Function

The function of the Faculty Personnel Committee is to make recommendations to the Provost and the President regarding reappointment, tenure, and promotion [Faculty Bylaws, Article III, Section 2.A]. Other functions include recommending to the Faculty candidates for election to emeritus/a status [Faculty Bylaws, Article III, Section 2.D] and, in rare instances, consultation on the conversion of a renewable position to a regular tenure-track appointment [Plan of Employment, Section II.D].

Committee Composition

As per the Faculty Bylaws, the Personnel Committee will consist of seven tenured members of the faculty. Members of the committee will serve a term of three years. Members may serve no more than two consecutive terms. The Executive Committee will prepare a slate of nominees in consultation with the Personnel Committee and will solicit additional nominations from the Faculty at large. The election will be held before the end of the spring quarter for the following academic year. Members will be elected by the Faculty with the stipulation that no more than two members may be from any one division. Members of the committee will elect annually from among their regular members a chair who will serve for that academic year. To ensure proper divisional representation, the Personnel Committee may augment its membership for reappointment reviews with nonmembers who are regular tenured Faculty members (here defined in accord with the Plan of Employment) as needed and who are to be appointed by the committee chair in consultation with the members of the committee. The Personnel Committee is elected to represent the interests of the Faculty as a whole [Faculty Bylaws, Article III, Section 2.B].

A Promotion Subcommittee will consist of the members of the Personnel Committee holding the rank of Professor augmented by other Professors to be appointed by the committee chair in consultation with the members of the subcommittee as necessary [Faculty Bylaws, Article III, Section 2.C].

Foundational Principles

The foundational principles for Faculty Personnel Committee procedures can be found in the Plan of Employment for Faculty section of the Faculty Handbook). Relevant sections are:

• Section III. Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion of Regular Faculty (create direct links to subsections)
• Section IV. Review for Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion of Regular Faculty
• Section V. Promotion in Rank of Regular Faculty

Conduct

Meetings and other activities of the Personnel Committee will be conducted in accordance with written procedures provided in the Plan of Employment. FPC establishes its own Review Procedures consistent with, but not superseding, guidance found in the Plan of Employment. Faculty Personnel Committee is committed to begin each academic year reviewing recent scholarship on course evaluations as well as other implicit biases.  

Resources for Candidates, Chairs and Advocates

Documents produced by FPC that reside outside of the Faculty Handbook are listed below. Candidates, department chairs and advocates should consult these documents when preparing for a review.

• Annual Review Schedule (current year’s timeline for each review type)
• Faculty Personnel Review Procedures (procedures by which FPC conducts its reviews)

File Preparation

• Guidance for Candidates: overview of the review file; file access; content and timeline – broken down by review type; submission format; guidelines for preparing candidate materials (CV, personal statement, forward-looking plan, course syllabi, professional engagement materials, record of workload, other materials)
• Guidance for Department Chairs: advice for mentoring candidates and preparing the department letter
• Guidance for Advocates: advice for mentoring candidates and preparing the advocate letter

Guiding Principles and Examples

• Teaching Effectiveness
• Professional Engagement

Memos

• Memos (announcements and timely updates)