Mid-Career Review of Tenured Associate Professors

The college offers tenured associate professors in or beyond their third year in rank a formative review of their progress towards promotion to full professor. The process achieves 2 goals:

• It clarifies college and institutional expectations for promotion to full professor.
• It provides accurate, actionable, and timely feedback to guide progress of tenured associate professors towards promotion to the next rank.

** Faculty endorsed for promotion to full professor that year, which is rare, follow the standard RPT process and timeline in lieu of the mid-career review.

Due date

Mid-career packets are due to the college (NatSci.RPT@msu.edu) by September 30.

Tipsheet

The Mid-Career Review process summarized in the NatSci Mid-Career Review tipsheet

Criteria, standards & timeline

MSU and NatSci policies on Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT) provide a framework to guide tenured associate professors towards promotion to full professor. This framework sets clear goals and expectations for this promotion, such as:

• Sustained disciplinary excellence and outstanding achievements across the mission, consistent with performance levels at peer universities.
• Evidence of leadership within the department, college, and institution, and of contributions to a flourishing intellectual life for those in the broader discipline, unit, college and Institution.
• Sufficiently long record for predicting capacity to continue to grow as a national or international expert and to sustain long-term, high-quality professional achievement and University service.
• Commitment to the highest standards of conduct and behavior, and contributions to a culture and climate that is respectful of all individuals, consistent with MSU’s core values.

Although there is no timeline for the review of tenured associate professors, it is important to provide a formative, constructive review of mid-career progress to prevent delays in career progression. The process achieves two goals:

1. It clarifies college and institutional expectations for promotion to full professor.
2. It provides accurate, actionable, and timely feedback to guide progress of tenured associate professors towards promotion to the next rank.

Guidelines & policies

NatSci Mid-Career Review policy

Process

To reduce the burden of preparing the review packets, the process is designed to be compatible with the faculty’s annual review.

To reduce burden on faculty and supervisors, the mid-career review is designed to augment the annual review with a reflective essay mirroring the RPT reflective essay. This approach fosters productive conversations about academic progress and supportive needs that may be needed at such critical time in the faculty’s career.

1. Faculty’s submission of annual review materials

   Tenured associate professors in their third year in rank augment their annual review materials with a 2-5 page reflective essay mirroring the RPT reflective essay:
   • Progress in research, teaching, service and leadership since last promotion
   • Plans to grow scholarship, instructional impact, and service/outreach
   • Contributions to upholding the University’s core values of conduct and behavior, and the enablement of a culture and climate that is respectful of all individuals and that promotes inclusive excellence.

2. Unit’s review and feedback

   Review: The unit reviews the reflective essay with the rest of the annual review materials following their standard process but enhanced to assess progress towards promotion to full professor.
   Written feedback: The faculty’s supervisor provides to the faculty written feedback about:
   • growth in the faculty’s record in research, teaching and service/leadership since achieving tenure
   • significance and impact of the faculty’s scholarship and plans in all assigned duties
   • contributions to MSU’s core values of conduct, behavior, culture and climate
   • performance areas requiring additional growth to meet promotion expectations

3. College review

   Submission: The unit submits to NatSci.RPT@msu.edu by September 30 a single, bookmarked PDF file containing 4 elements:

   1. Letter from the supervisor evaluating faculty’s progress towards full professor promotion (RPT style)

   2. Reflective essay (2-5 pages)

   3. Updated CV

   4. Annual review materials since last promotion

Review: The NatSci RPT committee reviews mid-career dossiers (typically in October-November) and evaluates whether the standards for promotion are met or growth is still needed in certain areas.
Written feedback: The college provides written feedback to the faculty member and their supervisor about mid-career progress and enhancements that may be needed to meet the standards for promotion to full professor.