Last March, the Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure (RPT) Task Force convened by the provost in fall 2007 issued its report, proposing significant changes to the framework under which faculty are considered for tenure and promotion, intended to allow departments to more appropriately support and reward the full spectrum of faculty work the department (and campus) values. More specifically, under this system, departments would be explicitly asked to decide whether or not to include professional practice as an additional category in their criteria, how they will deal with a somewhat broader definition of scholarship (modeled after Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered) and its evaluation, and how much variation individual faculty will be allowed in achieving a tenureable record (through the use of the Faculty Responsibility Statement). The faculty representative assembly voted to schedule a full faculty vote on adopting this report’s recommendations for this fall (tentatively in late October).
Several campus conversations were held last spring and another opportunity for an all-faculty discussion will be held this fall. In the meantime, colleges and departments are holding internal conversations. This page is intended to serve as a resource for faculty as they consider the report. The links below include the full report of the task force, a one-page summary of the report and a frequently asked questions document. A link to the Iowa State Faculty handbook, which provided some of the inspiration for the task force’s work, is also provided.
http://www.provost.iastate.edu/faculty/handbook/current/section5.html