This section provides guidance on key components of the departmental review, including CV expectations, documenting teaching, the work of the Departmental Promotion Committee, external reviewer selection and evaluation, the Departmental Consulting Group, preparation of the DEO recommendation letter, communication with candidates, and final instructions for assembling and submitting the promotion record.

Together, these resources are intended to promote a thorough, consistent, and well-documented review process.

Components of the promotion dossier

Curriculum vitae (CV) guidelines

Formatting the CV
  • The CV must follow the CLAS Standard CV format.
  • The original CV must remain unchanged and exactly as it was when reviewed by the Departmental Promotion Committee.
  • For grants with multiple principal investigators or investigators, please ensure the CV explains how much of the money is used by the candidate and if that sum is for the duration of the grant or per year.

Additions to the CV
  • When an addition or correction is to be made to the CV, insert CV update as a separate page in the promotion record. Do not replace the original CV. 
  • Place the update page in front of the original CV within the promotion record.
  • The update page should clearly state what has changed on the CV and include the date the update was inserted into the promotion record.

The teaching record

Classroom observations
  • Classroom observations must occur specifically for the sake of the promotion review.
  • Each department has specified the required number of classroom observations for promotion review.
  • The classroom observations must take place within one calendar year of the promotion review (during the prior spring semester or the fall semester of the promotion review).
  • Should a candidate not be teaching the fall of the promotion review, the classroom observations must take place during the prior spring semester (or summer, if applicable).
  • The observer must stay for the entire duration of the class.
  • An in-person class is preferred, but an online synchronous observation is permitted.
  • The classroom observation report is added to the end of the Departmental Promotion Committee report when inserted into the promotion record.
  • The observer should ask to see a copy of the course syllabus before the observation, ask the instructor what they should pay attention to, what they may want advice on, and any other contextual information.
  • The Office of the Provost offers great teaching observation resources.

Student teaching evaluations (SPOT)
Best practices around teaching evaluations
  • Recognize limitations of SPOT (Student Perceptions of Teaching)
    • Inherent bias in this quantitative tool (research has demonstrated bias against underrepresented identities).
    • Comparisons across faculty does not take into consideration level of course, role of course in overall curriculum, differences in identity of instructors, challenges in teaching content and are no longer supported in the reporting tool.
    • Contextualize quantitative scores when describing them (what type of course, who are the students, is this course part of GE curriculum, required for majors, etc.).
    • SPOT scores are best used for patterns, and not for individual comments; do not focus or highlight outlier data points.
  • Support a more inclusive set of teaching contributions.
    • Curriculum innovation and departmental leadership; instructor reflection and development; creating inclusive learning environments, student mentoring and professional development activities.

Promotion review participants

Departmental promotion committee

Departmental promotion committee composition

  • The Departmental Promotion Committee is appointed by the DEO. It consists of at least four faculty members eligible to vote on the decision, including the DEO-appointed committee chair.
  • The Departmental Promotion Committee cannot see the third-year review report (applies to tenure-track only).
  • After the committee report is submitted, the committee is disbanded.

Departmental promotion committee report
  • The role of the promotion committee report is to establish what is in the record and provide an evaluative assessment of teaching, service, and research/artistic/professional activity as applicable based on track. The report does not yet focus on the criteria for promotion but establishes what the record is. This forms the foundation for the Departmental Consulting Group (DCG) to do their work.
  • CLAS requires the use of Departmental Promotion Committee Report templates (see CLAS Faculty Review Forms and Templates). These templates can be adapted as appropriate.
  • A copy of the Departmental Promotion Committee Report is placed in the promotion record and a copy is provided to the candidate.
  • The candidate has the opportunity to provide a response pointing out factual errors in the report.
  • The report cannot be edited after a copy is provided to candidate.

External reviewers

Selection of external reviewers
  • External reviews only apply to tenure-track and clinical-track promotions. 
  • The External Reviewers Approval Form (see CLAS Faculty Review Forms and Templates) is the form the DEO submits to the area associate dean with the full list ("superlist") of proposed external reviewers.
  • Only one external reviewer can be used from each institution. The superlist may contain multiple reviewers from the same institution, but they should be contacted one at a time to ensure only one provides a letter.
  • The final version of the External Reviewers Approval Form, which indicates which external reviewers were approved by the area associate dean to solicit letters from, will be inserted into the promotion record.
  • Strive to have about half of the external review letters from people suggested by the committee and half from people suggested by the candidate.
  • The following constitute conflicts of interest (COIs) for external reviewers:
    • Familial relationship
    • Financial relationship
    • Former advisor or advisee
      • Dissertation and/or postdoctoral
      • Committee members are allowed, but not advisors
    • Collaborator in the last five years including: 
      • Co-PI
      • Co-author
      • Scholarly work

Materials sent to external reviewers

All external reviewers must receive the same materials to review. 

 

External reviewer letters
  • Letters may not be shared with Departmental Consulting Group (DCG) committee members until after the Departmental Promotion Committee report is final and added to the promotion record.
  • The Log of Correspondence (see CLAS Faculty Review Forms and Templates) shows the sequence of when each external review letter was solicited, received, and inserted into the promotion record.
    • Complete the log of correspondence as the steps occur.
      • When invites are sent to external reviewers, note the date.
      • When letters are received, label each in the top right corner of the letter. Label the letters “A,” “B,” “C,” etc. The DCG and DEO should then refer to these labels instead of the names of each reviewer. Note the date of receipt in the log.
      • When letters are entered into the promotion record, note the date.

Departmental consulting group (DCG)

DCG composition

The following lists the DCG composition for each rank.

If there are fewer than four faculty members in a department who are qualified to serve on the DCG, the department must identify, in accordance with the college’s written policy governing promotion decision-making, qualified University of Iowa faculty members from outside the department to serve on the DCG (for a minimum of four faculty members in total).

Pursuing promotion to:DCG must include:
Associate professor with tenure
  • Associate professors with tenure
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Full professor with tenure
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Associate professor of instruction
  • Associate professors with tenure
  • Associate clinical professors
  • Associate professors of instruction
  • Associate professors of practice
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Clinical professors
  • Professors of instruction
  • Professors of practice
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Professor of instruction
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Clinical professors
  • Professors of instruction
  • Professors of practice
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Associate professor of practice
  • Associate professors with tenure
  • Associate clinical professors
  • Associate professors of instruction
  • Associate professors of practice
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Clinical professors
  • Professors of instruction
  • Professors of practice
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
 Professor of practice
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Clinical professors
  • Professors of instruction
  • Professors of practice
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Clinical associate professor
  • Clinical associate professors
  • Associate professors with tenure
  • Clinical full professors
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Clinical full professor
  • Clinical full professors
  • Full professors with tenure
  • Departmental Promotion Committee members external to the department
Exceptions (all tracks and ranks)
  • Deans and associate deans
  • Provosts or provost-level faculty administrators
  • Faculty with unsalaried (0% appointments) in the department
  • Faculty with collegiate or provostial appointments of 50% or greater
  • Faculty with disqualifying conflict of interest

DCG meeting
  • Location: DCG meetings can occur in-person or virtually.
  • Sign-in sheet: The sign-in sheet can be signed electronically. The departmental administrator may sign for faculty who are unable to sign electronically.
  • Voting: The DCG vote may happen in-person or virtually and is anonymous; staff can be present in the meeting to assist in gathering votes.
  • Confidential comments: All confidential comments should be emailed directly to the DEO.
  • Reporting the vote: The first paragraph of the DCG Report should indicate the result of the vote.
  • External reviewers: In the DCG Report, external reviewers should be referred to as Reviewer A, Reviewer B, etc.

DCG report
  • The Departmental Consulting Group's (DCG) primary role is to review the promotion record, including the promotion committee report and the external reviewer letters (where applicable), vote on the case, and to write a DCG report that evaluates the question: what is the evidence that this candidate has met the criteria for promotion?
  • CLAS requires the use of DCG report templates (see CLAS Faculty Review Forms and Templates).​ These templates can be adapted as appropriate.
  • A copy of the DCG Report is placed in the promotion record and a copy is provided to the candidate​.
  • The candidate has the opportunity to provide a response pointing out factual errors in the report​.
  • The report cannot be edited after a copy is provided to the candidate.

Departmental Executive Officer (DEO)

DEO Recommendation Letter
  • The DEO will review the promotion record and listen to DCG discussion and provide their own independent assessment of whether the candidate has met the criteria for promotion.
  • CLAS requires use of the DEO letter templates (see CLAS Faculty Review Forms and Templates). These templates can be adapted as appropriate.
  • The DEO must refer to external reviewers as Reviewer A, Reviewer B, etc.
  • A copy of the DEO letter is placed in the promotion record.​
  • A copy of the DEO letter is provided to the candidate only if the DEO’s recommendation is negative.​
  • If the DEO’s recommendation is negative, the candidate will be allowed three working days to submit a request to the dean for access to the promotion record. The candidate will be allowed five working days after receiving access to the promotion record to submit a response to the dean.

Promotion record

Cover sheet

  • The Recommendation for Faculty Promotion cover sheet is in the Promotion & Tenure tab of the Faculty Admin Center. More information can be found on our website.
  • Each faculty member who has a review type “Promotion and Tenure” listed in FRAP will have the cover sheet available on the main screen.

  • The Departmental Administrator (or a delegate) will initiate the form in Workflow after the DCG vote and the DEO recommendation is written.

    Snapshot of FRAP with Cover Sheet button outlined

Submitting the record
  • The promotion record is submitted to the dean's office as one PDF with each component separately bookmarked.
  • Use the appropriate Table of Contents form (see CLAS Faculty Review Forms and Templates as the cover page and as a guide to what should be included in the promotion record.
  • Promotion records are submitted to the dean's office at clas-pt@uiowa.edu.
  • ​Promotion record submission deadlines are as follows:
    • Preliminary review of promotion records occur around Nov. 1. This allows the dean's office to review the record to ensure all necessary documents are included and organized accurately.
    • Final promotion records are due Dec. 8, 2026.
  • For tenure-track candidates, a single set of publications/creative works sent to external reviewers can be delivered to the dean’s office. All other original documents are to be retained in the department.

Additional considerations

Joint appointment handling

Joint departmental appointments (excludes 0% appointments)

  • A collegiate-endorsed MOU supersedes any collegiate or university procedure.
  • In the absence of an MOU:
    • Departments should form a joint departmental review committee comprised of:
      • Faculty from each department proportionate to the percentage of faculty effort in each department.
      • At least one committee member from each department.
    • Departments involved, together with the faculty member, should decide if there will be one joint or two separate DCGs (separate DCGs is most common).
    • If two DCGs, the joint departmental review committee should report (in writing and in a meeting) to each department’s DCG with at least one committee member from each department present.
    • Each department’s DEO writes a letter of recommendation.
    • The department with the larger percentage appointment compiles all materials [the joint departmental review committee’s report, the DCG report(s), and the DEO letter(s)] to add to the promotion record and submit to the dean’s office.

Joint collegiate appointments

  • The primary college is responsible for transmitting the promotion record to the provost.
  • If CLAS is the primary appointment, the department will give the promotion record to the dean’s office without waiting for the secondary college’s copy (dean’s office will collect it from the other college and transmit all material to the provost).

More details can be found at Promotion Review Procedures for Faculty with Joint Appointments.

Memoranda of understanding (MOUs)
  • A properly executed MOU that specifically addresses promotion (and tenure, where applicable) supersedes the collegiate and departmental criteria.
  • Only MOUs that address promotion process or criteria for a candidate should be included in the promotion record.
  • Departments cannot write MOUs without consultation with the college. The college must be a signatory.

Conflicts of interest (COIs)
  • Potential COIs: Try to avoid any potential COIs. If there is uncertainty about whether a COI exists, contact your area associate dean (AD) for clarification.
  • Notification: Identify COIs and inform the AD early in the process.
  • DEO COI: If the DEO has a COI with the promotion case, the AD will find a faculty member in another department to serve as acting DEO for the case.
  • COIs and the process: If someone has a COI with the promotion case, they cannot participate in any part of the process.

Communication with the candidate
  • Only the DEO, the Departmental Promotion Committee Chair, and the area associate dean can communicate with the candidate regarding the status of the promotion review. ​
  • After the Departmental Promotion Committee Report has been written, only the DEO and the area associate dean can communicate with the candidate. ​
  • The DEO may tell the candidate where the process is but should not give opinion on how things might turn out when the process is complete. ​

Withdrawals

Candidates going up for voluntary promotion may withdraw their case at any point in the promotion process up until the provost makes a decision. The DEO or administrator should advise the dean’s office as soon as possible if a candidate decides to withdraw.

Additional resources