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A Penn State Nittany Lion statue is seen in the courtyard of Penn State College of Medicine in Summer 2016. The statue is in focus toward the right side of the image. Out of focus in the background, green plants and trees are visible in the courtyard.

University standard practice for tenure-line faculty interested in moving to a non-tenure-line position

Occasionally, a faculty member on the tenure-line, either tenured or untenured, due to changing career goals or life circumstances, may decide to pursue other career paths at Penn State, including employment as a non-tenure-line faculty member.

The University’s Standard Practice for Tenure-Line Faculty Members Seeking to Change Lines or Tenure Home is located on the Penn State Faculty Affairs promotion and tenure page.

  1. Tenure-line faculty members seeking a non-tenure-line position are eligible to apply for posted positions in their own unit as well as others across the University. Tenure-line faculty members are not guaranteed that their candidacy will be successful as such appointments reflect unit needs and budget considerations.
    • Units contemplating the creation of a position should consider the unit’s strategic plan and needs, impact of TL/NTL distribution in the unit, salary considerations including whether the TL person would be replaced if successful at obtaining a NTL position, what support the faculty member will have in their new role given change in responsibilities and privileges, and impact on department culture.
  2. In the rare event a unit requests to transfer a faculty member into a non-tenure-line position— rather than asking them to apply for a posted position—such requests must be made to the Provost’s designee, the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
    • The applicable policy is AC-13, Procedure for Hiring Full-time Faculty. Relevant language can be found in 7d: Faculty transfers from non-tenure-line to tenure-line or vice versa are rare and must be approved by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. No faculty member may be transferred (or promoted) from one type of faculty role to another (i.e., non-tenure-line to tenure-line or tenure-line to non-tenure-line) unless the faculty member under consideration was originally hired via a nationally advertised search.
    • Transfers may not be initiated during the course of a formal review for promotion and tenure (typically, 3th, 6th, and 9th years at the College of Medicine). A formal review is considered to have begun in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th year reviews when a dossier is submitted. For reviews at the ninth year, a formal review is considered to have begun when requests have been made to external reviewers.

The request should be submitted to the Office of Faculty Affairs prior to July 1 of the academic year in which the transfer will occur. This is especially important if a provisional tenure review or the final tenure review is scheduled for that academic year. In no cases will a request for transfer be approved after July 1 of the academic year in which the final tenure review would occur.

The steps are:

  1. The faculty member writes a letter to the department chair requesting the transfer, including 1) rationale for the change and 2) the fact that they’ve discussed this with their chair and/or other leadership; and provides a current CV;
  2. The chair reviews the request and upon confirmation that the faculty member is in good standing, writes a letter to the dean approving the request and stating the effective date and any change in job expectations;
  3. The chair submits both letters and the CV to the Office of Faculty Affairs;
  4. The dean reviews the request. If the dean supports the request for transfer, the request will be forwarded to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, who makes the final decision.

With questions, contact the Office of Faculty Affairs.

Updated: July 2024