Promotion and Tenure Process Tips

  • Read the Promotion, Tenure and Continuing Status article in the Collective Agreement. The 2018-2022 Collective Agreement is available on UWOFA’s website (www.uwofa.ca). (The 2022-2026 Collective Agreement is still being edited)
  • Find one or more mentors, to guide your career but also to specifically assist you in getting tenure. Press your mentor for candid feedback. I.e. ask if you are on track for tenure or continuing status. What improvements are necessary?
  • Understand that the focus for your probationary period is research/scholarship activities and teaching—you cannot get tenure by having a great service record. You must establish a sufficiently strong record in both teaching and research/scholarship activities.
  • Keep the normal 40-40-20 workload split. Having a higher percentage for research/scholarship activities is an acceptable variation.
  • Taking on overload teaching or service may hurt you, as you may not be able to devote the necessary energy to establishing the required research/scholarship activities and teaching record.
  • During your probationary period, you may request a term free of teaching (Workload, clause 7).
  • Probationary Members are not required to teach in more than 2 of 3 terms.
  • Take the path of least resistance. Know what the standards are in your discipline and meet them. If you want to do something else, wait until after you have tenure. If you want to write a text book, do it after you receive tenure.
  • Understand Tri-Council processes and how your grant application gets rated. Pay attention to the guidelines.
  • Have a mentor review your grant applications and provide feedback.
  • Keep all your information organized so that you can easily access it when it comes time to submit your dossier.
  • Understand the relationship between your Performance Evaluation scores and the departmental average. Over the course of your probationary period you will be able to get a sense of where you sit in the department relative to others.
  • Your Annual interview, called by your Dean, is an opportunity to get feedback on your progress towards tenure or continuing status. If you are unclear on anything, ask questions of your Dean.
  • Contact UWOFA if you have any concerns about your annual probationary report (i.e. information about progress not being included) and to request assistance with providing a response.
  • If you get advice for improvement, follow it! If you need to improve your teaching, go to the Centre for Teaching and Learning and attend a workshop. It is very important to heed the advice of the Dean.
  • Start thinking about identifying potential external referees. Develop a relationship with those people. When at a conference and doing your day-day academic work, think about whether those people would be good external referees and foster those relationships.
  • Interdisciplinary work can be challenging due to the need to develop relationships in all areas. Make sure you have external referees who know your work in multiple fields.
  • Be proactive. If you are struggling, have a conversation with your Chair and Dean. If you are unwell, utilize the leave provisions to which you are entitled.
  • Keep the communication lines open with your Chair and Dean. They want to see you succeed.
  • In your application, you need to educate the P,T&CA Committee on your career. Don’t assume that your colleagues know what you’ve been up to. Your dossier is a narrative.
  • The application is your opportunity to be clear about your accomplishments. You want to make the case as to why you deserve promotion and receive tenure/continuing status.
  • Be sure to include a Research/Academic Activity statement that contextualizes your research to date, future research directions, and shows an overall research program.
  • Student Questionnaires on Courses and Teaching provide information about students’ experience in the classroom, not teaching performance, so be sure to include other data in your Teaching dossier.
  • Submit a clear, well-organized file.
  • Thoroughly review your promotion and tenure/continuing status file before signing off on the table of contents. If you notice something there that should not be, ask that it be removed.
  • If your file contains any publicly-solicited letters that contain unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing and/or misconduct, that if substantiated would warrant discipline, you can request that they be removed.
  • If asked to provide additional information to your PT&CA Committee, contact UWOFA for assistance. Preparing a response takes time and review by others. Your response must not be angry or defensive.
  • If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact UWOFA’s Professional Officer, Cindy Cossar-Jones at ext. 86960 or uwofapro@uwo.ca or Lina Rodriguez at ext. 86218 or uwofamso@uwo.ca

 

Updated by Cindy Cossar-Jones- Professional Officer February 2023