This letter of endorsement transmits the dossier to the Dean and review bodies at the College/School level. It represents the Chair’s recommendation and should include the quantitative vote of the department on the candidate’s promotion with commentary on how the vote should be understood in terms of weight and degree of departmental support. The letter should note any approved leaves that have extended the tenure clock. The letter is important as the summary document at the level of the discipline that interprets and contextualizes the candidate’s work for subsequent reviewing bodies outside the discipline. It should be written with great care and clarity.
The Chair’s letter should essentially address the following areas of the candidate’s contributions.
- Research and Scholarship. A thorough description of the candidate’s work, including: an explanation of the impact of the work on the discipline; any limiting or mitigating factors; the quality of publications and other scholarly endeavors; grant awards and other external funding; past accomplishments and future promise.
Chairs should recognize the special nature of cross-disciplinary scholarship and research, making every effort to ensure that candidates who engage in such activity receive an appropriate evaluation from other participating departments or research centers when being considered for promotion. For example, a letter of recommendation should be solicited from the director of any multidisciplinary research unit, center, or institute with which the candidate is associated. Referees should be selected to represent each discipline in which the candidate’s work participates. In cases where the candidate’s work occurs in collaboration with others, whether as co-sponsor of a grant or co-author of a publication, care should be taken to indicate precisely the candidate’s degree of contribution in each instance.
- Teaching. A description and analysis of the candidate’s teaching contributions based on materials contained in the candidate’s Teaching Portfolio (refer to documentation in Item 8), on student evaluations (refer to evidence compiled in Item 9), and on assessments of the Teaching Portfolio by internal evaluators.
- Service: Professional/Public, University, and Civic/Community Engagement (see also Item 6). Of the three categories of service, address only those applicable to the candidate. Under Professional/Public Service, describe those contributions that draw upon the candidate’s professional or scholarly expertise as it is applied to improving society’s welfare (e.g., serving on state or national task forces, providing technical or other assistance to social or government agencies, doing clinical work). Also include within this category descriptions of the candidate’s contributions to the profession itself: participation in professional organizations, editorial responsibilities with presses and journals, and organization of conferences and symposia. In addition, summarize any administrative and committee service within the university, and, if relevant, to the community. Service in the area of Civic/Community Engagement that calls upon the candidate’s academic expertise, which could include research or teaching, should be noted, particularly when that engagement also addresses issues of equity and inclusion.
- The chair can exercise the right to indicate and discuss what they determine are extraordinary service and/or teaching contributions of the candidate, if appropriate.
- Chairs may exercise the right to discuss the candidate’s contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) more broadly, if appropriate. For candidates, equity and inclusion contributions can be infused into research/scholarship, teaching and service statements and/or appear in a ‘stand-alone’ diversity statement (see item 7).