Post-Tenure Review

Tenured faculty members are expected to maintain a consistently satisfactory level of performance in the essential areas of research, teaching, professional growth, leadership, and service. At least once every three years, each tenured professor's record of performance is subjected to a thorough examination of peer review. The purpose of these reviews is to identify faculty members who merit special recognition or need special assistance. The criteria are the same as those for promotion and tenure: continuing professional growth, scholarly activities, creative and artistic achievement, maintenance of high quality of teaching, exercise of leadership in academic and administrative service, and service and activities on behalf of the larger community. The process of review also mirrors that for promotion and tenure, except that the case is developed by an elected or appointed departmental committee and is not submitted to the university-wide Faculty Personnel Committee. The dean and the Provost do review the case and may comment on it. For more information see the Post Tenure Review Policy.

The standards for promotion to full professor mirror those for tenure and promotion to associate professor: high quality performance in both teaching and service is a must and national or international prominence in scholarship or artistic performance is expected as well. Promotion to full professor does not come automatically with longevity at UO. While some faculty members retire as associate professors, this is not in the best interest of the University or the individual. One mission of a research university is the contribution of new knowledge and levels of performance. Our resources and faculty workloads are allocated to allow for research. Productivity in your discipline is as much a requirement of the job as is meeting your responsibilities to your students, your department, and the broader university community. In addition to your service as teacher and university community member, you need to stay active as a scholar in your discipline at a level that merits recognition and promotion to full professor within six to ten years of your becoming an associate professor. Standards for promotion do not change over time - when seeking promotion to Professor, you are expected to have as productive - if not more so - a scholarly record after ten or twelve years, as you needed to be promoted to a tenured associate professorship after six years. It is recognized that there is variability in career paths across the UO's many disciplines, therefore, a shift in the weighting of teaching versus research versus service accomplishments may be carried out in some cases, with promotion to Professor as the proper reward for excellence.