BERKELEY: OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
March 18, 1991
Dear Colleagues:
RE: MID-CAREER APPRAISALS - DEPARTMENTAL VOTE
We wish to remind department chairs and deans that Mid Career Appraisals must offer the results of a vote that is centered on the candidate's prospects for eventual promotion to tenure. It should involve professors and associate professors. It may be taken by secret ballot. Its results shall be submitted with the case. The clarification that is presently called for is that in every instance the question for determination should be specifically directed toward prospects for tenure. The question should be phrased in the following way: Are this candidate's prospects for tenure good, fair, or poor? The exact distribution of the vote--which is itself only advisory--should be submitted with the case.
We are providing this clarification because several Mid Career Appraisals in the current year have had that question about prospects for tenure buried in details that only provoke doubt about the candidate's tenurability. In some instances, the departments relied on reports from a departmental ad hoc review committee which made negative assessments--each offering little hope that the candidate's research records can be improved--but without directly facing up to the question at issue. These then were followed by departmental action "approving" the committee reports. The procedure tends to throw the burden onto the shoulders of subsequent reviewers.
Cases which do not directly address the question about the candidate's tenurability will be returned to the departments for a response to this question.
Sincerely,
Page last checked: 03/29/99