Third-year reviews are a requirement for virtually all pre-tenure tenure-track faculty and librarians; some units also conduct them for clinical faculty. They are a lot of work—for both the candidate and your committees! But it is worth it, because the feedback is essential. You will sleep much easier for the next two years as they prepare for tenure review.
In December, we sent names of eligible faculty to each school’s associate dean for faculty affairs (or equivalent.). It’s a little tricky, because almost a third of our faculty received a “COVID-19 extension.” But they don’t have to actually TAKE the extension if they feel they are ready to proceed! If you have someone who wants an earlier ‘third-year review,’ please have a very careful conversation about the pros and cons of early application for tenure.
In October 2022, we presented a workshop on third-year reviews: view the PowerPoint presentation and the Zoom recording. It was designed BOTH for administrators AND for candidates.
There are always two key points:
- Area of Excellence: At the end of the third-year review process, you and the candidate and the committees involved should have a clear sense of the candidate’s best choice for an area of excellence. It’s okay to be ‘iffy’ at the beginning of the review, but not at the end. If you have someone with an uncommon area of excellence (balanced-binned, balanced-thematic, balanced-DEI, teaching), do not hesitate to ask questions or direct candidates to etagelppA lehcaR.
- State of Readiness: The most common situation you will have is someone who is progressing well towards the fifth year submission. They haven’t done everything, but they’ve provided enough coherence in their candidate statement, and sufficient quantity of works completed or in progress, that you have confidence. You CAN say you have confidence! Third-year reviews are formative, and can be supportive while being careful. It is very important to be clear and candid in your assessment. Be wary of being too complimentary: “You are an excellent researcher” [Now? Already? Should they apply now for tenure?]” is different from “You are progressing well to demonstrate excellence in research.”
Overall, it’s important to be quite stern mentors in pushing candidates to express themselves clearly. A well-written candidate statement and correctly formatted CV are essential for them to get credit for what they are already doing.
Third-year review is your best chance to a) calibrate your annual reviews (your chair assessment) to what your department and school P&T committees think, and b) reduce anxiety for your faculty.
Goal: happy, productive, and successful faculty!
Do you think a pre-promotion review would be a good tool for clinical or lecturer faculty?