College of Science Promotion and Tenure Overview and Requirements

Updated: 11-24-2025

In addition to the university promotion and tenure (P&T) requirements and the requirements stated in the faculty handbook, the college has the following additional requirements.

1. The College of Science (COS) P&T timeline should be followed and submission of dossiers must follow this college timeline. Faculty members interested in being considered for promotion inform their Department Head by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which evaluation is requested. For the required tenure cases, the Department Head notifies the candidate by the end of the fall term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur. Your Department Head will notify the college of your intention for evaluation and will submit a high resolution photographs and short biography of you to the COS.
2. Department Heads inform the Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs of the names of faculty who will undergo promotion and tenure review by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur.
3. Dossiers for candidates with a large teaching role (an average of 6 or more courses per year) should include student feedback based on at least 8 student letters. Candidates with a smaller teaching role (an average of fewer than 6 courses per year) should include student feedback based on at least 4 student letters per OSU P&T policy.
4. Each department will have a published description of the procedures used in that department for the evaluation of the candidates.
5. Any person who was the MS or PhD advisor of a candidate is considered to have a conflict of interest and should not participate in the P&T process.
6. Unit level conflict of interest concerns and decisions and college P&T committee conflict of interest concerns and decisions will be reported to the Dean, who has the authority to overturn the unit level decision when the unit finds no conflict. Potential conflicts of interest involving the Dean will be referred to the Provost.
7. The direct supervisor for Faculty Research Assistants (FRAs) and Research Associates (RAs) is not part of the unit P&T committee, but is involved in the process through writing a letter of evaluation.

For Candidates: College of Science Promotion and Tenure Instructions and Dossier Guidance

Updated: 11-24-2025

Candidates should refer to the Promotion and Tenure Guidelines for the general procedures for P&T and dossier preparation.

This section describes a general overview, instructions and information pertinent to the candidate.

General Overview of Process

The College of Science timeline should be followed for all P&T procedures.

You will prepare your sections of the dossier and will work with your Department Head and departmental Administrative Assistant to have your documents submitted. Use the COS P&T Dossier Template for Candidates to create your documents and ensure correct formatting.

You should keep the following steps in mind about the process:

• Alert your Department Head that you intend to go up for P&T evaluation by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur at the latest.
• Plan to attend the College P&T training and information session in spring term.
• Review the OSU P&T guidelines and your departmental guidelines in addition to the College of Science guidelines on this website.
• Provide names of potential student letter writers (does NOT include postdocs) to your Department Head by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur (see more details below).
• Professorial candidates provide names of potential external letter writers to your Department Head by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur (see more details below).
• It is suggested that you submit your dossier materials to your Department Head by July 15th of the year you plan to go up for promotion and/or tenure. Use the COS P&T Dossier Template for Candidates to format your dossier.
• You will work with your departmental Administrative Assistant and your Department Head to get all materials submitted, check with your departmental procedures and guidelines on the specifics.
• Your dossier will be completed and evaluated from November-April at the department, Department Head, college P&T committee, Dean, and Provost level.
• You will receive a final letter regarding the outcome of the P&T process by the end of May.
• Note the deadlines for rebuttal letters in the timeline. Rebuttals, if any, to the departmental P&T committee letter and/or Department Head letter go to the College of Science P&T Coordinator (Trenea Moore at [email protected]) within 7 days after receiving the letters. If there is a rebuttal to the College P&T committee letter or the Dean letter, you have 7 days from when you receive the letters to provide the rebuttal directly to the University level P&T committee via email to Sara Daly ([email protected]). Rebuttal letters should NOT go to the department or Department Head.
• If there is no rebuttal to the departmental P&T committee letter and/or Department Head letter, send an email to the College of Science P&T Coordinator (Trenea Moore; [email protected]) stating this within 7 days of receiving the letters.

Below is a flowchart of the people/committees and the products produced through the P&T process. The products (in orange circles) are reviewed by the committees/people (in white boxes).

Dossier Preparation

The dossier must contain all relevant information since hiring. It should also contain all information from a previous institution if there is a prior service credit agreement. The offer letter has to be included when there is such an agreement. The case is evaluated on all work done since the last promotion, or since the hiring date, including prior service in the approved time, if applicable.

Instructions below for dossier preparation include the promotion and tenure guidelines and the dossier preparation guidelines. Further details and instructions can be found within the COS P&T Dossier Template for Candidates for you to use as you prepare your dossier.

The electronic system will add page numbers to the dossiers for you. Please do not add your own pagination.

For Department Heads and Administrative Assistants: College of Science Promotion and Tenure Instructions and Dossier Guidance

Updated: 11-26-2025

General Overview of Process

Refer to the college timeline for specific dates for the P&T process.

General notes and guidelines for Department Heads and departmental Administrative Assistants include the following:

• For the required tenure cases, the Department Head notifies the candidate in the fall term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur at the latest.
• Department Head submits names of all candidates from the department to the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur.
• Department Head receives names of student to write letters from candidate by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur and recruits student letter writers and student letter committee members in the spring term (see more details below). Department Head should NOT receive the student letters (these should be submitted to the Administrative Assistant for the department).
• Department Head receives external reviewer names from professorial candidates by the end of the winter term preceding the academic year in which formal evaluation will occur and sends out requests for external letters no later than August (see more details below).
• Department Head and Administrative Assistant review dossier for accuracy and completion in August-September prior to submission.
• Dossier submission deadlines should follow the college timeline.
• Use the COS P&T Dossier Template for Departments for guidelines on formatting and submitting components of the dossier.
• Please submit a high resolution photograph and a short biography (1 paragraph) for each candidate to the COS P&T Coordinator on the same date that the dossier is submitted to the college.

Dossier Preparation

Refer to the promotion and tenure guidelines for the general procedures for P&T and dossier preparation.

The dossier should contain all information since hiring. It should also contain all information from a previous institution if there is a prior service credit agreement. The offer letter has to be included when there is such an agreement after the position description. The case is evaluated on all work done since the last promotion, or since the hiring date, including prior service in the approved time, if applicable.

The electronic system will add page numbers to the dossiers for you. Please do not add your own pagination. Please use the COS P&T Dossier Template for Departments for formatting and instructions on sections to be submitted.

College of Science Promotion and Tenure Committee Elections

Updated: 11-26-2025

According to the promotion and tenure guidelines, the college P&T committee is intended to be an independent voice of evaluation and membership is determined by a transparent process approved by a majority of the faculty members.

The committee election process was approved by vote for the College of Science.

Committee members should not provide external letters of evaluation for candidates while they are serving on the college P&T committee.

Accepted Fall 2015; Updated Spring 2018

See the College of Science P&T Committee Election Process Document for details on the election process for the college. See the Historical Record of College of Science P&T Committee 2009–Present for a record of the college P&T committee.

College of Science Promotion and Tenure Conflict of Interest & Confidentiality

Updated: 11-26-2025

The promotion and tenure guidelines prescribe how to deal with conflicts of interest. Evaluators who have a relationship with a candidate should be forthcoming in making that relationship known, consistent with university policies. This includes personal relationships as well as professional relationships such as those with former advisees and collaborators. A faculty member or administrator involved in the promotion and tenure process must declare any conflict of interest that arises from these circumstances before any discussion takes place. A conflict of interest occurs when the evaluating party could realize personal, financial, professional, or other gain or loss as a result of the outcome of the P&T process, or when the objectivity of the evaluating party could be impaired by virtue of the relationship.

See the College of Science Conflict of Interest Document for complete details on how conflicts will be addressed in the college.

Potential conflicts of interest declared by a unit P&T committee member or by the Department Head are treated at the unit P&T committee level and the outcome of the discussion is reported to the Dean. The Dean has the authority to find a conflict of interest where the unit committee decided there was none. The members of the departmental P&T committee must sign a Department P&T Committee Conflict of Interest & Confidentiality Declaration prior to the committee work commencing declaring any conflicts of interests and agreeing to protect the integrity of the process and the confidentiality of the candidates. All information related to the promotion process, including materials, documents, electronic communication, verbal communication, or other information communicated by any other form or format is, and will remain, confidential.

College P&T committee members that are signatories of a unit level evaluation shall recuse themselves from votes on these cases. For all other cases, when the status of a conflict of interest has been discussed at the committee level, the outcome of the discussion is reported to the Dean. The Dean has the authority to find a conflict of interest where the committee decided there was none. The members of the college P&T committee must sign a College of Science P&T Committee Conflict of Interest & Confidentiality Declaration prior to the committee work commencing.

If the Dean has a conflict of interest, this will be reported to the Provost for a resolution.

In all cases, it is a college rule that anybody who was the MS or PhD thesis advisor of the candidate is excluded from the promotion & tenure process.

College of Science Midterm Review for Tenure-Track Faculty

11-26-2025

See OSU's policy for midterm reviews.

Yearly period review of faculty (PROF) should address the candidate’s progress in terms of expectations at the unit, college, and institutional level. In the middle of the probationary period there should be a more extensive midterm review within the unit with the intent to review progress toward indefinite tenure.

The goal of a midterm review is not to check if a candidate is “halfway” there, but rather to evaluate if the candidate will be in a successful position at the end of the probationary period. The key question is growth of the candidate according to the appropriate measures. Another goal of the midterm review is assessing the resources that were provided to the candidate. If those resources are insufficient, the unit should consider increasing resources or adapting expectations. This is also a time to judge if improved mentoring for the candidate is needed.

The tenure clock will begin on the September 16th following the faculty member’s hire, so partial years do not count. Under normal circumstances faculty will be considered for tenure in their sixth year of service in professorial rank. In those cases, the unit should complete a midterm review in the spring term of the third full year of employment. This will allow the candidate two more years to address critical issues. The midterm review should follow all university guidelines. For example, student input is required, but external letters of evaluation of scholarly work are not. See the full list of requirements on the OSU website for midterm reviews.

If there is a prior service agreement stated in the offer letter, the probationary time is shortened.

If one year of prior service is recognized:

• Evaluation of the candidate is based on four years of work at OSU
• Evaluation of the candidate is based on one year of work at a previous institution
• Midterm review should take place at the end of the second full year of service at OSU, giving the candidate two more years to react to the feedback.

If two years of prior service is recognized:

• Midterm review should take place in the winter term of the second year at OSU

In all these cases it is not required to solicit feedback from the previous institution, but a unit is allowed to do so if deemed necessary.

Awarding one or two years of prior service still allows the tenure evaluation to be based on the majority of work done at OSU. If a unit feels a need to award more than two years of prior service, a decision on tenure will be based mostly on work performed before the candidate has joined OSU.

If a candidate receives a tenure clock extension and a midterm review has not yet taken place, the midterm review should be in spring term two years before the start of the academic year in which the candidate is evaluated for tenure. Such a midterm evaluation should be based on the standard time the candidate would have been in the job without an extension, and not on the longer time scale with the extension.

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