III. The Faculty

D. Guidelines for Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure⁵

Decisions about reappointment, promotion, and tenure at Colgate University are based on the quality of performance in three areas: teaching, scholarship, and service to the University. Excellence in teaching is the most important consideration. No degree of excellence in scholarship and service to the University can compensate for teaching which is not of high quality. Yet excellence in teaching, though necessary, is not alone sufficient for retention or advancement; it cannot compensate for mediocre scholarship. Colgate University seeks a faculty of teacher-scholars of high quality. Service to the University is a third, though less, important area. Different candidates may contribute to the University in different ways, but service of high quality is expected of all.

While performance in these three areas will govern decisions on all levels of retention and advancement, it should be understood that reappointment, promotion, and tenure represent different kinds of commitment on the part of the University and that expectations will consequently vary with the decision under question. It should further be understood that these decisions, especially those involving promotion and tenure, are made on a highly selective basis.

1. Teaching

Teaching is a complex task which helps a student gain knowledge, understanding, and skill in an academic subject or discipline, and enables the student to use ideas and think of him- or herself in a liberal, open-minded manner. Its evaluation requires consideration of several characteristics which should be reflected in the instructor's performance: commitment to teaching, effectiveness as a teacher, and knowledge and master of the discipline.

Colgate considers teaching to be a professional commitment on the part of the instructor. Enthusiasm for teaching need not be overtly demonstrative. A quiet and deliberative manner may serve as well as a more dramatic approach, but there should be evidence of a sustained interest in teaching as a vocation.

An instructor should also be an effective teacher. Though difficult to measure, effectiveness should include an ability to inspire enthusiasm in students for the discipline and for independent work, an ability to convey central insights into the subject, and an ability to evaluate fairly and constructively the work of students, as well as the ability to teach in a fashion that both reflects and encourages the spirit of critical intellectual inquiry and discourse consistent with principles of academic freedom and intellectual integrity.

The instructor should possess knowledge and mastery of the discipline. The instructor's teaching should reflect both depth and breadth: a responsibility to the best and most rigorous work in the subject, as well as to the broader outlines of the discipline, including its connection with the liberal arts in general.

These qualities of teaching should be evident in departmental courses, as well as all other courses taught in the Colgate program.

Since the quality of teaching is to be the primary criterion for reappointment, promotion, and tenure, solid evidence of that quality must be secured. Tenured colleagues should be in a position to assess the classroom effectiveness of the instructor, particularly if they have participated in team-taught courses, attended several of the instructor's classes, or discussed various approaches to teaching with the instructor. They are usually in the best position to evaluate the instructor's knowledge and mastery of the discipline. Senior members of the department and directors of other University programs in which the instructor participates should comment, and non-tenured members may be asked to comment, on the candidate's quality of mind and clarity of intellect, knowledge of the discipline as a whole (in addition to his or her specialty), capacity to contribute courses that effectively articulate departmental or programmatic needs and objectives, and willingness to work with students in classroom functions, in advising, and outside of class.

Students are in a position to provide important evidence on teaching. They will be asked to complete anonymous questionnaires summarizing their evaluations of the instructor's interest, preparation, and ability to communicate. Chairs and senior department members may also ask selected students for their candid evaluations of an instructor's qualities as a teacher.

Additional evidence which might bear upon the quality of an individual's teaching may include the following: new courses developed or old courses revised and updated, range of courses offered, innovative teaching methods; participation in redesigning departmental introductory course offerings, and work in cross-disciplinary or staff courses. As always, the standard of judgment in evaluating contributions of these kinds must be one of professional excellence.

Departments may also attempt to obtain outside evaluations of teaching excellence. Examples might include student performance after graduation, evaluations of upper class course syllabi by scholars in the discipline, evaluations of published or unpublished articles devoted to teaching, and evaluations of course-related materials prepared by the instructor. In addition, colleagues within the University might be asked to evaluate the individual's contributions with the University which bear upon the qualities of teaching excellence discussed above.

2. Scholarship

Colgate University expects that its faculty will be productive scholars in high quality. Scholarship is important in its own right for the advancement of knowledge; it is important also in the institution's role as a leader of the educational
community and for the improvement of teaching, as a means by which teaching is continually refreshed and revitalized. The quality of a candidate's scholarship, therefore, is one of the two principal criteria for reappointment, promotion, and tenure.

In its highest form, scholarship denotes original research in a scholarly field or discipline, or its equivalent expression in the creative arts. At this level, research seeks to advance the frontiers of the field or provide new insights into old problems and dilemmas. Normally scholars seek to make the results of their research available to professional colleagues for their evaluation and judgment. Publication of original research in scholarly journals, monographs, and book-length studies, and presentation of papers at scholarly conferences, serve to insure that faculty members have a continuing involvement with their professional peers and that their scholarly work has been subjected to the criticism and insights of those best able to evaluate it. In music, theater and the visual arts, performances and exhibitions are among the means by which artists present their work to a critical audience of professional colleagues.

Scholarship may also be reflected in publications which interpret one's scholarly field to a general audience rather than to a professional one. Textbooks and other publications which synthesize the original research of others also provide evidence of scholarship. Faculty members are encouraged to give University lectures, divisional colloquia, departmental seminars, or presentations in staff-taught courses as additional means by which the fruits of scholarly research can be shared with colleagues.

The evaluation of the quality of scholarship is made in a number of ways. In all cases the University should seek evidence appropriate to each discipline. Members of the department should be asked to evaluate a candidate's published and unpublished work. Reviews in professional journals of the candidate's work offer an independent evaluation of that work by professional peers, and those reviews should be systematically collected. Awards and grants to support scholarly research and creative activity may be yet another measure of evaluation of scholarly endeavors by a candidate's professional colleagues. In the creative arts, evidence of the quality of professional activity should be gathered from department peers, members of similar departments at other institutions, other artists in the same field, or published reviews.

Department chairs or, where appropriate, division directors should solicit confidential evaluations of a candidate's scholarly work from professional peers outside the University. The candidate should be informed of the individuals who are being asked to make such evaluations, and he or she should be given the opportunity to add a reasonable number of other professional referees who would also be asked to submit confidential evaluations of the candidate's scholarly work.

3. Service to the University Community

A faculty member contributes to the life of the University outside of the classroom in a number of ways as a colleague, adviser, administrator, counselor, and participant in campus decision-making and governance. Such contributions are vital to Colgate as a residential college. The quality of a candidate's service to the University community therefore constitutes a third important criterion for reappointment, promotion, and tenure.

Some types of service are very closely related to the teaching function. Advising students, whether academic, vocational, or personal, is an important responsibility of each faculty member. The accessibility of faculty members and their willingness to serve as undergraduate advisers help to distinguish the learning environment at Colgate. Furthermore, participation in departmental, divisional, and college-wide programs of lectures, seminars, colloquia, performances, exhibitions, readings, study groups, field trips, and the like enriches the entire intellectual life of the University. It is expected that each faculty member will help develop library and laboratory resources in his or her field.

A faculty member exists among colleagues. All members of a department contribute to the scholarly and intellectual growth of the others by reading one another's papers, exchanging views on issues of common professional concern, discussing scholarly books and articles. The common educational enterprise unites departmental colleagues in various ways, as in planning a departmental curriculum, recruiting new faculty members, working with concentrators, developing honors programs, etc.; a candidate interacts with colleagues outside his or her department in interdisciplinary endeavors, including the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum program. Colleagueship may be subtle and not always easy to evaluate, but it is important to developing and maintaining mutual respect, openness, and scholarly commitment.

Service on the various committees, commissions, task forces, planning groups, etc. is a normal part of each faculty member's duties at the University. Such service is also valuable when extended beyond the campus in regional and national activities that draw on or improve the instructor's competence and benefit the University. In such broader community service, as in the others, judgment should be based on the quality of an individual's contribution.

Considerable flexibility is needed in evaluating a candidate's service to the University community because of the great variety of activities which are subsumed under this term. Departmental colleagues should be asked to evaluate the candidate's contributions to the work and intellectual life of the department. Others in the University in positions to evaluate the candidate's contributions in other areas should be asked to do so by the department chair or division director. Care must be taken at all levels to insure that the evaluations are fair and based on adequate evidence and that the academic and personal freedoms of each faculty member have been preserved.