APPENDIX C-1: UTK Procedures for Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review (PPPR)

1. Purpose of Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review: In its Policies on Academic Freedom, Responsibility, and Tenure (Board Policy BT0006), the Board of Trustees has recognized and affirmed the importance of tenure in protecting academic freedom and thus promoting the university’s principal mission of discovery and dissemination of knowledge through teaching, research, and service. The Board has also recognized its fiduciary responsibility to students, parents, and all citizens of Tennessee to ensure that faculty members effectively serve the needs of students and the university throughout their careers. In order to affirm the importance of tenure and carry out its fiduciary responsibilities, the Board revised BT0006 and established mandatory periodic comprehensive performance reviews for eligible tenured faculty. In compliance with this requirement, UTK, with the approval of the President and the Board, has established the following procedures under which each eligible tenured faculty member shall receive a comprehensive performance review no less often than every six years.
2. Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review (PPPR)Period: Except as otherwise provided in these procedures, each tenured faculty member must undergo some form of comprehensive performance review no less often than every six years. The PPPR shall not substitute for the Annual Performance and Planning Review in the year a faculty member is scheduled for PPPR. The post-tenure review period begins at the granting of tenure, and a faculty member’s PPPR will occur no less often than every six years thereafter unless one of the following circumstances results in a different timetable:
   1. Suspension of post-tenure review period: A faculty member’s post-tenure review period is suspended during any year in which the faculty member is granted a leave of absence or a modified duties assignment under UTK’s Family Care Policy.
   2. Restarting of post-tenure review period due to alternative comprehensive review: A comprehensive review of a faculty member’s performance restarts the faculty member’s PPPR period under the following circumstances:
      1. If a tenured faculty member undergoes a successful promotion review or a promotion is in progress during the year scheduled for PPPR, the promotion review fulfills the PPPR requirement and the PPPR period is modified to require PPPR six years after the promotion review.
      2. If a tenured faculty member undergoes an Enhanced Post-Tenure Performance Review (EPPR) and is either rated as meeting expectations or successfully completes the terms of the EPPR improvement plan, the EPPR process fulfills the PPPR requirement.
   3. Start of the PPPR period upon conclusion of an administrative appointment: Full time administrators and faculty members with a majority administrative appointment (including, but not limited to, deans, associate deans, directors, and department heads, or as determined by the chief academic officer) are not subject to PPPR; faculty members holding a less-than-majority administrative appointment (as determined by the chief academic officer) are subject to PPPR regarding their faculty duties based on expectations consistent with their faculty duty allocation. When a full-time or majority-time administrator leaves his or her administrative position to assume a tenured faculty position, the faculty member’s initial PPPR shall occur within six years after leaving the administrative position. A faculty member’s scheduled PPPR may be waived if the faculty member submits a written and binding commitment to retire no later than one year after the year in which the PPPR was scheduled. A faculty member’s scheduled PPPR may be otherwise deferred or modified only for good cause, as determined and approved by the chief academic officer.
3. Annual Schedule for Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review: All post-tenure reviews will be conducted and completed during the spring semester according to the following schedule:
   1. The chief academic officer, in consultation with the dean of each college, shall appoint all PPPR Committees as set forth in Section D below no later than December 1 prior to the spring semester in which the review will occur.
   2. The chief academic officer shall provide each PPPR Committee and the faculty member under review with the materials designated in Section F below no later than January 15.
   3. Each PPPR Committee shall submit its report required by Section H below no later than March 31.
   4. Extensions of these deadlines will be granted only for good cause approved by the chief academic officer.
4. Composition of Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review Committee: All post-tenure reviews will be conducted by a committee established for the sole purpose of post-tenure review. Each PPPR Committee will include three (3) members, appointed by the chief academic officer, who will avoid choosing PPPR Committee members with obvious or apparent conflicts of interest. Faculty members who hold administrative appointments, as determined by the chief academic officer, are not eligible to serve. In addition to these general principles of inclusion, the composition of the PPPR Committee must meet the following requirements:

• • Each PPPR Committee member must be a tenured full-time faculty member who is at the same or higher academic rank, and whose locus of tenure is at the same campus, as the faculty member being reviewed.
  • One, and only one, PPPR Committee member must hold an appointment in the same department as the faculty member being reviewed, unless there is no such faculty member eligible to serve.
  • The committee chair will be appointed by the chief academic officer from among the members of the committee who are not from the same department as the faculty member being reviewed.

The chief academic officer will also be responsible for establishing a university-wide pool of faculty members to serve on PPPR committees. The pool will be constituted in the following manner:

• • Each college dean will provide nominees to the chief academic officer, according to the following considerations:
  • In colleges with departments, the dean will nominate individuals who are eligible to serve on a PPPR committee of any colleague from the same department who is scheduled to be reviewed in that academic year. The total number of nominees put forward by the dean will be determined by the number of faculty from unique departments who are scheduled for review in that academic year. For example, if there are 20 faculty members in 14 unique departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, the dean of the college will submit 14 nominees, one from each of the unique departments. A college with departments must nominate at least one faculty member even if no faculty from that college are scheduled to undergo PPPR in a given year.
  • In colleges without departments, each dean will nominate one faculty member for the university-wide pool.
  • Each college will determine the process whereby nominees are selected and recommended to the chief academic officer
  • Nominees will serve for a minimum of one year, and they may serve for up to three years, as recommended by the deans.
  • At his or her discretion, the chief academic officer may ask deans to provide additional nominees or replacements for those nominated.

1. 5. Written Charge to the PPPR Committee: In consultation with the dean of the college of the faculty member under review, the chief academic officer will appoint and provide a written charge to the committee. The charge will include the following elements:
      1. Purpose of PPPR, as described in Section A above.
      2. Scope of PPPR, as described in Section F below.
      3. Process of PPPR as described in Section G below.
      4. Materials to be reviewed in PPPR, as described in Section E below; the chief academic officer will emphasize that only in rare circumstances, and where expertise to evaluate the faculty member’s scholarly output cannot otherwise be obtained, will the committee request external letters of assessment.
      5. Obligation to provide a fair and objective review.
      6. Obligation to keep confidential the committee’s deliberations and findings.
      7. Any other instructions that the chief academic officer deems necessary to carry out the review.
   6. Materials to be Reviewed by Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review Committee: The PPPR Committee must review the following documents:
      1. APPR materials: Annual review materials for each year since the last comprehensive review or for the last six years in cases where this is the first review, including the following:
         • APPR summary rating forms from the UTK online faculty review system (supplied by the chief academic officer);
         • Any and all evaluation narratives written by department head during the PPPR period (supplied by the chief academic officer);
         • Any and all responses by the faculty member, dean, and chief academic officer for each APPR (supplied by the chief academic officer);
         • End of course surveys for the PPPR period (supplied by the department head);
         • Any peer evaluation of teaching for the PPPR period (supplied by the department head).
      2. Department and college performance expectations for faculty according to rank, as published in the bylaws of the relevant unit(s) (supplied by the department head);
      3. A current curriculum vitae (supplied by the faculty member);c
      4. A narrative, not to exceed two pages, prepared by the faculty member describing the faculty member’s milestone achievements and accomplishments for the review period as well as goals for the next review period (supplied by the faculty member);c
      5. If this is not the first PPPR, a copy of the narrative submitted as a part of the faculty member’s previous PPPR (supplied by the faculty member);
      6. External reviews only when deemed necessary by the PPPR Committee or the chief academic officer.
   7. Criteria for Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review: The post-tenure review process must assess the faculty member’s continuing professional growth and productivity in the areas of teaching, research (including scholarly, creative and artistic work), service, and/or clinical care pertinent to his or her faculty responsibilities. The criteria for assessing the faculty member’s performance must be consistent with established expectations of the department, school/college, and campus and provide sufficient flexibility to consider changes over time in the faculty member’s academic responsibilities and/or the department’s expectations. The expectations for faculty performance may differ by campus, college, department, and even within a department or program. Those expectations may be commonly held standards in the discipline or sub-discipline, and should be published in the unit’s bylaws. In addition, they may be stated explicitly in the faculty member’s past annual performance reviews, work assignments, goals, or other planning tools (however identified). They may also be found in college bylaws, this handbook, and in other generally applicable policies and procedures (for example, fiscal, human resources, safety, research, or information technology policies and procedures).
   8. Periodic Post-Tenure Performance Review Committee’s Conclusions and Report: The PPPR Committee is charged to assess the faculty member’s performance during the review period and to conclude whether the faculty member’s performance satisfies the expectations for the faculty member’s discipline and academic rank. The PPPR Committee’s voting must be conducted by anonymous ballots. All conclusions and recommendations shall be adopted upon the vote of a simple majority of the PPPR Committee. No member of the PPPR Committee may abstain or recuse himself or herself from voting. Based on the judgment of its members, the PPPR Committee must conclude that the faculty member’s performance either:

• • • satisfies the expectations for the faculty member’s discipline and academic rank, or
    • does not satisfy the expectations for the faculty member’s discipline and academic rank.

The committee must report its conclusions and recommendations in writing using a standard format prepared by the chief academic officer, including:

5. 5. • an enumeration of the anonymously cast vote;
      • the reasons supporting the committee’s conclusion;
      • a record of the grounds for any dissenting vote, as those grounds were expressed in the committee’s deliberations;
      • identification of any incongruences observed between the faculty member’s performance and his or her annual evaluations,
      • a statement of any additional concerns identified or actions recommended;
      • if appropriate, an identification of areas of extraordinary contribution or performance; and
      • a summary of the time spent by the PPPR committee in conducting the PPPR.

The detailed PPPR Committee report shall be provided to the faculty member, department head, dean, and chief academic officer

1. 9. Review of the PPPR Committee Report by the Dean and Chief Academic Officer

Upon receipt of the report, the faculty member under review and the department heads have fourteen (14) calendar days to provide the dean with a written response to the PPPR Committee report. The dean will consider the PPPR Committee Report, together with any written responses from the faculty member or department head and either accept or reject the Committee’s determination that the faculty member’s performance satisfies or does not satisfy the expectations for the faculty member’s discipline and academic rank. If the PPPR Committee report is not unanimous, or if the dean does not accept the PPPR Committee’s determination, the dean shall provide supporting reasons for the dean’s determination. The dean’s determination should be forwarded to the chief academic officer within fourteen (14) calendar days of the end of the faculty member / department head response period, with a copy to the faculty member and the department head. Upon receipt of the dean’s recommendation, the faculty member has fourteen (14) calendar days to provide the chief academic officer with a written response to the dean’s determination. The chief academic officer shall accept or reject the dean’s determination with a copy to the faculty member and the dean. If the chief academic officer’s decision differs from the determinations of the Committee or the dean, then notice of the decision shall also include supporting reasons for the decision.

1. 10. Further Actions: If, as a result of PPPR, the chief academic officer concludes that the faculty member’s performance has not satisfied the expectations for the faculty member’s discipline and rank, an Enhanced Post-Tenure Performance Review (EPPR) will be initiated, as detailed in Board Policy BT0006-Appendix E, as included in Chapter 3 of this handbook. The triggering of EPPR will run concurrently with any appeal undertaken by the faculty member, as described in section IX, below. If, upon review of the PPPR report, the chief academic officer believes that deficiencies exist in the departmental annual performance review process (including failure of department heads to conduct rigorous annual performance reviews) or observes incongruences between the PPPR performance review and rankings assigned through the annual performance review process, the chief academic officer must develop a process for addressing the issues. Any such process developed by the chief academic officer will have no bearing on the requirement that an Enhanced Post-Tenure Performance Review be initiated for a faculty member who has not satisfied expectations for rank. All documents related to the PPPR process will be maintained by the Office of the Provost and made available to the UT System upon request.
   11. Appeal: The faculty member under review may appeal the chief academic officer’s determination regarding the outcome of PPPR within thirty (30) calendar days of notification of that outcome. The procedure for appeal is described in Chapter 5 of this handbook, except that the administrative appeal is to the Chancellor, a final decision on the appeal shall be made within ninety (90) days of the faculty member’s appeal, and the final decision of the Chancellor on an appeal shall not be appealable to the President.
   12. Annual Report to the Board of Trustees: The chief academic officer shall prepare an annual assessment report of campus post-tenure review processes, procedures, and outcomes for submission by the Chancellor to the Board of Trustees, through the President. The report shall include a description of any deficiencies identified in departmental annual performance review processes and the plan for addressing the issues. The annual report will also include a summary of the time and resources devoted to the post-tenure reviews conducted during the year. A public version of the report that protects individual identities will be made available to all faculty.