Pre-Tenure Faculty Reappointment Process Policy

Previously, the College of Engineering employed a “3+2+1” reappointment schedule for new tenure-track faculty starting at the rank of Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering (CoE). The standard schedule for such faculty currently was: 

• An initial three-year term, followed by reappointment to a two-year term, followed by reappointment to a final one-year term through the tenure decision. The faculty performance review prior to the second reappointment serves as a mini-tenure (“4.2”) review.  

This reappointment schedule was an outlier compared to all other colleges on the Amherst campus, which employ a “4+2”, single reappointment schedule, and created additional administrative workload for the departments and the college, and additional stress for our pre-tenure faculty. Dismissal at the first reappointment after three years was exceedingly rare. The College had not had such a dismissal in at least 10 years, calling into question the need for two reappointments prior to the tenure decision. *

Effective for CoE Assistant Professors starting in January 2020 and later, the reappointment schedule will be: 

• An initial four-year term, followed by reappointment to a final two-year term through the tenure decision. The faculty performance review prior to reappointment serves as a mini-tenure review. 

The schedule for pre-tenure faculty who started before January 2020 would be unaffected. Impacted faculty with appointment letters with the old reappointment schedule will be issued letters indicating the change in their reappointment schedule. 

This change will benefit the College in several ways. Reappointment after three years, which is typically processed after 18 months of faculty service, provides insufficient time in some cases for a faculty member to implement a fully productive research and teaching program. Junior faculty in the College receive significant feedback each year as a result of Annual Faculty Report (AFR) evaluation and faculty mentoring. Thus, delaying reappointment to after four years will not impact assistant professor mentoring or feedback. Meanwhile, the earlier mini-tenure review will be beneficial to the junior faculty to give them additional time to course correct if there are concerns raised in the mini-tenure review. 

This change will also make CoE’s reappointment schedule consistent and equitable with the schedule used by the other colleges and schools at UMass Amherst. 

The following table summarizes the reappointment policy following this change: 

The proposed change will not otherwise change the College’s tenure procedures which follow the procedures outlined in the UMass Academic Personnel Policy (Red Book). As noted in Section 6.2.8 of the Red Book, “If tenure is not granted during the tenure decision year, a terminal appointment for one academic year shall be made in those cases which the faculty member does not already hold such appointment.” 

• The MSP collective bargaining agreement was recently revised to eliminate “off-cycle” reviews for tenure-track faculty with January start dates. The tenure clock for January hires will now start in September immediately following the faculty member’s start date.