UMBI's Office of Faculty Affairs oversees and facilitates faculty processes and services that affect their academic life at UMBI including Promotion and Tenure Review and the reappointment of Tenure Track Assistant Professors.

• Reappointment
• Promotion and Tenure Review

Reappointment of Tenure Track Assistant Professors

The linked document details the review procedure of the faculty member and the necessary documents to be submitted to the VP Education, Professional Advancement, and Training from the Assistant Professor and the Center Direcctor. The reappointment proceess will not be approved bythe VP EPAT without these documents.

Academic tenure at UMBI is intended to protect researchers from external pressures when they dissent from prevailing opinion or openly disagree with authorities. Tenure makes original ideas more likely to arise by giving our faculty the intellectual freedom to investigate problems and solutions about which they are most passionate and to report their honest conclusions. The largest concern at the institutional level is that tenure may allow senior faculty to become unproductive or irrelevant. Therefore UMBI utilizes an intensive formal review of the candidate's record of research, teaching, and service of junior faculty in order to assess the merits of awarding tenure. Additionally, annual reviews and 5-year comprehensive reviews are conducted at UMBI to ensure productivity of tenured and non-tenure track ladder-rank faculty.

Promotion in rank for tenure-track, tenured, and non-tenure track ladder-rank faculty and the award of tenure for tenure-track faculty are based on merit and achievement. The complete Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Policy (UMBI Policy II-1.00(A)) is available online as are the policies on Annual Review (UMBI Policy II-1.20(A)) and is the Comprehensive Review (UMBI Policy II-1.19(A)).

The annual promotion and tenure (P&T) review cycle begins in July when the Center Director informs the Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) of all candidates that are scheduled for P&T review and all faculty members that have requested in writing a non-scheduled review. Candidates are highly encouraged to discuss the P&T process and their prospects for success with their Center Director and other senior members of UMBI.

Tenure track Assistant Professors entering their sixth year of full-time appointment must be reviewed for tenure and the decision must be rendered in writing by the end of the appointment year. An Assistant Professor who has been denied tenure during their mandatory review year will be appointed for a terminal one-year appointment with no further consideration for tenure.

Non-tenure track Assistant and Associate Professors and tenure track Associate Professors must request a review for promotion in writing to their Center Director. Unless explicitly stated in their contract, there is no mandatory number of years in which a promotion review must be conducted. Further, if promotion is denied, there are no limitations for future promotion reviews.

Criteria for Tenure and/or Promotion

The UMBI criteria for appointment, promotion, and tenure are consistent with those affirmed by the USM:

• research and scholarship;
• teaching and training effectiveness, including student advising;
• relevant service to the community, profession, and institution.

Research and Scholarship

As a USM research and service institution, UMBI places major emphasis on research productivity and scholarship. Hence the primary factor in determining a faculty member's merit for appointment or promotion is his or her contributions in the form of research. The nature of the performance will vary from one research program to another but the faculty member should be engaged continuously and effectively in research activities of high quality, appropriate to his or her rank and position, in accordance with the UMBI mission. Research activities and productivity that cannot be reviewed cannot be considered for promotion. Evidence of faculty research and scholarship are:

1. Research program with a significant national (assistant professor) or international (associate professor) reputation.
2. Publications in peer reviewed journals.
3. Grants and Contracts received from federal agencies, private non-profit organizations and/or industry.
4. Scientific reviews and book chapters.
5. Academic and research honors and awards.
6. Patents awarded.

Teaching and Training Effectiveness

Although UMBI is not a degree-granting institution, its mission does include contributions to education. Educational efforts typically focus on teaching and advisory contributions to USM programs. Examples of faculty contributions in this criterion area are:

1. Participation in the training of graduate students through course instruction, laboratory rotations, thesis and dissertation advisement.
2. Providing research experiences for undergraduates and high school students.
3. Instruction and course development for USM graduate programs, short courses and workshop programs for industry personnel and government agencies, secondary schools, and community colleges.
4. Supervision and training of postdoctoral trainees.
5. Providing expert consulting advice on science and biotechnology topics of interest to the general public, government officials.

Service

Candidates for promotion or tenure should have demonstrated a commitment to university service activities which may include support of the biotechnology industry. This combination of university-professional and industrial interactions is consistent with the UMBI mission in the area of economic development. Indicators of performance in this area would include:

1. Participation on Center, UMBI and USM committees.
2. Contributions to administrative or coordination efforts related to the programs and activities of the research centers.
3. Interaction with the UMBI Industry Liaison and USM Technology Transfer Offices, as appropriate, for the advancement of discoveries, disclosures, patents and the integration of efforts between UMBI and the biotechnology industry.
4. Interaction with industry scientists on activities of mutual interest and concern.
5. Supervision of "mini" sabbatical assignments of industry scientists to UMBI laboratories.
6. Resolution of scientific and technical problems of industry through collaborative research activity.
7. Participation in industry-supported research consistent with the faculty member's research interests.
8. Participation in industry-UMBI seminars and joint meetings as a way of building industry-UMBI relationships which have the potential of enhancing the commercialization of the State's biotechnology activity.
9. Contribution to the program activities of the Maryland high technology councils as a means of exchanging scientific information with representatives of the State's biotechnology industry.
10. Participation with Maryland industry on Maryland Industrial Partnership (MIPS) proposals and projects.
11. Interaction with adjunct faculty from industry and government agencies.

An emphasis on the areas of education/training and economic development does not reduce the primacy of the UMBI research-scholarship criterion -- indeed the quality of science is the foundation for contributions to education and training and economic development.

The P&T Dossier

The P&T dossier includes:

1. A personal statement from the candidate outlining professional activities, goals, and accomplishments.
2. A complete up-to-date CV submitted and certified by the candidate as true and complete.
3. Selected reprints of his or her scholarly research work.
4. Letters of external review (at least six for promotion to rank of Associate Professor and at least eight for promotion to rank of Professor) from scientists of national and international reputation in the candidate's field of expertise.

Expected Timeline of the Process

In September, the VPAA appoints the Center's P&T Committees for each individual under consideration based on the membership recommendations of the Center Director. The Center's P&T Committee begins to collect the certified current curriculum vitae, dossier, and other relevant documents from the candidate, and arranges for external reviews. Over the next few months the Committee evaluates the candidate's record as related to UMBI criteria.

By February the Center's P&T Committee will submit its report to the Center Director, who forwards this report and an independent recommendation along with all dossier material to the VPAA. In March the UMBI P&T Review Committee meets to evaluate all candidates under consideration for the review cycle and then makes its recommendation to the VPAA. The VPAA will make his or her recommendations to the President in April and the President announces promotion and tenure decisions in May.

return to the Faculty Affairs homepage