The Office of the Provost requires that before any decision is made within an academic or research unit to recommend promotion to a tenured appointment, the faculty member should be notified that the question is under consideration and encouraged to see that the files to be reviewed contain current and relevant material.

A faculty member may request a tenure review at any time, but the decision to conduct a tenure review is within the discretion of the chair or dean, according to the policy of the school or college. Often, the review for tenure is conducted during the faculty member’s sixth year of appointment, but there are variations among schools and colleges.

The tenure review must include a careful examination of the candidate’s credentials and performance and should be conducted by a committee of the faculty. The review must incorporate both internal and external evaluations. SPG 201.13 details procedures relevant to tenure decisions.

Tenure recommendations to the dean should be made by a committee, the majority of whom are tenured members of the school or college faculty. Tenure recommendations that are to be forwarded to the Regents shall proceed according to bylaw 5.08.

Tenure recommendations and other tenure decisions of the school or college should be communicated to the candidate in writing in a timely fashion. Instructional-track faculty members who have not been recommended for tenure after a tenure review are normally offered a one-year, terminal contract for the next year, their last year at the University.

In 2002 the Office of the Provost endorsed a set of guiding principles for tenure review at the University, based on recommendations from several faculty committees.