6 Procedures in the Jacobs School of Music for Long-Term Contracts and Promotion Decisions

(Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, and Teaching Professors)

• Reappointment, Promotion, and Long-Term Contract Decisions
• Letters for the Dossiers
• Review by Committees
• Components of the Dossier
  • Evidence of Teaching
  • Evidence of Research/Creative Activity in Support of Teaching
  • Evidence of Service in Support of Teaching
• Promotion to Senior Lecturer
• Promotion to Teaching Professor
• Overview of the Timetable for Dossier Preparation and Evaluation

Lecturers in the Jacobs School of Music who are appointed on a probationary contract are eligible for promotion to senior lecturer and appointment to a long-term contract at any time after three years as a full-time faculty member. Such consideration must occur during the sixth year of appointment.

Senior lecturers who are appointed on a probationary contract are eligible for consideration for a long-term contract at any time after three years as a full-time faculty member. Senior lecturers who have been in rank for at least three years may be considered for promotion to teaching professor. If promotion is denied, the candidate may request another review in a later year, and as many times as desired.

Lecturers, senior lecturers, and teaching professors are academic appointees whose primary responsibility is teaching. Thus, teaching is the main basis of evaluation. Although not required, research/creative activity and service in support of teaching may be considered as well. Recommendations for promotion and appointment to a long-term contract come from the department, the department chair, the Jacobs School of Music Non-tenure Promotion and Policy Committee, the Dean, and the campus.

The department or review committee shall have responsibility for conducting annual reviews of the work of the lecturer during the probationary appointment and will advise the candidate on areas of work which are progressing towards the demonstration of excellence and areas which need improvement in order to advance their case. The review committee should solicit peer evaluations as a part of each annual review.

Reappointment, Promotion, and Long-term Contract Decisions

In the first year of appointment, all lecturers and senior lecturers and their chair will be notified in writing by the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Research, and Creative Activity (ADFARCA) of policies and procedures for reappointment and long-term contracts. They also will be given a dossier checklist of items to assemble. In the case of a small department, a review committee will be appointed at the time of hire. This typically includes members of the department who are eligible to vote on NTT reappointment, promotion, and long-term contract decisions. For faculty who are not members of a department, a five-member review committee will be appointed by the ADFARCA. The review committee should solicit peer evaluations as a part of each annual review. Reappointment, promotion, and long-term contract decisions will be final at the campus level.

Letters for the dossier

For promotion to senior lecturer, evaluative letters for the dossier may be drawn from expert evaluators withing the School or from the profession at large. Evaluators from within the School should not also be serving on the candidate’s review committee

The candidate will supply a list of at least six people from outside the department to serve as expert evaluators. The candidate should include a short statement about their connection to each person.

After discussion with appropriate members of the department or review committee, the review committee chair may compile a separate list of a maximum of four additional expert evaluators if desired. The connection of the candidate to these evaluators (if any) should also be explained. In both cases expert evaluators may be from the JSoM, the university, or outside of the university, but may not be within the candidate’s department.

For promotion to teaching professor, dossiers must include a minimum of six letters from external evaluators, three from a list prepared by the candidate and three from a list prepared by the review committee or school. The review committee chair should contact all potential evaluators to determine their willingness to write a letter evaluating the candidate. The Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Research, and Creative Activity will send the candidate’s dossier and a copy of the Jacobs School procedures for lecturer appointments to all those correspondents willing to participate. The dossier should include the candidate’s personal statement, Curriculum Vita, and evidence that demonstrates excellence in teaching including teaching evaluations and peer evaluations.

Candidates should provide a list of six to eight former students to be solicited for letters. Any current student (including anyone for whom the candidate has degree responsibilities, such as students still finishing dissertations or final recitals) should not be included on this list. Contact information must be provided for each student.

After consultation with the candidate and the review committee chair, the ADFARCA will solicit letters from peer observers of the candidate’s work (teaching or other activities in support of teaching including video recordings, student recital hearings and juries, or on other performances or activities of students or the faculty member.) Unsolicited letters from anyone, including present students, mentors outside or inside the Jacobs School of Music, professional colleagues, retired faculty, etc. may be submitted for inclusion in the dossier in a special section.

Review by Committees

After the dossier is complete including the evaluative letters, it is submitted to several stages of review within the Jacobs School of Music.

Tenured faculty and NTT faculty on long-term contracts may vote on cases for promotion of lecturers to senior lecturers and for appointment of senior lecturers to long-term contracts. Full professors, professors of practice on long-term contracts and teaching professors may vote on dossiers for promotion of senior lecturers to teaching professors. A review committee must include a minimum of three faculty and ideally will include at least five. If a department does not provide enough people to comprise a full committee, the ADFARCA will appoint additional members from departments with complementary interests. If the candidate is not in a department, the ADFARCA will appoint a five-member review committee.

A current faculty member who has served as a mentor for the candidate may participate fully in the review committee discussion and voting. Retired/emeritus faculty and the spouse or partner of the candidate may not participate in the discussion or voting on promotion or long-term contract appointment.

The letter from the review committee must include an exact vote in teaching, the sole area considered for lecturers. There will not be a separate vote for research/creative activity or service; however, these two areas may be considered in support of teaching as appropriate. The categories for the vote are Excellent, Very Good, Effective, and Ineffective. The letter should also report the vote for promotion or long-term contract appointment including the number of votes in each category:  Yes, No, Absent, and Abstention. An overall vote recommendation for promotion or long-term contract appointment necessitates that the candidate receive a majority vote of Excellent in teaching. A committee member must vote Excellent in Teaching to vote Yes for a long-term contract.

Voting faculty must have been involved in a discussion of the dossier and normally will be present when the vote is taken. If necessary, faculty may participate by various means of distance communication. Faculty members, however, may not give a proxy vote to another faculty member. The review committee letter will include a summary of comments regarding strengths and areas of concern from all voting faculty.

The review committee chairperson also writes a letter evaluating the candidate and makes a recommendation for promotion and/or long-term contract appointment. The chair’s letter should include comments on the contribution of the faculty member to the mission of the School.

The next stage of assessment and voting is conducted at the school level by the NTT Promotion and Policy Committee, which is appointed by the Dean, and includes two non-tenure track faculty on long-term contracts and three tenured associate or full professors. If the NTT Promotion and Policy Committee will be reviewing dossiers of candidates for the rank of teaching professor, the NTT faculty on the committee must be teaching professors or professors of practice on long term contracts, and the other three members must be full professors. If there are not teaching professors or professors of practice on long term contracts available to serve on the NTT Promotion and Policy Committee, then full professors will be appointed to the committee to vote on teaching professor cases. The voting categories and requirements are the same as those at the review committee level. Members of the Non-tenure Track Promotion and Policy Committee must all be present for a vote. If necessary, faculty may participate by various means of distance communication. Faculty members, however, may not give a proxy vote to another faculty member.

Each member of both review committees will have access to all the materials in the dossier. Faculty members and administrators may make a recommendation or vote only once on any given case and cannot participate at more than one level. All deliberations are confidential and should not be communicated to anyone outside the process. At all levels of review, however, the recommendation and its rationale should be clearly communicated to both the candidate and to the subsequent levels of review.

The candidate will be notified by the ADFARCA if there are any overall votes of “no” for reappointment or promotion by a review committee chair and/or if there is a majority review committee or school committee vote against promotion or long-term contract appointment at either the review committee or school committee level. If desired, the candidate may then write a letter of rebuttal or clarification which will be added to the dossier. The candidate may also write a letter clarifying remarks by anyone who has submitted material to the dossier. These letters should address matters of substance in the dossier rather than procedural matters. Questions about procedure should be directed to the ADFARCA.

After the initial review of the dossier has begun, the contents of the dossier will be frozen. No person (including mentors and departmental chairs) other than the candidate may add rebuttal letters or comments based on the confidential materials and letters in the dossier. In exceptional circumstances, the candidate may add important additional materials to the dossiers after consultation with the ADFARCA, provided that all previous review committees are aware of the added material and are given an opportunity to respond.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs will notify the candidate of the final decision in writing.

Several factors are taken into consideration in arriving at a recommendation to be submitted to the campus. Appointments of lecturers to a long-term contract and promotion to the ranks of senior lecturer and teaching professor are based on excellence in teaching. Research/creative activity and service in support of teaching will be considered as appropriate. The rank of senior lecturer and promotion to a long-term contract will be granted to colleagues who have demonstrated a commitment to continued professional growth and currency with pedagogical developments in their fields. Promotion should principally be a judgment about prospects for future contributions. Promotion to the rank of teaching professor will be granted to individuals who demonstrate sustained excellence in teaching and pedagogical leadership that extends beyond the Jacobs School of Music or the campus.

Materials to substantiate teaching must be included in the dossier. Research/creative activity and service cannot be included as separate categories of evaluation; however, they can be considered in support of teaching as part of the teaching dossier. Research/creative activity and service may provide additional evidence of intellectual and musical engagement in the profession that is generally indicative of long-term contributions valuable in classroom settings and to the campus in general.

Components of the dossier

Administrative

• Vote record
• Internal review letters (review committee, chair, school, dean)
• External review letters (outside department)
• Any other solicited letters

General

• The candidate will provide a current CV including educational and employment history and achievements in the area of teaching, and research/creative activity and service in support of teaching.
• The candidate will provide a statement (4-5 pages), which should begin with a brief introduction articulating a personal teaching philosophy or outlining a professional mission statement. The remainder of the statement should focus on specific evidence demonstrating the quality of teaching. It should contextualize the evidence provided and address its significance. Candidates should indicate how their teaching or other academic duties have changed in reaction to student and peer comments and discuss innovations in their work.
• Lists of expert evaluators, and their biographies (to be assembled by the candidate and the Review Committee as appropriate).
• The Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Research, and Creative Activity will include copies of department and/or school criteria.

Evidence of Teaching

Contributions in the teaching area may be substantiated by the following, as appropriate to the specific discipline:

• a list of specific courses taught (including ensemble direction, chamber music coaching, and independent study supervision) and the enrollments listed by semester and academic year (including numbers and levels of applied students) (required)
• student evaluations over time (summaries of teaching evaluations, transcriptions of student comments) (required)
• reports of annual observations by peers (usually from within the review committee, as well as selected outside evaluators, where appropriate). Guidelines for peer evaluations will be provided by the Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Research, and Creative Activity. (required)
• other peer evaluations as available
• a list of independent study supervision, supervised minor field candidates, and doctoral committee work, if appropriate
• evidence of student achievement
• the ability to attract and retain qualified major students in a specific performance area
• evidence of course development: syllabi, descriptions of innovative approaches to instruction, special curriculum design, incorporation of new technologies
• performances related to pedagogy
• copies of pedagogical books, articles, educational recordings, and other materials authored by the candidate
• pedagogical presentations, both invited and competitive at regional, national, or international meetings or for a similar professional gathering
• workshops, festivals, and lectures; including peer evaluations of presentations and materials, if available
• guest teaching and presentations
• grants for curriculum development
• teaching awards and recognition

Evidence of Research/Creative Activity in support of Teaching

Contributions in the research/creative activity area may be substantiated by the following:

• publications of any sort
• recitals on the Bloomington campus and elsewhere, including solo performances and performances with chamber groups, orchestras, or other ensembles
• performances and/or presentations related to scholarship
• creative activity such as choreography, stage direction, and stage design
• recordings and recording contracts
• development of new technologies
• digital scholarly projects
• interdisciplinary activities
• reviews of books, articles, compositions, performances, and other creative activity
• grants and contracts for research and/or creative activities
• awards and honors for research/creative activity

Evidence of Service in support of Teaching

Contributions in the service area may be substantiated by the following (as appropriate?):

• a list of the candidate’s service activities, including committee work
• contributions to auditions, hearings, rehearsals, student recitals, concerto competitions, and other similar activities
• reviews and publications (including pre-publication reviews) that are related to professional service
• social media on behalf of the JSOM and/or the IU community
• program notes, pre-concert lectures and panels, and other service to the public
• mentoring students, which may include: student advising, letters of recommendation for students, etc.
• recruitment
• program committees for festivals
• participation in professional organizations
• judging contests, administering exams, etc.
• community engagement activities
• performances and/or presentations in support of music service

Promotion to Senior Lecturer

To be considered Excellent in teaching for promotion to Senior Lecturer, the candidate must demonstrate a high level of current achievement in teaching and the potential to sustain and extend this work in the future. Excellence may be substantiated by evidence in any of the categories of the dossier.

Promotion to Teaching Professor

To be considered Excellent in teaching for promotion to Teaching Professor, the candidate must show significant pedagogical leadership and demonstrate sustained and significant professional work that has the potential to continue in the future. Pedagogical leadership is demonstrated by impact beyond the Jacobs School of Music or the campus and may be substantiated by evidence in any of the categories of the dossier.

Overview of the Timetable for Dossier Preparation and Evaluation

November, Year 5

The candidate is notified of deadlines and advised of procedures for collection of material. The supervising faculty member and the candidate should review the Memorandum of Understanding at this time, and draft final amendments to it if necessary.

Late Spring, Year 5

The candidate submits to the office of the ADFARCA a curriculum vita and a list of names of possible evaluators for the dossier.  If the candidate desires, names of external evaluators may also be submitted. The academic supervisor and the review committee shall, if desired, submit names of possible evaluators.

Early Fall, Year 6

The candidate’s completed dossier must be ready for action by the review committee.  The dossier will be approved by the supervising faculty member after discussion with the candidate.

The dossier is submitted to the review committee.

The dossier, including recommendations from the review committee and the academic supervisor, is submitted to Jacobs School of Music Non-tenure Promotion and Policy Committee.

Mid-Fall, Year 6

The dossier, including recommendations from all previous evaluations, is submitted to Dean.