Annual and Mid-Contract Review Process

I write to remind you of the guidelines and procedures for annual and mid-contract reviews of untenured faculty.

Annual reviews are required for lecturer-track and tenure-track faculty members who typically have contracts of four years or less. These reviews take place early in the fall of each academic year and cover the faculty member's contributions to scholarship, teaching, and service during the preceding academic year. They also report on the department’s assessment of the candidate's overall trajectory towards reappointment and/or promotion. Mid-contract reviews of senior lecturers and distinguished senior lecturers who typically hold six-year appointments are usually conducted in the early fall of the fourth contract year and cover the preceding three years of the contract.

Faculty being reviewed should provide their chairs with an updated CV and other relevant materials, including a statement describing their scholarship, teaching, and service activities. Although Brown does not require a specific CV format, faculty may wish to consult the CV guidelines posted on the Dean of the Faculty's website. Publications, manuscripts, teaching materials, and other scholarly materials may also be submitted. While the due date for faculty to submit these materials will be determined by the department chair or center director, the department must have these items in hand in time to complete and submit a draft review to the cognizant dean by October 15. Department chairs should submit the draft and final reviews, along with the candidate’s statement and CV, through Interfolio. After the review has been vetted and approved by the cognizant dean, the department chair should arrange a meeting with the faculty member to give them the review and have them sign a confirmation of receipt.

Faculty who are under review should receive their reviews in a timely manner and no later than the end of the fall semester. The final review, the signed confirmation of receipt form, and any written response from the faculty member must be submitted to the dean at that point.

Faculty members requiring reviews

Tenure-track assistant professors, tenure-track associate professors, and lecturers must be reviewed annually.
Senior lecturers and distinguished senior lecturers must be reviewed once in the middle of their contract term, and more frequently if requested by the faculty member or deemed necessary by the department or center.
Adjunct/visiting faculty as well as (Research) faculty and professors of the practice who are in their first contract must receive annual reviews of their performance from department chairs. Associate and full (Research) faculty and Professors of the Practice who are in their second or later contract may be reviewed once in the middle of their contract term, and more frequently if requested by the faculty member or deemed necessary by the department or center.

These reviews need not be as formal as those for regular faculty. Adjunct and (Research) faculty as well as post-doctoral fellows may be reviewed by their faculty research supervisor and/or the PI(s) on the grant(s) from which they draw salary. A written record of the review, including the points covered and responses made by the faculty member under review, should be maintained at the departmental level but will not be uploaded to Interfolio or forwarded to the cognizant dean’s office. Please contact the cognizant dean’s office in the event that there are significant concerns about a particular faculty member’s performance.

Faculty members with calendar year or spring semester appointment start dates shall receive their first formal review in their second full academic year, covering the time since their initial appointment.

Exceptions

Faculty members starting their first year at Brown are not formally reviewed during the current cycle. However, chairs/directors should meet with these new faculty members at the end of their first year, to discuss progress and to provide informal advice in advance of the forthcoming annual review.

Untenured faculty members under consideration for reappointment, promotion, or tenure may elect to have those reviews serve as a substitute for the annual review. Each dean’s office should obtain written confirmation from the candidate of their decision.

Lecturers with faculty appointments that are contingent upon and concurrent with staff appointments are not reviewed through this process. Their teaching should be addressed as part of their annual staff performance review.

The annual or mid-contract review process (see timeline here)

The department(s) should ensure that the faculty member under review has been provided with the departmental standards and criteria document for reappointment, promotion, and tenure. In cases of joint appointments, the units should coordinate the review process. If procedures for conducting a joint review were not specified at that time of initial hire, the dean’s office will work with the heads of he two units to ensure that input from both units is included.
The annual review of untenured faculty members will be conducted at a duly called meeting of the eligible voting faculty of the relevant unit(s). The faculty will review the candidate's CV, statement, and any other appropriate materials, such as student course feedback, class observations by peers, etc. The written document produced should include explicit commentary on the individual's scholarship, teaching, and service during the preceding academic year(s), as well as guidance and suggestions for the candidate’s progress. Departments are advised to include information regarding the candidate’s next TPAC action (e.g. reappointment, promotion) in the review.
A draft review should be prepared by the chair or department committee and uploaded to Interfolio along with the candidate’s CV and statement. These materials should be forwarded to the cognizant dean’s office by October 15.
After the draft has been reviewed by the dean and any requested changes are made, the head of the department or center will meet with the faculty member being reviewed to discuss their performance and provide them with a copy of this written evaluation. The evaluation will also be kept on file in the department and in the dean’s office.
The reviewed faculty member will be asked to sign a confirmation of receipt form to verify that they received and read a copy of the annual or mid-contract review and discussed the review with the department chair. This statement will also confirm that the faculty member under review is familiar with the department's standards and criteria for reappointment and promotion.
The faculty member may submit a written response to the annual or mid-contract review. This response will be kept on file with the review itself and will be submitted with the dossier at the time of reappointment, promotion, or tenure review.
The final draft, confirmation of receipt, and written response (if any) from the candidate should be submitted by the department chair to the cognizant dean in Interfolio by the end of the fall semester.

Further information on the annual and mid-contract review process may be found in the Faculty Rules and Regulations 4.11.I.E (p. 113), as well as in Chapter 9 of the Handbook of Academic Administration.

Special guidance regarding documenting the impact of Covid-19 on research, teaching, and service

We invite faculty members who are receiving an annual or mid-contract review to document any continuing setbacks to their research, teaching, and service related to the coronavirus pandemic for the time period under review. We consider this information as important context for evaluating the work of these faculty members and encourage the departments to take it into account in assessing the professional accomplishments of the faculty under review, since the annual or mid-contract review will be the document of record included in any future dossier.