Promotion and Tenure Review
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Purpose
To provide College of Liberal Arts-specific guidelines, templates, and resources to our departments (faculty candidates, faculty committee members, chairs/directors, and especially, department staff responsible to help assemble our faculty promotion files).
Definitions
GG, or Guidelines: UT General Guidelines for Promotion; there are separate documents for TTT and PTF promotions. (see also EVPP site)
TTT: Tenured or Tenure-Track Faculty
PTF: Professional-Track Faculty
Staff: department staff working on file
Cand: promotion candidate
Chair: department chair(s)
BC/EC: department faculty governing body members (see also Governance)
COLA: COLA HR Team
Dean: Interim Dean Sosa
EVPP: Provost’s Office staff and/or one or more Provosts
Guidelines and Templates
The COLA Promotion and Tenure Dossier Guidelines and sample documents assist faculty and staff to compile and catalog all documents related to the promotion file. They are based on the Provost Guidelines, and the Provost Office's General Guidelines should be considered the overall source for promotion process and policy. Some practices described in our checklist apply to our college only. If you have any questions or seek clarification, please do ask us!
Note: These documents are provided as a guideline for Liberal Arts faculty and departmental administrative staff only.
**4/16/26 Update: The EVPP materials are out and available, and we are working on getting updated COLA materials for 26-27 ASAP. We will leave up some, but not all, of the COLA-specific 25-26 items until the revised versions are ready.
All items are COLA-specific docs/versions, unless otherwise noted in parentheses:
COLA Professional-Track Faculty Promotion Guidance
This document outlines general expectations and best practices related to professional-track faculty seeking promotion in rank within the College of Liberal Arts. IMPORTANT: This does not contain current promotion procedures or requirements – it is a general introduction to the process for PTF.
26-27 Promotion File Names and Content
***IMPORTANT: Please do not fully rely upon the EVPP "Dossier Prep" guides, as they will not include COLA-specific requirements.
4/16/26: These COLA docs aren’t yet available.
26-27 Tenured and Tenure-Track Candidates
26-27 Professional-Track Candidates
26-27 COLA Promotion Guides
Note: These college-specific process guides are companions to the Provost's General Guidelines (x 2) and will continue to be updated as errors are discovered (or if/when visual aids, FAQs, or similar information seems helpful to add); the cover page of each Guide includes the version date.
Please let Ann K know when you find any mistakes, or if/when you find specific procedures confusing. Thanks!
4/16/26: These COLA docs aren’t yet available.
26-27 Tenured and Tenure-Track Promotion Guide
26-27 Professional-Track Faculty Promotion Guide
Templates
Reminder: All templates here are COLA-specific docs/versions, unless otherwise noted in parentheses:
List of Potential Promotion File Reviewers (for TTT cases, external reviewers)
Summary of Reviewers chart (EVPP)
Summary of Selectivity of Publication/Performance Venues [Outlets Table] (EVPP)
Solicitation Letter Templates (for External or Internal Letters of Reference): Please use the letters on the Provost’s website.
Main Dossier Updates list (EVPP) **NEW in 26-27
Supplemental EVPP Guides for Specific Promotion Documents or Procedures
Chart of Recommended Actions (Shows the recommendation options at each review level based on type of case.)
Request for Review by the Procedural Concerns in Faculty Review (PCFR) Cohort
25-26 templates (working on updates)
Sample Postdocs Mentored [can also be used as general template for placeholders, memos, etc.]
Procedures
Policies
Provost's Office 26-27 Promotion and Tenure site
Timeline 2026-2027
Spring: Departments notify COLA who will be going up for promotion and tenure in the Fall.
Apr-Jun: COLA meets with Cands and Staff to go over guidelines and answer questions.
~September 15, 2026: Department promotion materials due to COLA. [via Box folders]
late Sept-October 2026: COLA Promotion and Tenure Committee and Dean begin to review promotion materials.
Oct. XX: COLA Promotion and Tenure Committee meets to deliberate and vote on PTF promotion candidates.
Oct. XX: Professional-track promotion files are due to the Provost Office. Dean letters for these cases due at the same time.
Fri., Oct. XX - Sat., Oct. XX: COLA Promotion and Tenure Committee meets to deliberate and vote on TTT promotion candidates.
Nov. XX: Tenured and tenure-track promotion files are due to the Provost's Office. Dean letters for these cases due Nov. XX.
Nov.-Dec.: EVPP may or may not have questions or requests re: promotion files.
Dec. or Jan?: Dean will meet with President's Committee to discuss PTF promotion candidate cases.
Jan. or Feb?: Dean will meet with President's Committee to discuss TTT promotion candidates.
February 15, 2027: President will notify the Dean of all promotion and tenure decisions.
February 19, 2027: Dean will notify Chair who will notify Cand, Staff, and BC/EC of President's decisions. COLA follows up with official notification letters.
March 19, 2027: Deadline to submit final arguments and PCFR requests to the Provost Office.
April 2027: President will notify Dean of final decisions regarding Assistant Professors with terminal appointments-pending.
August 16, 2027: Effective date of new rank for successfully promoted faculty.