040220

01. POLICY Statement. This Departmental Policy and Procedure Statement sets forth criteria and guidelines for tenure and promotion in the College of Health Professions, Medical Laboratory Science [MLS] Program. The review process for tenure and promotion is separate from re-appointment, annual performance, and merit reviews. While the criteria are similar, tenure and promotion review is not an annual review, but a cumulative review based on the tenure/promotion process. The evaluation will consider all the candidates’ accomplishments, but the time period from initial date of appointment on tenure-track or hire date for faculty promotion at Texas State will be emphasized. The criteria are based on the following sources:
01.01 AA/PPS 04.02.20 (8.10) Tenure/Promotion Review
01.02 AA/PPS 04.02.01 (8.01) Development and Evaluation of Tenure-Track Faculty
01.03 AA/PPS 04.01.01 (7.02) Faculty Hiring
01.04 COHP 04.02.20 Tenure and Promotion
01.05 Faculty Handbook
01.06 The Core of Academe http://gato-docs.its.txstate.edu/provost-vpaa/office-pps-files/pps8/Core_of_Academe.doc


02. Definitions
02.01 No unique definitions exist for the MLS program outside what is already defined by the University and College of Health Professions.
02.02 The faculty of the MLS program view teaching, scholarly/creative activity, service, and collegiality as essential to the achievement of tenure and promotion.
02.03. At the core of MLS Program's philosophy and of relevance to the performance evaluation of faculty is collegiality, professional and ethical behavior, honesty and integrity, collaboration, and contributions to the missions of MLS Program, the College, the University, and the local/professional community. Collegial faculty members are expected to contribute to the positive functioning of MLS Program, the College, and the University (AA/PPS No. 04.02.20). Although collegiality can be an abstract concept, measurable components exist such as: teaching for another in an emergency, collaborating on research, providing a lecture to augment another faculty member’s course, and supporting university initiatives.

03. Criteria for Appointment
03.01 The terminal degree for Medical Laboratory Science is a bachelor's degree.

Therefore, in order to be appointed, a master’s degree in a related area (i.e. education, business administration, health administration, biology or other appropriate science or clinical area, public health, or similar) is required to teach in the program.

03.02 The Ph.D., Ed.D., or DCLS is not required to achieve tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor for either tenure track or clinical track, however, is required for the promotion to full Professor.

03.03 All faculty are expected to be involved in all areas of teaching,
research and service. Scholarly requirements are decreased for clinical track promotion, however scholarly evidence is required.

03.04 As medical laboratory science is a niche expertise, scholarly activity geared directly toward this field is highly valued. Scholarly journals may not have impact factors but are necessary for the development of the profession. Publications should, however, be in scholarly peer reviewed journals or magazines, and of high quality. Conference proceedings at the international, national, and state level are available in this field and should be valued.

03.05 Grant activity should be pursued, either individually or collaboratively if on tenure track. Grant activity on the clinical track is recommended, but not necessary.

03.06 Service in all areas (University, College, Program, and Community) is expected.

04. Review Process for Tenure and Promotion
04.01 Unit Personnel Committee and the Chair/Director
The Personnel Committee and Chair make independent, separate recommendations on each candidate for promotion and/or tenure. The Personnel Committee prepares their recommendation for the Chair/Director. The Chair then reviews the Personnel Committee's recommendation prior to his/her review. In order to be forwarded to the next level of review, either the Personnel Committee or the Chair must recommend the candidate. Within three (3) class days of the completion of action by the Personnel Committee and the Chair, each candidate will be notified by the Chair/of the status of his/her application for tenure and/or promotion (AA/PPS No. 04.02.20).

04.02 External Reviewers
Candidates must be reviewed by at least two qualified peers (at the rank the candidate is seeking or higher) outside the University selected by both the candidate and the unit Chair/Director. The outside reviewers will be acceptable to the faculty member’s contributions and performance in: a) Teaching, b) Scholarly and/or Creative Activity, and c) Service to the Department/School/Program, College, University, Profession and the Community. External review will begin prior to the time of the Personnel Committee's review of the candidate's material. In the event external reviewers meeting the above criteria cannot be located/are not available/does not exist the candidate may be evaluated by a qualified faculty (at the rank the candidate is seeking) outside the candidate's College but in a related field (pending Dean/Provost approval).

04.03 College Review Group and College Dean
The College Review Group and College Dean make independent, separate recommendations on each candidate for promotion and/or tenure. The College Review Group first reviews and submits their recommendation to the Dean. The Dean then prepares their recommendation taking the College Review Group's recommendation into consideration. To be forwarded to the next level of review, either the College Review Group or College Dean must recommend the candidate.

Within three (3) days of the completion of action by the College Review Group and the College Dean, each candidate will be notified by the College Dean of the status of his/her application for promotion and/or tenure (AA/PPS No. 04.02.20).

04.04 Provost, President, Chancellor, and Board of Regents
The provost will consider all candidates for promotion and/or tenure who are forwarded from the College Review Group and College Dean. After consultation with the College Dean, the Provost will make recommendations to the President of the University. The President will make the final recommendations to the Chancellor and Board of Regents.

05. Timeline for the Tenure and Promotion Process

05.01 The timeline set by the university will make allowances for weekends, by moving due dates to the next business day when relevant (AA/PPS No. 04.02.20).

05.02 By June 1, eligible faculty members must notify the Chair in writing of their intention to apply for tenure and/or promotion. Faculty who fail to inform the Chair by September 15 will not be considered in the year’s cycle. For a tenure and promotion calendar, see the Faculty Records webpage: http://facultyrecords.provost.txstate.edu/calendars/tenure-promo-calendar.html.

05.03 By May 1, the Chair/Director will submit to the Department faculty and the College Dean a list of faculty members eligible for promotion and tenure review.

05.04 By August 15, the Provost will establish the calendar for the tenure and promotion cycle for the coming academic year.

05.05 By September 1, the Provost will publish the calendar for the year.

05.06 The Chair should inform external reviewers regarding the timeline. For example, a specific range of dates should be given to the external reviewers to allow time for completion of the candidate's packet by the second week of October (due date for faculty submission of documentation).
05.07 By September 15, the Chair/Director will send a copy of the list of candidates to the Personnel Committee and College Dean.

05.08 By September 22, the Dean will provide a list of all candidates for tenure and promotion in the College to the Provost.

05.09 By October 13, the candidate must complete and submit an up-to-date Texas State Vita and a promotion and/or tenure form to the Chair/Director. The candidate should also submit documentation of teaching, scholarly/creative activity and leadership/service as defined in Departmental/School and College criteria. Additional supporting material, dated appropriately, may be submitted before the formal meeting of the review group. Faculty who do not submit material by October 13 will not be considered during the cycle.

05.10 By November 17, the Personnel Committee will have
a) reviewed each candidate's application and documentation,
b) voted, and
c) submitted recommendations to the Chair.

05.11 By December 1, the Chair/Director will submit his/her recommendations, along with those of the Personnel Committee, to the Dean.

05.12 By February 9, the College Review Group and the Dean will have completed the review of all candidates, and the Dean will submit his/her recommendations, along with those of the review group, to the Provost.

05.13 By April 30, the Provost will notify candidates and the President will notify the Chancellor and the Board of the recommendations.

06. Procedures for Appeal
06.01 Candidates denied promotion and/or tenure are referred to
AA/PPS No. 04.02.32 and AA/PPS No. 04.02.20.

06.02 Accountability of Individuals Participating in the Review Cycle
All individuals involved in the tenure and promotion process must be ethical, responsible, accountable, and maintain strict confidentiality in dealing with career decisions of others that is beyond question of bias or self-interest. Reviewers are responsible for being familiar with the tenure and promotion criteria and policies and procedures for their respective levels of review. Reviewers will be accountable for their evaluations and are expected to have adequately reviewed the candidate's portfolio prior to making decisions. Each person in the review and evaluation process has a professional responsibility to treat information that evaluates another person's work as confidential.

07. Basis for Recommendation/Teaching

07.01 The tenure and promotion process is a continued process of
cumulative achievement that starts at the Unit level. Chairs and Directors are responsible for guiding faculty members through the tenure and promotion process giving the faculty guidance about their development.

Recommendations for promotion and/or tenure are based on professional judgments about the faculty member's contributions and performance in: a) Teaching, b) Scholarly and/or Creative Activity, and c) Service to the Department/School/Program, College, University, Profession and the Community.

This College policy sets forth minimal requirements for consideration of tenure and promotion. Each Unit will further define what constitutes the specific criteria for each of the areas of evaluation, i.e., Teaching, Scholarly/Creative Activity, and Service. The requirements are minimal College criteria that may be exceeded by individual Units. Attainment of these minimal required levels of performance only allows, but does not obligate, the reviewers to recommend tenure and/or promotion. All recommendations are based on professional judgments and the criteria are designed to inform those judgments.

07.02 To successfully apply for tenure and/or promotion, a faculty member must demonstrate a record of teaching achievement and the potential for sustained achievement.

The Department Personnel Committee and the Department Chair evaluate each faculty member’s teaching on the basis of scholarly presentation, dedication, student evaluations, tenured faculty evaluations, and self-evaluation. The Personnel Committee and Department Chair assess each faculty member’s participation in curriculum committee activities. Faculty are required to be formally evaluated on his/her teaching 3 times per year. 1 time per year, this person should be a tenured faculty member if on the tenure track.

07.03 Teaching includes both campus-based and on-line instruction
performance. Factors to be considered are:
• preparing for class,
• testing effectively,
• developing curriculum,
• investigating and applying applicable technologies to enhance the learning experience
• preparing syllabi,
• completing clinical coordination responsibilities
• compliance with office hours policy for students,
• advising students on academics and careers,
• maintaining competence in the field (as evidenced by continuing education and maintenance of credentials),
• sponsoring student organizations and activities outside the classroom, and
• mentoring students.

07.04 The Personnel Committee considers each of these factors in tenure and/or promotion reviews.
Collegiality in teaching is demonstrated by:
• a willingness to share syllabi and class materials with other faculty members,
• offering constructive criticism of courses (either current courses or those in preparation),
• providing guest lectures,
• providing feedback about advising, instructional strategies, or evaluative methods or styles,
• demonstrating flexibility and understanding in how courses are assigned to faculty,
• promoting teaching excellence in the Department as a whole.


07.05 The faculty member under review must document:
• statement of teaching philosophy, including a self-assessment of teaching strengths,
• student and tenured faculty evaluations of classroom performance,
• syllabi,
• a list of additional teaching activities such as guest lectures, arranging guest speakers for multiple class sections, and new materials and assignments.
• possible areas needing improvement,
• evidence of continuing education
• Other evidence, possibly including but not limited to letters from former students, development or revision of courses or programs, evidence of innovative instructional materials and teaching techniques, faculty development activities focused on improving teaching effectiveness (such as attendance at conferences and workshops or formal academic study), and teaching awards, honors, and funded teaching grants.

07.06 For consideration of promotion to Full Professor/Full Clinical
Professor, the faculty member must demonstrate a sustained or consistent record of excellence in teaching and provide increasing patterns of leadership across a range of activities such as in developing curriculum and mentoring teaching skills of Assistant Professors/Clinical Assistant Professors.

08. Basis for Recommendation/ Scholarly Activity
08.01 Scholarship is defined as original research, applied research,
pedagogical research and other forms of qualitative and quantitative scientific inquiry. Successfully applying for tenure and/or promotion must include a record of sustained scholarly achievement and demonstrable potential for continued achievement.

Both quality and quantity of the faculty member’s accomplishments will be considered for tenure and promotion. Collaborative work is encouraged but not sufficient to obtain tenure and promotion, a demonstration of leadership in this area is required including first authorship, originality, and a significant body of contributions.

In addition to quantitative requirements, which are minimum guidelines, the Program Chair and Personnel Committee provide a qualitative assessment of the candidate’s scholarship based on such factor’s notoriety within the profession, prestige of organizations (e.g., American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, American Society for Clinical Pathology, American Society for Microbiology, CDC, or similar) to which scholarly work was accepted, competitiveness of grants which were funded, and opinions of experts outside the university .

08.02 Collegiality in scholarship is manifested in:
• participating in jointly authored presentations or publications
• providing informed and constructive feedback on the scholarship of other faculty
• offering suggestions about sources of information or opportunities for presentations, publications, and grants
• engaging in other activities promoting scholarly excellence in the MLS Program

08.03 The Medical Laboratory Science Program encourages both single and jointly authored publications. When the faculty member being reviewed participates in a jointly authored publication, they must demonstrate that he/she has contributed a significant effort in developing the publication. Credit for jointly authored publications will be commensurate with the documented level of effort and leadership in the venture.

08.04 The Medical Laboratory Science Program expects candidates for tenure/promotion to the rank of Associate Professor to meet the following minimum criteria exemplifying a sustained high-quality record of scholarly and creative activities:
• At least five (5) refereed articles in mainstream professional journals and/or magazines. One book may be substituted for two articles and one book or monograph chapter for one article. In no case will equivalent activities (such as books or book chapters, or monograph chapters) be considered to entirely replace the traditional refereed scholarly journal articles. Accepted articles will be considered if acceptance is clearly documented. Refereed means blind peer review in the case of a journal article. In the case of a book, book chapter, or monograph, it means peer review though not necessarily blind peer review.
• At least five (5) activities at mainstream professional meetings: paper presentations, workshop leader, discussant, invited lecturer, or equivalent activities as judged by the external reviewers, Department / Unit Chair, and Personnel Committee
• At least one internal and/or one external grant that is submitted and funded or submitted and not funded is required. The work submitted must be judged to contribute to teaching, curriculum development, and/or research activities of the faculty member and the profession. Both quality and quantity of the faculty member’s efforts and success will be considered for tenure and promotion.
• Faculty on tenure track should focus their efforts on establishing a sustained and focused research agenda. The MLS program leadership will help mentor them along this path, and they will only assign limited-service responsibilities.

08.05 For consideration of promotion to Full Professor, the
Medical Laboratory Science Program has these minimum
guidelines that exemplify sustained, very high-quality
record of published scholarly and creative activities since
being promoted to Associate Professor:
• At least six (6) quality refereed articles in mainstream academic and professional journals since promotion to Associate Professor. One book may be substituted for two articles or one book or monograph chapter for one article. In no case will equivalent activities (such as books or book chapters or monograph chapters) entirely replace the traditional refereed scholarly journal articles. Refereed means blind peer review in the case of a journal article. In the case of a book, book chapter, or monograph, it means peer review though not necessarily blind peer review.
• At least five (5) activities at mainstream professional meetings: paper presentations, discussant, invited lecturer, or equivalent activities as judged by the external reviewers, Department / Unit Chair, and Personnel Committee.
• Additional contributions such as non-refereed publications, case studies, workshops, and funded research grants are encouraged because they provide evidence of sustainability but do not substitute for peer-reviewed articles. Research productivity must be sustained over a number of years after promotion to Associate Professor, and there must be evidence of sustainability after promotion to Full Professor. Both quality and quantity of the faculty member’s efforts and success will be considered for tenure and promotion.

08.06 In the promotion of clinical track or faculty of teaching line,
high scholarly standards are still expected but might be less
than tenure track faculty as their focus is typically teaching and
clinical education as opposed to scholarly activity. For
consideration of promotion to Associate Professor
(clinical/ faculty of teaching), the Medical Laboratory Science
Program has these minimum guidelines that exemplify
sustained, high-quality record of published scholarly and
creative activities:
• At least four (4) activities from the identified elements demonstrating scholarly/creative activity in the Medical Laboratory Science Annual Performance Evaluation and Merit policy.
08.07 These criteria are minimum expectations. Faculty members
who meet these expectations are not assured tenure and/or
promotion.


09. Basis for Recommendation for Service
09.01 Service is necessary for promotion and or tenure in the areas of university service, College and programmatic service, professional service, and service to the community.

09.02 Service in the Medical Laboratory Science Program is defined as professionally related activities, other than teaching or scholarship, which contributes to the department, the university, the community, state, national, and international levels, as well as the profession. Service activities use competencies relevant to the faculty member’s role as an educator in the MLS Program.

09.03 Collegiality in service is manifested by:
• Serving as a member of various committees
• Participating in university, college, or department-sponsored recruitment, orientation, honors, or graduation functions
• Engaging in similar activities that promote service excellence on the part of the department

09.04 Successfully applying for tenure and/or promotion must involve
a sustained record of service and potential for continued service.

09.05 Examples of service leadership include:
• holding office in professional organizations,
• directing committees,
• participating as a member of an advisory board or task force,
• holding membership and/or participating in professional organizations,
• holding membership on committees; and
• training, volunteering, supervising, and consulting for healthcare agencies and organizations,
• other related activities.

09.06 For consideration of promotion to Full Professor/Full Clinical
Professor, the faculty member must demonstrate a broader range of Service activities and increasing leadership roles across all levels of service.

09.07 Each faculty member must document the criteria guidelines for
service activities to be considered for tenure and/or promotion. These criteria are minimum expectations, and a faculty member who meets these expectations is not assured of tenure and/or promotion.

09.08 Services performed for external remuneration (outside
employment) refers to professional services performed for which a consultation or service fee is paid over and above the faculty member’s base salary. Faculty should follow the rules of the University regarding outside employment (UPPS No. 04.04.06).

09.10 When such activities are related to and enhance the university, the college, the unit, and the faculty member’s development, these activities can be counted as additional service activities. Faculty must submit documentation to substantiate this contribution.

10. Quality and Quantity of Performance
10.01 Quantity and quality across the areas of teaching, scholarship,
and service are both considered important, and each faculty member must provide documentation for a judgment to be made in this determination. Each faculty member must document his/her activities under each category including his/her vision/philosophy, accomplishments, and future goals. It is the responsibility of each faculty member to seek assistance and feedback in the preparation of his/her materials.

11. Major Responsibilities Associated with this CHP/PPS
11.01 Major responsibilities for routine assignments
associated with this PPS include the following:
1. The chair of the Personnel Committee for the Medical Laboratory Science Program.
2. The Chair of the MLS Program.
3. The Dean of the College of Health Professions shall review the PPS E5Y.

CERTIFICATION STATEMENT
This CHP/PPS has been approved by the following individuals in his/her official capacity and represents College policy and procedures from the date of this document until superseded.

Reviewer: ___________________________Date: ________________
Scott Kruse, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, College of Health Professions

Approved: _________________________ Date: _________________
Rodney E. Rohde, Ph.D.
Chair, Medical Laboratory Science Program

Approved: __________________________ Date: _________________
Gary Sayed, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Health Professions