Dear Colleagues,

following on from my earlier Welcome Back email, the Faculty Federation and Chairs’ Representative Shari Evans have had further discussions with the Provost’s Office regarding the promotion templates that appeared in promotion dossiers over the summer.  At a Chairs’ Retreat held at the end of August, many Chairpersons expressed concerns that these templates were not aligned with their department’s promotion standards nor with the information that is reported in the standard faculty activity report (FAR) where faculty record their activities and accomplishments for each year.

As a result of these discussions, the Provost’s Office has agreed that for faculty applying for promotion this year, these templates are a pilot program and that everyone will be held harmless. The Provost’s Office would like some faculty to use the templates as a way to assess the templates and to provide feedback in order to improve them for the future.  The Provost’s Office also plans to offer a series of workshops on effective presentation of information in promotion dossiers.  The Provost’s Office intent in creating these templates was to standardize the content and ensure completeness in personnel dossiers in an effort to support fair and efficient reviews at all the levels involved; Department FEC, Chairperson, Academic Council, Dean, Provost and Chancellor.

The Provost’s Office also committed to working with the Department Chairs and Faculty Federation to refine how material is presented in promotion dossiers. The Faculty Federation has suggested to the Provost that this process should include an review of the promotion template to ensure that it is aligned with the FAR template and the information that has been recorded  by faculty in their FAR. This may involve discussions regarding  changes to the FAR, which is a contractually mandated standardized form. There  should also be a review of the Provost’s CV to eliminate redundancy in the dossier materials.