Faculty Approved: 4/15/26
Dean Approved: 4/16/26
0. Scope
This policy governs the promotion in rank for all and only clinical faculty in the School of Social Work. It supplements policies at the college level (COHS 217) and university level (Policy 4490) that are also governing.
1. Preamble
Clinical faculty within the School of Social work play a vital role in fulfilling the school’s mission by serving our students, the university, the profession, and the community.
The responsibilities of clinical faculty are as varied as the aspects of the school’s mission, including teaching, various forms of service (including administrative service), and outreach.
Given the value and importance of the contributions of clinical faculty, it is imperative that there be structures and processes in place to incentivize, recognize, and reward those contributions with promotion in rank. That is the purpose of this policy.
2. Foundation
University Policy 4490 and COHS 217 establish a number of standard conditions that are adopted by this policy without modification, including:
- Minimum requirements for each clinical faculty rank status
- Eligibility for promotion
- Timelines and deadlines for the promotional review process
- Elements of the promotion application folder (but see additional requirement below)
Candidates for promotion within the clinical faculty ranks are expected to understand and to adhere to these standards when considering their own candidacy for promotion.
3. Review Committee
Consistent with Policy 4490 and COHS 217, the School of Social Work shall convene a Clinical Faculty Promotion Committee (“Committee”) for the purposes of reviewing candidates for promotion within the School of Social work.
A. Composition
The Committee shall be composed of five (5) voting members from the School of Social Work faculty:
- Four (4) School of Social Work clinical faculty members
- All Clinical Professors and Clinical Associate Professors who are not applying for promotion, are eligible to serve on the Committee
- Seats on the Committee will be appointed at the discretion of the Divisional Dean
- The Committee should be comprised of Clinical Faculty who are currently at a higher the faculty rank of those applying for promotion.
- When there are not enough Clinical Faculty within the School of Social Work with the higher faculty ranks needed, Clinical Faculty at the appropriate faculty ranks from other departments will be invited to serve on the Committee.
- Any remaining seats of the four shall be filled at the discretion of the Divisional Dean
- One (1) member of the School of Social Work’s Personnel Committee
- To be selected by the Personnel Committee
B. Chair Selection
The chair of the Committee shall be a clinical professor or associate professor, selected by a simple majority vote of all Committee members.
C. Responsibilities and Procedure
In the interest of protecting candidates and the integrity of the process, the Committee is to conduct its business in strict confidence, restricting substantive communication and deliberation to the established time of formal committee meetings. Any notes taken by committee members, whether electronic or hand-written, shall be destroyed at the completion of the Committee’s work.
The Committee shall limit its discussions to the materials contained in the candidate’s folder, as defined by COHS 217, and the relevant evaluative criteria. Informal and unsolicited opinions, whether written or verbal, shall not be considered or discussed.
Committee recommendations shall be determined by formal vote and shall reflect the majority. Each committee member shall vote either to grant or deny promotion for each candidate. Formal voting for all candidates reviewed by a Committee shall take place at a single committee meeting, conducted by secret ballot, prior to October 10. When conducting the formal vote, the committee chair shall tally, announce, and record the vote count, which shall be communicated in writing, as a bare count, by the Committee chair to the Divisional Dean by October 10. The vote count shall not be recorded except as just described, nor shall it be communicated to any individual outside the committee other than the Divisional Dean. The Divisional Dean may query the Committee chair regarding the vote.
The Committee chair shall oversee the production and distribution of letters notifying candidates of the Committee’s recommendations. If the recommendation is in support of promotion, the letter need not offer any rationale in support of the recommendation. If the recommendation is not in support of promotion, the letter must articulate, at least in broad terms, the reasons behind the recommendation. All members of the Committee shall sign the letter. The original shall be sent to the candidate and a copy to the Divisional Dean, who will ensure that the letter is uploaded to the candidate’s promotional materials in the RPT system.
4. Evaluative Criteria
Each candidate’s application materials shall be evaluated against the standards articulated in the college-level policy specified in the candidate’s cover letter; that is, against the standards articulated in the current version of COHS 217.
Because the work of clinical faculty members in the School of Social work is highly varied, the review of each candidate shall be structurally and materially informed by the candidate’s assigned workload for the evaluation period in question.