Progress Report: Scholarship, Tenure and Recognition

Summary of Progress:

The Scholarship, Tenure and Recognition Subcommittee recommended numerous changes to UB's tenure and promotion (T&P) guidelines and criteria. These included the addition of several statements about research and community engagement to the guidelines, one of which the subcommittee had already drafted. Changes to UB’s T&P guidelines and criteria will need to be approved by the Faculty Senate.

Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (VPAC), Bob Granfield met with the Faculty Senate Tenure, Promotion and Privileges Committee and the Equity and Diversity Committee to deliver the recommendations related to T&P so that they can review them, draft any additional statements needed, and shepherd the changes through the Faculty Senate during the 2022-23 academic year. The VPAC also shared the T&P recommendations with appropriate Associate Deans.

In Spring 2022, UB welcomed a new Director of the new Office of Faculty Recognition, housed in Faculty Affairs. Faculty Recognition works directly with deans, chairs, faculty and department awards committees to identify, support and manage faculty award nominations. In Spring 2022, Faculty Recognition polled chairs to see which departments already have awards committees. About half of respondents indicated that they already have committees in their departments. Starting in 2022-23, the Director of Faculty Recognition plans to host workshops to help guide departments in setting up awards committees and to share best practices from existing awards committees on campus, including promoting equity during the nomination and application process.

In addition, several other recommendations have been implemented/moved forward:

• The Provost’s office already directly assesses contributions to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) as part of the five-year decanal review process. The VPFAC has reached out to all of the deans to ask whether they include EDI in their chair review processes and will request that it be added if they do not already do so.
• As part of the Department Chair Leadership Program Conversation Series, the Office of Faculty Affairs is hosting a workshop for all department chairs and UDOs on November 16, 2022 facilitated by UB School of Management’s Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE) to share CLOE’s Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). This IDI training session will provide an opportunity for chairs to develop cultural competence and recognize bias. It will help ensure that they are promoting EDI in their departments/schools and that they start thinking about implementing policies of accountability and training to prevent abuse of power and bias within their department/school committees.
• UB is working on increasing support for civic engagement and other kinds of research through the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.