Consideration Memo - to Deans and Dept Chairs

Promotion and Tenure Guidance 2026-2027 (candidates for promotion to Professor and promotion to Associate Professor and/or tenure) 

Office of the Provost

MEMORANDUM

TO:          Deans and Department Chairs 

FROM:    John A. Pelesko, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs 

RE:          Promotion and Tenure Guidance 2026-2027 (candidates for promotion to Professor and 
                promotion to Associate Professor and/or tenure) 

DATE:      April 28, 2026 

Note: All Promotion and Tenure materials must be submitted via the Google Shared Drive dossier created by the Office of the Provost in accordance with the timeline for the corresponding process. Sarah Pisano (sarah.pisano@njit.edu), Administrative Specialist for the Office of the Provost, will be the liaison for the Promotion and Tenure process. 

The Office of the Provost’s website has been updated with the following Promotion and Tenure materials for you to review and disseminate as appropriate:

  1. An Action Item Checklist for both promotion to Full Professor and promotion to Associate Professor and/or tenure with required deadlines (Deans may decide to establish additional schedules for approval and transmittal processes within the college);
  2. The department/academic Unit P&T Committee Form, including a statement documenting the context and criteria applied in evaluation for promotion. This provides the crucial context needed for the University Committee on Promotion and Tenure and NJIT Administration to understand the deliberations of the department/academic unit P&T Committee;
  3. The Dean’s Form, which should be submitted along with a written evaluation from the dean.
  4. A guidance document on dossier preparation for promotion and tenure consideration to be distributed to your faculty;
  5. The required curriculum vitae and documentation format to be distributed to your faculty; 
  6. The candidate and department should submit their respective list of external reviewers via the provided template. The first tab is for the candidate to complete, and the second tab is for the department to complete.

 

Please note the following important points:

  1. The following questions should be addressed as part of documenting the context and criteria applied in evaluation for promotion: What expectations does the department have for an assistant or full professor regarding: attempts and success at competitive research funding; types and rate of peer-reviewed publications; number and locations of professional presentations (e.g. local, national, international); mentoring of PhD, Masters and Undergraduate students; number of courses taught per year; and quality of teaching as indicated in course evaluations?
     
  2. With regard to the letters of reference:
  • Confidential letters are solicited by the Chair of the department or the Dean in the case of MTSM. These letters are of high importance for P&T consideration, and the choice of references must be done responsibly. The dossier sent to each reference must be complete and correct. When you solicit the external reference letters for your candidates, please supply the reviewers with a statement of future plans for the candidate in addition to the other material that you routinely send out. Letters should be solicited from those who can comment expertly on the candidate’s teaching, service, and scholarly activities.
  • The Chairperson of the Department/Academic Unit P&T Committee in consultation with the members of the Department/Academic Unit P&T Committee shall jointly nominate six (6) outside reviewers in ranked order. The Faculty member being considered for promotion shall nominate their own six (6) outside reviewers in ranked order.
  • Should any reviewer decline, the Department/Academic Unit P&T Committee Chair shall contact the next ranked candidate. If the declining reviewer is from the candidate’s list, then the next reviewer on that list would be contacted; if the declining reviewer is from the department’s or unit’s list, then the next reviewer on that list would be contacted. If all decline, the process outlined above starts over to identify new reviewers, as necessary.
  • Reviewers shall not participate, consistent with potentially disqualifying conflicts of interest* as follows:

A reviewer is ineligible if:

  1. the candidate has a personal relationship with the individual, such as a close relative, current or former collaborator; or former thesis advisor/student;
  2. they are employed at NJIT or the candidate’s most recent former employer; or
  3. they hold current membership on a visiting committee or similar body at NJIT. The conflict is specifically triggered if the review involves a candidate from the department, school, or facility that the visiting committee advises.

*See https://www.nsf.gov/policies/conflict-of-interest

  • Both lists should be submitted to the University P&T Committee along with the letters of reference. Include a copy of the letter(s) used to solicit the letters of recommendation, along with the complete list of those invited to complete an evaluation, regardless of whether or not they responded.
  • Provide short descriptions of the credentials of each reference and indicate the reasons for the choice as a reference.
     
  1. To promote consistency in assessment by each P&T Committee, the Office of Research and the Library will provide independent reports on research and citations. The Office of Graduate Studies will verify the candidate’s role as advisor or thesis committee membership as listed on the CV. In addition, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness will submit a report on the candidate’s teaching evaluations. The reports will include:
  • A citation report for those under consideration for tenure and/or promotion will be provided through the NJIT University Library and supported with subject domain analysis from assigned faculty within the academic department. This report will include impact assessment and rankings (as available) for the journals.
  • A research report for those under consideration for tenure and/or promotion will be provided through the Office of Research. The Office of Research will provide a listing of research grants and the candidate’s role and level of participation in each project, and grant expenditures under his/her responsible authority.
  • The Office of Graduate Studies will verify in writing that the candidate performed the role of advisor or thesis committee member for any students at NJIT listed on the candidate’s CV.
  • The Office of Institutional Effectiveness will provide a report on the candidate’s teaching evaluations, listing the number of courses and sections taught; the number of enrolled students; the number of students completing the evaluations; and instructor evaluation scores, as well as departmental, school/college, and university averages.

These reports will be provided to the candidate to verify accuracy.

  1. The Dean will review the dossier and prepare a letter giving his/her recommendation and rationale. This letter will be sent directly to the Provost along with the corresponding completed Dean’s Form, and the University P&T Committee will consider the Dean’s assessment along with the materials submitted by the department/school.

   5. Dossiers will be transmitted through the review process via the Google Shared Drive managed by the Office of the    Provost. All materials, unless otherwise specified, should be submitted in PDF format.

Documentation must be thorough, complete, and organized to best represent each candidate.