Philosophy

In compliance with the mission and vision of Capital College and the School of Humanities, we recognize the continuum of activities that reflects the functions and forms of scholarship.  A promotion and tenure dossier needs to reflect multidimensional evidence of the functions of research, teaching and service.  As a result of this emphasis on multidimensionality, an individual faculty member is expected to serve the mission of the School/College/University by accomplishment in all three areas, and by carefully selecting, in consultation with the School Director, his/her spheres of activity and by excelling in those areas of scholarship.  In other words, we recognize that there is more than one way to excel professionally and serve the mission of the School.  Thus, each faculty member’s portfolio of performance activities may develop uniquely as the faculty member excels in his or her professional activities.

This emphasis on multidimensionality is also important in an interdisciplinary School, where most faculty are expected to do both discipline-based and interdisciplinary teaching and whose service responsibilities can sometimes exceed those of faculty in other units in the College.

Supporting Materials

The Faculty Committee which recommended changes to the School of Humanities Promotion and Tenure criteria referred to the following documents in the development of the revised criteria:

The mission statement of the School of Humanities
HR-23 Policy and Administrative Guidelines

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Includes:

  1. Well designed and challenging courses, as reflected in syllabi and course materials, which present content indicative of the state of knowledge in the fields being taught;
  2. participation in activities that improve teaching, such as workshops, development of new methods or courses;
  3. offering courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including general education courses, as well as CE courses and other outreach-based teaching, in keeping with the School’s needs and the candidate’s expertise;
  4. a willingness to offer independent studies, to chair and serve on master’s projects and productions, and doctoral dissertations, provide supervision of undergraduate research, including Honors program theses;
  5. participation in programmatic development, assessment and review;
  6. contribution towards student acquisition of further academic, creative or professional knowledge, experience, and skills through external programs in their fields, such as internships;
  7. academic advising and mentoring

The Scholarship of Research and Creative Accomplishments

Faculty undergoing review for promotion and tenure will be evaluated for their impact on their discipline or disciplines, on their students, on their University, and on their profession.   Research and creative accomplishment sufficient to confer upon the candidate recognition beyond the University will be central to the evaluation.   As members of an interdisciplinary unit, the faculty of the School of Humanities may publish in a variety of disciplines and/or interdisciplinary fields: they may publish written scholarship exclusively; may engage in a combination of scholarly publication and creative projects; or may contribute creative projects exclusively.

The successful candidate will provide clear evidence of high quality research and creative accomplishment as determined by that field(s). Such evidence will originate from an active research and/or creative program found in:

  • publication in professional refereed journals, print or on-line;
  • publication of scholarly or creative books;
  • publication of scholarly essays in peer refereed books;
  • publication of articles in the pedagogy of the field;
  • publication of textbooks or translations;
  • creative and scholarly projects, exhibits, and performances in the fine and popular arts, and public heritage;
  • publication of creative writing,
  • production of music, theatre or dance performance, composition, design, direction, management or other performing arts activity;
  • mass media contributions including research, script development, photography,  artistic direction, management or technical production in radio, television, video, film, print or on-line;
  • presentations at other academic institutions, professional meetings and conferences;
  • editorial contributions or refereeing for professional journals or book manuscripts for presses;
  • outreach activities in which there was significant use of the candidate’s professional expertise;
  • receipt of professional honors and awards. 

(This list is intended neither to be exhaustive nor to be a reproduction of the list on the Rainbow Dividers.)

In all reviews (second, fourth, and sixth years), the School Promotion and Tenure Committee will be charged with evaluating the quality of Scholarship of Research and Creative Accomplishment.

Service and the Scholarship of Service

High quality service activities are expected of all persons seeking promotion and/or tenure.  To that end, involvement in a variety of the following are expected

  1. A record of contribution to the life of the program, School, College, and the University, through involvement in and leadership of committees and related activ
  2. Engagement with the public that makes use of the expertise and interests of the faculty member, including speaking appearances, interaction with the media, working with schools, and writing outside of scholarly outlets.
  3. Planning and maintaining special facilities unique to the School, including darkroom, art, music, television/radio studios, theater or archives.
  4. Offices held in professional or disciplinary organizations, and awards and recognitions by such organizations.
  5. Academic, athletic, artistic or active advisory participation with student organizations.
  6. A record of contributions to the University’s efforts to enhance equal opportunity and diversity. 
 
Revised:  2011