Promotion and Tenure Policies and Practices

Dr. John Boehmer, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Penn State College of Medicine, held a question-and-answer session April 16, 2020, regarding the extension of the probationary tenure period due to COVID-19.

• Watch presentation on Mediasite (Penn State Health ePass login required)
• See the slides from Dr. Boehmer’s presentation in OneDrive (Penn State Access ID login required)
• Request an extension here
• See details on the University Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs website

Activity Insight is an online software tool designed to help faculty members collect, organize and display their data for the purposes of annual reviews, promotion and tenure, CVs and more. It is used throughout Penn State as the standard for promotion and tenure activity and became available at the College of Medicine in November 2019.

All faculty members should find this application useful for annual AC-40 reviews and five-year extended reviews. At the College of Medicine, Activity Insight is the required method of creating a dossier for promotion and tenure purposes.

See how to use Activity Insight at Penn State

• Deadlines for Faculty Promotion and Tenure Reviews
• Promotion and Tenure Criteria for the College of Medicine
• Promotion and Tenure Departmental Criteria (available in the policy portal; Penn State Health ePass login required)
• Penn State University Policy AC-23
• Penn State University Administrative Guidelines for Policy AC-23 (click on Administrative Guidelines for Policy AC23)
• Inclusion and Evaluation of Digital Scholarship in the Promotion & Tenure Process at the College of Medicine
• Best practices for entering publications, presentations, abstracts and other scholarly items into the Promotion and Tenure Dossier at the College of Medicine
• Other Penn State University Policies on Promotion & Tenure
• Dossier Forms (Penn State University)
• Annual AC-40 Review Information
• Activity Insight (Penn State University)
• Penn State Faculty Affairs (Penn State University)
• Penn State College of Medicine Promotion & Tenure Committee
• Penn State College of Medicine Non-Tenure Line Promotion Committee
• Tipsheet for peer review of teaching letters
• Tipsheet for patient care evaluation letters
• Download templates and
  forms (via OneDrive; Penn State Access login required)

Promotion and tenure policy and procedures for tenure-track (standing) faculty members in the College of Medicine may be found in the Promotion and Tenure Statement of the Dean of the College of Medicine and in Penn State University Policy AC-23.

In addition, each Department in the College of Medicine has a Promotion and Tenure policy that is aligned with that of the College and University.

Documents and Resources for Tenure-Track Faculty

• Requesting a stay of the provisional tenure period
• Requesting early tenure review
• Provisional tenure review guidelines
• Requesting a transfer from the tenure track to the non-tenure line

Promotion policy and procedures for non-tenure-line faculty members in the College of Medicine may be found in the Promotion and Tenure Statement of the Dean of the College of Medicine. These policies are aligned with Penn State University AC-23.

In addition, each Department in the College of Medicine has a promotion policy that is aligned with that of the College and University.

Non-tenure-line faculty members are reviewed using the same review procedures as those for tenure-track faculty members. However, there is no University-level review.

Documents and Resources for Non-Tenure-Line Faculty

• Non-tenure-line instructor promotion process
• Termination of non-tenure-line faculty members

Information about emeritus status is available here.