Promotion and Tenure Processes

Supporting Faculty in Advancing their Careers

The Promotion and Tenure (P&T) process is central to a university achieving and embodying excellence and rigor, and must be approached in a manner that is intentional, clear, consistent, and equitable.

Tenure is granted to faculty who have demonstrated excellence as scholars/researchers/creative artists, strong records of teaching and mentoring, and a clear record of serving their department, university, and discipline.

Each discipline has its own qualifications for excellence, and discipline-specific guidelines and processes can be found with the College/School dean or the department chair. The role of the Provost’s Office is to ensure we have unified guidelines about how candidates are assessed at the University level, and these pages focus on the part of the promotion and tenure process that is managed by the Provost's Office.

Both reviews, the first at the department/college/school level and the second at the Provost's Office, are subject to the Policies of the SUNY Board of Trustees, specifically Art. XII, Title A, paragraph 4 and Title B, paragraph 2, which indicates the elements which should be weighed in evaluation of candidates for promotion and/or continuing appointment.

Three Critical Areas to Ensure a Strong Tenure File

Excellence in these areas will, of course, vary by discipline and department.

In general, we believe excellence means:

You supervise an independent, productive research or creative program, or you demonstrate a pattern of scholarship or art-making that addresses major and significant problems or topics.

You have produced a solid record of original and important publications in top peer-reviewed journals in your field, or first or senior author publications in books, monographs, or other recognized intellectual and artist products that can be objectively evaluated on a retrospective basis.
- - In cases where the significance of the publication and/or performance/exhibition venues of your work and contributions is not immediately apparent, it should be explained. This is particularly important in cases of foreign language publications.
Evidence of a strong national reputation (and/or international reputation for Full Professors) and respect among peers, documented through invited lectures, citation or use of published work, performance or presentation of art in significant venues and exhibitions, attracting students and fellows, as well as serving as a PI of competitively reviewed grants or as lead investigator in a significant study, or equivalent, such as an independent, essential contribution to highly collaborative research or art-making

Stony Brook University proudly supports and encourages collaborative and interdisciplinary scholarship, and we recognize that multi-author publications are increasingly common and valuable.

When needed, the file should describe your specific role in these collaborative/multi-author endeavors. When relevant, you may include a detailed discussion of non-traditional publications and research outlets.
Your effectiveness as an educator and mentor is an important element of your promotion and tenure file. What excellence looks like may differ from discipline to discipline, course to course; we look for signs of growth and improvement across the areas.

For your tenure file, you can demonstrate your strength in teaching in many ways. For example:
- Student response to instruction
- Evidence that you have broadened educational opportunities for students
- Contributions to the teaching mission of the university
- Innovation in teaching
- Evidence of successful, consistent mentoring or student engagement.
10 signs you are a good teacher
All tenure-track faculty should provide departmental, institutional, and professional service.

Service includes, but isn’t limited to, participation in School/College and University committees and activities.

If you are starting out as an assistant professor, your service should be relatively limited as you prioritize your teaching, research, scholarship and creative activities. Senior faculty and your dean will work with you to help you find an appropriate balance. However, we urge faculty to find ways of serving that are meaningful to them.

Demonstrating a Strong Service Record

Dive into your Process

Promotion to Associate Professor: Process Overview

Jump to What You Need

Midpoint Review

Timeline

External Evaluators

Promotion to Full Professor: Process Overview

Jump to what you need

External Evaluators

Across disciplines, tenured faculty at Stony Brook:

Have contributed impactful research, scholarship and/or creative activities and have a growing national reputation in their discipline

Have strong teaching records

Demonstrate a commitment to serving their department, college, and university

Share a commitment to the university's mission:

To provide comprehensive undergraduate, graduate, and professional education of the highest quality;
To carry out research and intellectual endeavors of the highest international standards that advance knowledge and have immediate or long-range practical significance;
To provide leadership for economic growth, technology and culture for neighboring communities and the wider geographic region;
To provide state-of-the-art innovative health care, while serving as a resource to a regional health care network and to the traditionally underserved;
To fulfill these objectives while celebrating diversity and positioning the University in the global community.

We acknowledge and value faculty engaged in a broad range of entrepreneurial outreach and creative activities in their teaching, research, and service, such as participation in center grants and team science, publicly engaged scholarship or creative activities with documented impact, and active and service learning curricular innovation. Further, we encourage contributions to teaching, scholarship, and service that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion, and will recognize those contributions during the academic review process.

Exceptions to the Standard Timeline

Expedited Tenure

Expedited tenure is granted as part of the hiring process. It is only for senior hires: faculty or administrative leadership who have already held tenure at another institution. In these cases, candidates are hired with the understanding that they are qualified for tenure at the point of hire; while all SUNY faculty with continuing appointment must go through review on campus, chairs, deans, and hiring managers are confident that the tenure and promotion case will not be challenged within the department.

Hiring Administrative Leaders (Deans or above)

During the search, the candidate's hiring manager should ask the potential home department leadership if they believe the candidate is likely to receive promotion and tenure within their department. They will send an email attestation of their discussion/preliminary vote to the hiring manager. The email will be included in the expedited tenure Interfolio file.

Hiring Senior Scholars

Before a candidate receives a job offer, senior members of the prospective home department should hold a preliminary vote on the candidate's likely tenure and promotion, should the candidate accept the offer.

To prepare for the discussion and vote, the department chair may solicit additional information from the candidate, such as teaching evaluations or letters of recommendation. The department chair may not contact the candidate's current home department.

The results of the preliminary vote will be documented and saved for the candidate's expedited tenure Interfolio file.

The Process

Stony Brook uses Interfolio for promotion and tenure and reappointment.

Candidate files will be initiated in Interfolio by their home department's assistant to the chair, and candidates will be given access to upload documents and check on the progress of their files.

Going up Early; Credit for Prior Service

Going up for tenure early is rare. If a faculty member is hired after serving in a tenure-track position elsewhere, they can discuss with their chairs receiving "prior service credit" for that time. This should be confirmed at the point of hiring or shortly after arrival to campus.

Depending on the situation, an assistant professor could be granted up to three years prior service per SUNY Board of Trustees policies, Article XI, Appointment of Employees, Title B, Continuing Appointment.

Prior Service Credit Request Form

This form may only be used for assistant professor, assistant librarian, or senior assistant librarian.

Resources for Department Chairs and Assistants to the Chair

Suggested Template: Midpoint Review

External Evaluators

Suggested Guidelines: Student Letters