Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures

Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures

Promotion and Tenure Document

Revised September, 2016

Promotion and Tenure Policies

Candidates for promotion are expected to have made significant contributions to the vitality and development of the department. While forwarding their own careers, they should also enhance the reputation of the department, the College of Arts and Sciences, and Oklahoma State University. Candidates are to be evaluated according to their record in the areas of teaching, research and professional activity, and service.

I. Teaching. Teaching must be heavily weighted in decisions on tenure and promotion. Excellence in teaching should include breadth and depth of preparation in the subject, ability to impart this knowledge to students, and an abiding concern to see that this is accomplished. The faculty should produce well-trained students enthusiastic for their subject area and able to continue learning on their own. Excellence in teaching is to be determined by a) evaluations made by faculty colleagues in accordance with departmental policy; b) student evaluations; c) demonstrated ability to teach a variety of courses on different levels, as required by the needs of the language section. It may also include course innovation (creation of new courses, development of new approaches, making significant changes in old courses), honors coursework, and participation in workshops, seminars or courses directed at instructional improvement, as well as service on external MA and doctoral committees.

Il. Research and Professional Activity. The faculty are expected to demonstrate scholarship in a way that enhances the prestige of the university, improves teaching, and encourages exchange of ideas among the members of the academic community. Scholarship in the area of foreign languages deals with the study of language, literature, or foreign language pedagogy. Research must result in published work, conference papers, or public lectures. Included in the category of professional activity are monographs, scholarly articles,editing texts and essay collections such as Festschrifts and conference proceedings, book reviews; participation in scholarly seminars or workshops; grant proposals and receiving funding for them; receiving professional prizes, honors and awards. Other creative activity will be considered in addition to conventional research, but may not replace it.

Ill. Service. Service includes membership in departmental, college, or university committees; participation in language clubs; off-campus school visits representing the department; developing and directing programs for travel or language study abroad. Service may also include working as editor or on the editorial board of a journal or monograph series; refereeing works by other scholars submitted for publication; organizing or moderating panels at professional conferences; holding office in regional, state, national or international professional organizations; and the evaluation of candidates for promotion at other institutions and of external programs. Extension activity is not required by the department and counts under the heading of service. It typically includes teaching courses outside the normal curriculum or teaching correspondence courses.

Qualifications for Rank, Promotion, and Tenure

Academic requirements for initial appointment to the rank ofAssistant Professor shall be the doctoral degree, native or near native proficiency in the modern language to be taught, (or professional knowledge for appointment in Classical languages) and in English, and clear promise of teaching effectiveness and scholarly creativity. The official letter of appointment will specify the conditions governing both initial appointment and reappointment; the faculty member must agree to these conditions in writing. In hiring an Assistant Professor, the department will conduct a national Search through the normal media in order to locate and contact the best qualified candidates. An Assistant Professor is appointed initially for a period of four years. Normally, the faculty member is considered for reappointment during the third year of the contract. If reappointment is granted, the faculty member receives an additional three-year contract and is considered for promotion to Associate Professor during the second year of the new contract. Promotion to Associate Professor confers tenure.

An Associate Professor may be considered for promotion to Professor at any time, if nominated by oneself, the Department Head, or a faculty colleague. Normally, one is expected to have served at least four years as an Associate Professor before applying. For a faculty member brought in as an Associate Professor without tenure, the letter of appointment specifies that they must be considered for tenure on or before the fourthyear of the appointment. Promotion to the rank of Professor confers tenure.

Criteria for Reappointment as Assistant Professor. l) A record of excellence in teaching, as determined by a) evaluations made by faculty colleagues in accordance with departmental policy; b) student evaluations (with the candidate’s consent); c) demonstrated ability to teach a variety of courses on different levels, as required by the needs of the language section, and to do so effectively. 2) Demonstration of a serious research program. Progress is to be evaluated by the Personnel Committee and the Head. The following will typically be expected: a book in progress or two articles submitted for publication since appointment; evidence of professional contact with colleagues working in one’s area of specialization, which includes attendance at conferences and presentation of papers. 3) At least three years’ worth of service assignments at OSU. Reappointment should be recommended only when the faculty member clearly shows the potential to be promoted to Associate Professor three years later.

Criteria for Promotion to Associate Professor. l) A record of excellence in teaching (determined by the methods listed above). 2) An active program of scholarly work that contributes to one’s field of specialization. Excellence in research is to be determined by evaluations made by the Personnel Committee, the Head, and outside scholars in the faculty member’s area of specialization. Both quality and quantity must be taken into account. The following will typically be expected: a) one book or four articles published in, or accepted by, refereed publications (at least one item must be in print); b) five conference presentations since one’s arrival in the department; c) evidence that the faculty member is maintaining contact with colleagues in his/her area. 3) At least six years’ worth of service assignments at OSU, including at least one outside the department.

Criteria for Promotion to Professor. l) A record of excellence in teaching (determined by the methods listed above). 2) A proven record of significant accomplishment in scholarly endeavors, to include evidence of national and/or international recognition; qualitative, as well as quantitative, criteria will be used. The following will typically be expected: a) one book or five articles published in, or accepted by refereed publications since the previous promotion; b) at least three conference presentations since the previous promotion; c) significant service to the profession as evidenced, for example, by membership on the editorial boards of journals, holding office in a professional association, organizing conferences or panels at conferences, and the like. 3) A solid record in service, including at least seven service assignments since the previous promotion, including at least one outside the department.

Basic Procedures

All reappointment, tenure and promotion actions must be initiated at the departmental level during the appropriate fall semester. The Personnel Committee chair and the Department Head each write a formal letter recommending either for or against the proposed action and state in detail their reasons for doing so. These letters are due in the dean’s office February l. In addition to these letters, the department must send to the Dean the following items: the personnel action form, a copy of departmental criteria for reappointment and promotion, the candidate’s vita, the reports of the visitors who observed the candidate’s classes, and the letters from the external reviewers. Supplementary materials (copies of publications, reviews of those publications, and student evaluations) will be kept in the main office, in case the Dean or the College Committee requests to examine them. The candidate is allowed to see all the material in his/her file (except for the letters of the external reviewers, if the candidate has waived access) for reappointment and promotion to Professor. The candidate has the opportunity to respond in writing to the any letter recommending against the personnel action; the rebuttal letter is limited to 1000 words and must be submitted within three working days to the next person or committee in the process (the order being: Personnel Committee, Head, College Committee, Dean). In June the Dean notifies the candidate whether or not the Provost has recommended the personnel action to the Board of Regents for final approval.

Personnel Committee

Selection. The Personnel Committee will be elected by the department at a meeting held early in the fall semester. It will consist of three members. Members serve two-year terms. Should a committee member leave the department prior to the completion of his/her term, the department will elect a substitute committee member to serve for the remainder of the term. No faculty member may serve more than one full term consecutively, unless no other members of the department are available to serve.

All tenuredfaculty members are eligible to serve on the Personnel Committee, except the Department Head. Untenured, and non-tenure-trackfaculty may not serve. The committee will reflect the make-up of the department and must include people from different languages, both genders, as well as majority and minority racial groups whenever possible. Any member whose own personnel status is under consideration or who has a conflict of interest in considerations regarding another member of the department will be ineligible to serve. The committee will elect its own chairannually. A separate ad hoc committee will be formed to consider promotions to full professor. This committee will consist of three faculty members holding the rank of full professor or higher and will include both genders. The Department will seek members from other departments if it is unable to staff a committee of three members of sufficient rank.

If the committee’s report on a personnel action is not unanimous, this must be noted in its formal report. In such cases the minority should state its position as part of the committee’s letter; it does not have the right to submit a separate letter. All deliberations of the committee shall remain confidential.

Functions and Procedure

1. Basic Personnel Actions. The Personnel Committee advises the Department Head on faculty personnel actions; in particular, reappointment, promotion, and tenure. The committee does not deal with non-tenure-track appointments, which are handled by the Head with the assistance of the appropriate language section. In the case of reappointment and tenure decisions, the committee invites the candidates to submit evidence supporting their candidacy, solicits outside letters of recommendation and receives statements by colleagues relating to the candidacy. The committee is required to read and take into account all the information that it receives, but it is expected to reach its independent judgment on each candidacy. In the case of promotion to Professor, the committee will send to all members of the department a request for nominations around the middle of each fall semester. A faculty member may nominate him/herself or be nominated by the Head or another colleague. A person nominated by someone else may refuse to be considered.

2. Other Functions. The Personnel Committee is also charged with review of departmental policies and will consider any revisions proposed by members of the committee or by other faculty members at the start of the fall semester. (There is a separate procedure governing emergency policy revisions.) If the committee drafts a new or revised policy, the committee chair will call a meeting of the whole department to vote on the matter.

Evaluation Procedures

A. Evaluation of Teaching.

l) Candidates seeking reappointment or tenure should have at least four peer evaluations of their instruction since their last appointment, and candidates for promotion to Professor must have at least two evaluations since promotion to Associate Professor. Assistant Professors should receive at least 1 classroom observation per year, with at least 2 more during the fall semester of reappointment or tenure.The first of these should occur during the spring semester of the person's initial year. Associate Professors should receive at least 2 classroom evaluations during the fall semester when applying for promotion. The classes to be visited must include at least 1 elementary class and at least 1 intermediate or upper-division class; a wide variety of classes is desirable, especially in tenure cases. The candidate will work with the head to determine which classes should be observed, in which semester, and who the evaluators are to be. Evaluatorswill be tenured professors in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and should come from both the candidate's language section and from other language sections; if possible, the balance between these should be 50/50. In special cases evaluators may be brought in from other departments. Evaluators will inform the candidate of the dates and times of the class visit. After the class observation, the evaluator will provide a written evaluation of the class, which will be placed in the candidate´s departmental personnel file. A copy will also be provided to the candidate at this time. These teaching evaluations will be made available to the departmental personnel committee at the time of reappointment or promotion.

2) Because student input is deemed important to the evaluation of teaching, the committee will request from the candidate written permission to see all student evaluations of the candidate’s classes for the past three years (or more if the candidate so desires). In addition, the candidate has the option of having letters solicited from students. Such letters should not be viewed as a mandatory part of the evaluation process. If the candidate agrees to this option, he/she will submit up to five names and addresses to the committee chair, who will contact the students and request the letters from all of them.

3) For courses beyond the elementary level, the committee may ask the candidate to provide copies of course syllabi and exams for the past three years.

B. Evaluation of Research and Professional Activity.

Three outside letters are required for tenure and promotion decisions. The candidate will supply the Personnel Committee with the names of at least four scholars who work in his/her area of expertise; the committee will furnish two additional names. The Head also has the right to submit names. The reviewers should be in responsible positions with professional recognition, and no more than one should be from the state of Oklahoma. Faculty at junior colleges are excluded, as is the candidate’s dissertation advisor. The Personnel Committee will select three persons from the combined list, with at least two names taken from the candidate's list. The committee chair will write and ask the persons selected to provide an evaluation of the candidate’s work. The reviewers will address only the scope and quality of the scholarship and/or the visibility of the candidate in his/her area of specialization. The committee chair will send them copies of the candidate’s CV and selected publications (the candidate will select between 3 and 6 items and will submit the necessary copies to the committee). The candidate will be encouraged to waive the right to read the letters from the reviewers in order to promote more frank and unbiased appraisals. The committee chair will send an acknowledgment to the reviewers upon receipt of their letters and is encouraged to notify them of the personnel action ultimately taken.

2) The Personnel Committee is encouraged to conduct its own evaluation of the candidate’s research record. It will examine the candidate’s CV and annual appraisal reports. It may also request copies of any or all of the candidate’s published or unpublished work.

3) The candidate has the right to place additional materials in the tenure/reappointment file, including, but not limited to, letters from students or colleagues from outside the department.

Any member of the department may write a letter of evaluation of the candidate to the Personnel Committee. The candidate has the right to see these letters. The committee will disregard matters brought up in these letters that do not pertain to the candidate’s job performance.

C. Evaluation of Service.

The Personnel Committee will review the candidate’s CV and any other relevant documents in order to evaluate the quality of his/her service record. Extension activity will count under the category of service.

Adopted by the faculty of the department,September 8, 2016.

Approved by the A&S Dean’s office.

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