B 8 Sample Reappointment Review Summary

Dear Colleague:

This letter shares with you the findings of your reappointment review, giving you guidance for the next term of your appointment.

The tenured faculty met on [date] and voted by secret ballot to recommend your reappointment to the Dean and Provost. I concur with this recommendation. You should take it as the tenured faculty's positive affirmation that by the 20YY/ZZ academic year you will have positioned yourself in your teaching and research in such a way that we expect you to be successful in making a case for tenure.

Although the vote was positive, I want to convey to you several concerns identified by the review and to offer some constructive criticism. One major concern is that you have yet to submit a major research grant on which you are the principal investigator. This is a concern for someone who has been on the faculty for two and one-half years. You simply must put yourself on a schedule of writing and submitting research proposals in order to maintain your research program. You indicated to me in our recent conversation that you intend to submit research proposals to Agency A in June and to Foundation B on July. I encourage you to maintain that schedule. For you not to do so would be a serious misuse of the trust and confidence the tenured faculty has placed in you.

A second concern is the low number of publications that have come from your laboratory and the long time it has taken you to set up your experimental apparatus. You have published only one paper from your laboratory at Duke, although that publication was in a major, refereed journal and you have two additional major publications under review. Now with your experimental apparatus completed, significant publications should be forthcoming. It will be important for you to be mindful of the calendar. Your dossier for evaluation by a departmental review committee and external reviewers will have to be ready by the late spring of 20QQ, a little more than three years hence.

In writing this letter I do not wish to detract from the very positive accomplishments you have made during your time at Duke. The faculty has noted your dedication to teaching and the way you have attempted to remedy the problems identified in the low student evaluations obtained in your first semester here. The Faculty also recognizes your many, many contributions to the life of the department, suggesting that over the next three years you decrease your emphasis on service in order to give yourself more time for your scholarly agenda. I wish to emphasize that as Department Chair I am here to help you focus on your professional goals in order to succeed in your career. You should feel free to discuss these and other professional matters with me whenever you wish. We are pleased that you have chosen this department at Duke to initiate your academic career.

Sincerely,

Department Chair

cc: Dean (who sends a copy to the Provost)

Reappointment without tenure, non-tenure track