Background:

The faculty handbook is the authoritative policy document of professional life for faculty at Bates College. Ideally, this document should be accurate, internally consistent, well organized, logical, and relevant. The faculty handbook should express the community’s professional values, and in this vein, standards related to reappointment, tenure, and promotion (RTP) are ofparticular importance to the professional lives of our colleagues. Indeed, personnel decisions regarding RTP are a crucial component of the role faculty play in shared governance. While Bates has a history of expecting outstanding teaching, excellent scholarly and creative work, and dedicated service by its faculty, it is also true that confusion exists in our RTP practices and standards as currently described.

A significant shift in the standards and practices associated with RTP occurred in 1983. While many of the qualities of what is expected of excellent faculty are consistent throughout the years, it is simultaneously true that the nature of professional work at Bates and in the broader academy has changed in the 35+ years since 1983. Faculty have pointed to places in the handbook that require streamlining, clarification, and updating. Given that the handbook is the guide that allows strong mentoring of our colleagues, it is important to ensure that the document continues to represent the professional ambitions of Bates in the early part of the 21^stcentury.

Committee Charge

In 2019-20, the Tenure & Promotion Review Committee (TPRC) has been tasked with reviewing Articles I-V in Part 1 of the faculty handbook. The TPRC will attempt to engage the entire Bates community in this effort. The TPRC will report its findings to the Committee for Faculty Governance near the end of the 2019-20 academic year. The CFG will recommend future steps if changes to the handbook are deemed warranted. Following are a few framing questions the TPRC might consider in this work:

• What should Bates College value in faculty achievement?
• How should we measure valuable faculty achievement in teaching, scholarly and creative work, and service?
• Does the RTP process effectively recognize faculty achievement?
• Are the RTP processes clear?
• How should RTP processes equitably address evaluation of faculty at different professional ranks?

• Advocating for an intersectional approach to outcomes of an RTP revisionOctober 3, 2019
  Nationally, among faculty of color, the RTP process is an interregation of belongingness in the academy, when belongingness in the academy and other positions of power for faculty of color and native faculty is already fraught. What does an RTP process look like/feel like such that faculty feel supported, confident, valued, and engaged in their…