Faculty Affairs

Medical School faculty members are appointed onto one of three tracks – Clinician, Academic, or Tenure – according to their expected activities, their academic interests, and the needs of their division and department. Each track has different criteria for promotion, designed to recognize and reward faculty excellence across the many mission areas of the Medical School and University. 

• Within the Clinician track, faculty can be promoted for clinical excellence with a demonstrated regional/national reputation, in combination with academic participation (teaching is required, research is optional) and administrative service roles.
• Within the Academic track, faculty select one academic area of excellence – either research, education, or clinical scholarship – to serve as the primary basis for their promotion. Each area of excellence has unique criteria, but all require peer-reviewed scholarship (one publication per year) leading to regional/national recognition, in addition to education and service activities. 
• Within the Tenure track, faculty can be promoted for national/international distinction in teaching (which must include scholarly work in education) or in a specific research area (which is more common). Effective teaching and professional/institutional service are also required.

A faculty member can switch (typically only once) from the Academic track to the Clinician track or vice versa. A switch is generally made if the faculty member’s passions, activities, and overall career trajectory are better aligned with the performance expectations of a different track. To ensure faculty have adequate time to prepare for promotion, individuals transferring onto the Academic track may not submit a dossier for promotion until one calendar year after their track transfer request has been approved. All transfers onto the Clinician track are immediately eligible to submit a dossier for promotion.

Track transfers involve a formal process within the division and receive approval at the department and Medical School levels. We encourage faculty to remain on the track for which they were hired for several years to give them time to fully understand the various tracks and associated requirements prior to requesting a change. A switch (or rehire) to Tenure Track is a more complex process, requiring a formal national search for a posted position and approval by the University Provost. The potential for rehiring a faculty member onto the tenure track needs to be thoroughly discussed with your program director and P&T chairs, the department head, and the Medical School associate dean for faculty affairs.

Early in your career as a faculty member, it is important to read through the statement for your track. You need to understand the criteria by which you are being judged for readiness for promotion. Meet regularly with your DFMCH mentor and other colleagues who can help you solidify your academic and clinical interests. If you do not feel like you have a mentor who can provide you with this type of guidance, please reach out to the Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, who can connect you with an appropriate mentor for your track and areas of interest.

Read through the handbook to see how you can best prepare.

There is no “promotion clock” for the Academic track and Clinician track. Faculty can seek promotion in these tracks whenever they can demonstrate meeting the appropriate criteria. Average time in rank for DFMCH faculty on the academic track is 8 to 9 years, but the range is much wider. Faculty are encouraged to work closely with their faculty mentor to identify the best time for them to consider promotion. There is a “promotion clock” of 9+1 years for tenure-track faculty in the clinical departments in the Medical School. This means that a tenure-track assistant professor must be evaluated for tenure by their “Decision Year” (in spring of the eighth year from their start date); this timing would align with them being promoted by the spring of their ninth year.

If a tenure-track faculty member fails to meet criteria for tenure by this time frame, they are able to remain on their current track for one additional year before they are required to secure a new position (hence 9+1). There is no clock for advancement from tenured associate to tenured full professor. Tenure-track assistant professors are required to attend an annual review with the P&T Committee to ensure they are making good progress toward tenure. Tenure track faculty members are also able to go up for promotion early, if desired; if they are considering going up early they are encouraged to discuss this with their mentor and at their annual review meetings to determine the best timing.

To make it easier to prepare your dossier when you are ready for promotion, there is information you should be collecting, tracking, and updating on a regular basis. See the handbook for a full list.

All faculty members are required to put together a dossier which will be reviewed to determine if they meet criteria for promotion on their specific track. A dossier is a collection of documents about you that summarizes your academic accomplishments as a faculty member. The dossier includes your CV, a narrative statement that you write to elaborate on your professional contributions, documentation of your teaching/mentoring activities and your effectiveness in these roles, external reviews of your dossier materials (letters solicited from external senior faculty in your field), and recommendations from internal reviewers (division and departmental leaders, peers) on your readiness for promotion.

Contact Mina Park.

Promotion is a process by which faculty members at academic institutions are judged against predetermined criteria for advancement in rank (from Assistant to Associate Professor, and from Associate to Full Professor). The reasons why a faculty member may choose to pursue promotion are diverse and individualized. Reasons might include: 

• Meeting the promotion criteria, taking on tasks and responsibilities they enjoy and being recognized for this accomplishment, and meeting the expectations of the division or department. 
• Gaining access to opportunities (committees, leadership roles, etc.) that require advanced rank. 
• Serving as a role model for others in academia. 
• Achieving a higher salary.

Your track statement lays out the criteria for each rank. To gauge if you are ready, compare your accomplishments and CV against the criteria laid out in the track statement specific to your track. It can also be helpful to set up a meeting with your mentor(s) to discuss your readiness. 

When you anticipate being ready to go up for promotion within the next few years, it is recommended that you attend the annual promotion/ tenure meeting to have your materials reviewed by the committee. (Note: Tenure track faculty will be required to attend these meetings annually regardless of their timeline.) Committee members will be able to comment on your readiness and offer suggestions to ensure you are ready on your preferred timeline. If you have additional questions about your readiness please reach out to the Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, who can provide you with insights as well.