School of Computer Science Tenure Decision Document

Date: ______________________

Faculty Name: __________________________________________________________

Faculty Home Department: ________________________________________________

Date of Hire: ________________

For a determination of the timing of a prospective tenure decision for you, the Appointment and Tenure Policy of Carnegie Mellon University requires the computation of the number of years of previous service. This computation is specified in the following excerpt from that Policy.

The number of years of previous service is determined by computing the following items.

1. The number of years of service under earlier regular faculty appointments at Carnegie Mellon at the rank of assistant professor or a higher rank must be included. (The meaning of the term year in this count is that defined in the subsection on Years of the present section of this Policy, or whatever meaning it had for purposes of faculty employment at the time of the appointments under consideration.)
2. The number of years of service under research faculty and/or lecturer track appointments at Carnegie Mellon at a rank equivalent to that of assistant professor or a higher rank must be included, except that one year of service at a rank equivalent to that of assistant professor may be excluded from the count. (The meaning of the term year in this count is the same as in item 1.)
3. Service under special faculty appointments at Carnegie Mellon that qualify by having a rank equivalent to that of assistant professor or a higher rank must be included, as follows: 100% of all time of service under qualifying special faculty appointments of category (A) - specifically including all appointments as visiting assistant professor, visiting associate professor and visiting professor - and 75% of all time of service under qualifying special faculty appointments of category (B) or (C). (The categories are defined in the university policy on Special Faculty Appointments.) Each college or school shall make rules to determine which special faculty appointments, other than those specifically listed above, are to be regarded as having a rank equivalent to that of assistant professor or a higher rank. The time of service is to be aggregated in 12-month years and fractions of such a year.
4. Temporary part-time service at Carnegie Mellon at a rank equivalent to that of assistant professor or a higher rank may, by written agreement between the individual and the university, be included on a proportionate basis (for example, two 12-month years of half-time service may be counted as one 12-month year), up to a maximum resulting count of one 12-month year.
5. Service on the full-time teaching faculty of another four-year academic institution at the rank of assistant professor or a higher rank, as well as service in other academic institutions at an equivalent rank and with comparable responsibilities may, by written agreement between the individual and the university, be included, as a whole number of years up to a maximum of four years. (The meaning of year in this count is to be a reasonable interpretation of the usage at the relevant institution(s).)

The number of years of previous service is obtained by adding the numbers of years resulting from items 1 through 5 inclusive, a fraction of a year in the sum (resulting from items 3 and 4) being rounded off to the nearest whole number (if the fraction is exactly one-half of a year it is rounded down).

When, in determining the number of years of previous service for an initial appointment at the rank of associate professor (or promotion from the rank of instructor to that rank), the number obtained in the preceding paragraph is less than three, the number of years of previous service is nevertheless deemed to be three for the purpose of determining the tenure decision deadline.

In your case, the computation is as follows:

1. You have _____ years of qualifying earlier regular faculty service at Carnegie Mellon.
2. You have ______ years of qualifying research faculty service at Carnegie Mellon. When permitted, you have ______/have not ______ excluded one year, leaving ______ years to be included in the count.
3. You have qualifying service in the special faculty of Carnegie Mellon, with __.__ years (and fraction) in appointments of category (A) (accounted at 100%) and years (and fraction) in appointments of category (B) or (C) (accounted at 75%), for a total of ___ years (and fraction) to be included in the count.
4. You have agreed to include ___.__ years (and fraction) of qualifying part-time service at Carnegie Mellon, on a proportionate basis, for a resulting ___.__ years (and fraction) to be included in the count.
5. You have agreed to include ______ years of qualifying service at other institutions.

The total of these items, after rounding off, is ___ years. If your appointment is an initial appointment at the rank of associate professor (or promotion from the rank of instructor to that rank) and this total is less than three years, the number of years of previous service is nevertheless deemed to be three. In consequence, the number of years of previous service that will be used in determining your tenure decision deadline is ____ years.

The initial date for determining your tenure decision deadline is _________________ which is the effective date of your
___initial appointment at the rank of assistant professor
___promotion from the rank of instructor to that of assistant professor
___initial appointment at the rank of associate professor without indefinite tenure
___promotion from the rank of instructor to that of associate professor without indefinite tenure

According to the provisions of the cited Policy and the preceding computation, your tenure decision deadline is _______, provided there are no exclusions from current service to "stop the clock". Under that assumption, a tenure decision must be initiated no later than the fall of ____, provided, of course, that you have remained a member of the regular faculty until that time. If tenure is not granted, your service as a member of the regular faculty will be terminated one year after the date of the tenure decision deadline or at the expiration of your appointment then in force, whichever comes later.

If your understanding of the computation of the number of years of previous service and the prospective timing of a tenure decision agrees with the statements in this memorandum, please sign all four originals, and return them all promptly to your department head.

________________________________________
Faculty member,

________________________________________
Date

________________________________________
Department Head, [Department]

________________________________________
Date

________________________________________
Dean, School of Computer Science                           

________________________________________
Date

Distribution: Provost, Dean, Department Head, Faculty Member