Clinical faculty appointments must be reviewed before their appointment end date.
Review procedures are defined by each school’s governing faculty. For a particular school’s procedures consult that school’s bylaws. The school’s review procedures will include formal faculty involvement, but may or may not include external inquiries. According to Regents’ Bylaw 5.23, clinical reappointments are recommended by the appropriate instructional unit and school, college, or division. The reappointment decision should be communicated to the faculty member in writing in a timely fashion.
If the reappointment is approved, a Personnel Action Request (PAR) transaction in Wolverine Access must be submitted indicating the new appointment end date. Follow your school’s internal routing procedures to obtain appropriate approval."
For more instructions and information on how to use the PAR, login to ITS > Human Resources Management System > Human Resources > Administer Workforce > Personnel Action Request (PAR).
If the reappointment is not approved, see the Termination and Non-Reappointment section.
Promotions to the titles of clinical associate professor and/or clinical professor, without tenure, are made by the President on the recommendation of the Provost and the applicable school’s dean. These promotions are reported to the Board of Regents. Each school will have its own policies and procedures for reaching a promotion decision. Regents’ Bylaw 5.23 indicates that promotion criteria shall be consistent with those for the regular instructional staff to the extent applicable. Further definition of the rights and responsibilities of clinical faculty, not inconsistent with the bylaws of the Board of Regents, may be addressed by the bylaws of the academic units. In addition, the Provost’s Office requires that each school follows certain minimum procedures and collects a specific set of materials. This set of materials is collected in what is called a Casebook. Each year, the Provost sends a memorandum to the Academic Program Group (deans) that sets forth detailed procedures and requested format for submitting promotion casebooks. This memorandum, along with the attached instructions, can be found on the Provost’s Office website under U-M Office of the Provost: Promotion Guidelines.
As explained in the Promotion Guidelines, all casebooks are prepared and sent electronically. These include casebooks where the recommendation is a negative decision. These are cases where the faculty will have a terminal contract year with no expectation of further review. Casebooks that recommend a delay in the decision need not be sent to the Provost’s Office for review.
Casebooks are due to the Provost’s Office in February of each year (see Provost’s annual memorandum for specific day in February) to be reported to the Board of Regents at their May meeting.
For clinical faculty members with joint regular appointments (even if the appointment is dry) only one casebook should be prepared and submitted. The cover letter for each joint appointment casebook should be signed by all of the appropriate Chancellor/dean(s)/director(s). This letter should describe the processes used in each school to reach a promotion recommendation, as well as a description of the ways in which the two (or more) schools coordinated their promotion processes in this case. If the individual is not recommended for promotion in any of the units in which he/she holds an appointment, the cover letter should clearly indicate the reason(s) for this decision.
Once the promotion has been approved and reported to the Board of Regents it is included on the approved promotion list that is prepared by Academic Human Resources and sent to Human Resource Records and Information Services (HRRIS). The newly effective appointment is entered into the system with a September first effective date directly from the approved promotion list.
The University brings all recommendations for promotion in academic rank to the Board of Regents in May of each year. Recommendations for promotions outside the normal cycle should be restricted to exceptional cases and/or circumstances. A Personnel Action Request (PAR) for these out-of-season promotions must be submitted to activate the new appointment.
In cases where the promotion decision is negative at both the school and the Provost level, it is the responsibility of the Dean/Director to ensure the faculty member is notified.
In accordance with Standard Practice Guide 201.23, Appointment of Relatives or Others with Close Personal or External Business Relationships; Procedures to assure Equal Opportunity and to Avoid the Possibility of Favoritism (Nepotism), the basic criteria for appointment and promotion of all University staff shall be appropriate qualifications and performance. Relationship to another individual employed by the University shall constitute neither an advantage nor a deterrent to appointment by the University, provided the individual meets and fulfills the appropriate University appointment standards.
For information regarding the advance notice required for providing a faculty member with a notice of non-reappointment, see Standard Practice Guide 201.88, Notice of Non-reappointment.
Policies on promotions and reappointments for Research Scientist and Research Professor tracks are provided by the Office of Research.
Professors and associate professors appointed, without tenure, must be reviewed before their appointment end date.
Review procedures are defined by each school’s governing faculty. For a particular school’s procedures, consult that school’s bylaws. The school’s review procedures will include formal faculty involvement, but may or may not include external inquiries. Recommendations to reappoint are made by the dean. The reappointment decision should be communicated in writing to the faculty member in a timely fashion.
If the reappointment is approved, then a Regents Communication must be prepared and approved before the reappointment can be finalized. Instructions on how to prepare a Regents Communication as well as samples of Regents Communications can be found in the Academic Personnel Regents Communications Manual.
Send the completed Regents Communication to Academic Human Resources via the appropriate Dropbox folder.
If the reappointment is not approved, see the Termination and Non-Reappointment section.
To process the reappointment, whether for a terminal year, or another appointment period, a Personnel Action Request (PAR) transaction in Wolverine Access must be submitted indicating the new appointment end date. Follow school procedures for routing and obtaining appropriate approval."
For more instructions and information on how to use the PAR, login to ITS > Human Resources Management System > Human Resources > Administer Workforce > Personnel Action Request (PAR).
Assistant professors and instructors can be appointed for terms of up to four years, though usually the initial appointment is for a three year period. In the third year of this initial appointment period, assistant professors are reviewed for reappointment. Those who are recommended for reappointment usually receive another three to four year appointment, during this second appointment period they will be reviewed for promotion to Associate Professor (see “Promotions to Associate Professor or Professor” below). Those who are not recommended for reappointment can be either reappointed for an additional year and reviewed again for renewal, or given a notice of non-reappointment and given a terminal year appointment.
If the reappointment is not approved, see the Termination and Non-Reappointment section.
Third Year Reviews are conducted by the schools to not only serve as basis for a decision concerning a renewal of the appointment for an additional period of time, but also to provide the assistant professor with an informed evaluation of her/his teaching, research and service and advice in regards to their focus for the next appointment period.
Each school has its own procedures for conducting this third year review. There are common principles that schools need to respect, which are detailed in Standard Practice Guide 201.13, Rules Concerning Regents’ Bylaw 5.09, Tenure, Tenure Review, and Joint or Partial Tenure Appointments. Consult individual school websites and/or administrators about their specific procedures. Typically the assistant professor will be asked to submit material relating to teaching, research and service to a reading committee. The reading committee will review the material and provide a report to the tenured faculty (in some schools, the executive committee or the personnel committee).
The reappointment decision will be made by the dean or the department chair, with advice from the faculty group. A notice of the review’s outcome must be provided in writing to the faculty member in a timely fashion.
To process the reappointment, whether for a terminal year, or a second appointment period, a Personnel Action Request (PAR) in Wolverine Access must be submitted indicating the new appointment end date. Be sure to follow your school’s internal routing procedures to obtain appropriate approval.
For more instructions and information on how to use the PAR, login to ITS > Human Resources Management System > Human Resources > Administer Workforce > Personnel Action Request (PAR).
For information regarding the advance notice needed for providing a faculty member with a notice of non-reappointment, see Standard Practice Guide 201.88, Notice of Non-reappointment.