departments to bring the complement of professors on the Council to three. The appointed professor(s) will serve until there are at least three professors on the departmental executive committee.

A departmental recommendation to promote to the rank of professor is forwarded to the Dean’s office following an affirmative recommendation of a subset of the departmental executive committee, consisting of the full professors on the executive committee (hereafter referred to as the “Council of Full Professors”), to that effect. In lieu of a Council of Full Professors, departments may instead create a standing committee consisting of a subset of full professors to vote on promotion cases.

1. 1. The associate professor will provide the Council of Full Professors with materials as outlined in the departmental policy such as a current curriculum vitae, annual activity reports, publications, grant proposals, and other scholarship; summary of teaching and student evaluations; and evidence of service (both at UW-Madison and to the profession more broadly), outreach, governance, and administrative work.
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   3. A written summary of the associate professor’s work and supporting documentation across all areas of scholarship (teaching, service, outreach/extension and research/scholarly productivity) needs to be submitted to the Council of Full Professors before a vote is taken. The summary will include materials primarily provided by the associate professor following departmental guidelines.

1. 1. The Council of Full Professors will meet to discuss and vote on the advancement of associate professors to the rank of professor. The vote should follow the procedures outlined in the department policy and be based on the record of scholarly work (in teaching, service, outreach/extension and research/scholarly productivity), and should not be taken solely for reasons of salary, status, or retention, or years of service.
   2. Once the vote has been taken, the faculty member shall be notified of the decision by the department chair in writing within five business days of the decision. If the decision is adverse, reasons for the decision will be included.
3. A Council of Full Professors recommendation of promotion to professor shall be transmitted by the department chair to the dean. The dean will then follow the process for approval or denial of promotion recommendations as outlined by school/college policy. Promotions typically take effect on July 1 for faculty on 12-month appointments and at the start of the contract year in August for faculty on 9-month appointments.

1. DUE PROCESS, RECONSIDERATIONS AND APPEALS
   1. A faculty member receiving a negative outcome may request within ten business days of receiving the written decision a reconsideration by the Council of Full Professors. The meeting shall be held within twenty calendar days after the faculty member concerned requests reconsideration.
   2. The faculty member concerned shall have an opportunity to attend the reconsideration meeting accompanied, if they wish, by a representative of their choice, to respond to the statement of reasons, and to present any written or oral evidence or arguments relevant to the decision.
   3. Reconsideration is not a hearing, nor an appeal, and shall be non-adversarial in nature.
   4. Within five business days following the reconsideration, the chair shall convey the decision of the Council of Full Professors to the faculty member concerned in writing. If the decision is adverse, the faculty member may appeal to the dean. The dean has fifteen calendar days to consider the faculty member’s appeal and render a decision in writing. In cases when an adverse decision is upheld by the dean, that decision may be appealed to the Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities (CFRR) (see 6 below).
   5. Should a departmental decision on promotion be positive, and that decision is reversed by the dean, the faculty member will be notified in writing of the dean’s decision and the reasons for the decision within five business days. The faculty member may appeal a dean’s adverse decision to CFRR (see 6 below).
   6. In the event of an adverse decision by the Council of Full Professors or by the dean, the faculty member will have twenty calendar days from the date of the decision to appeal to CFRR. The CFRR will decide on the validity of the appeal – basing its assessment on whether or not the decision on promotion was based in any significant degree on impermissible factors outlined in UWS Administrative Code 3.08[1][a], [b], and [c] and will transmit its findings to the faculty member concerned, the department chair, the department’s Council of Full Professors, the dean, and the provost.If CFRR finds that a decision in 7.16.D.2 or 7.16.D.5 was based in any significant degree on impermissible factors, it may remand the case back to the decision maker or send it to the next higher appointing authority. If the provost is involved, they will, in consultation with the Divisional Committee Review Council (DCRC) (Faculty Policies and Procedures 7.17.C.7), make the final decision on promotion. That decision will be rendered within 30 calendar days of the date of the CFRR report. The provost’s decision will be final.
   7. In the event of an adverse decision that the faculty member chooses not to appeal or appeals without success, the chair or designee will meet with the faculty member to discuss how to create a stronger case for promotion.
   8. A negative decision on promotion does not preclude consideration in subsequent years.