Faculty Advisory Committee on Tenure

In spring 2019, President Daniels, in consultation with Provost Kumar and the university’s deans, convened the Faculty Advisory Committee on Tenure (FACT) to explore the merits of establishing a university-level advisory committee to assist the president in his existing role in the university tenure process. Please click here to see the list of Committee members. The Committee has now issued its final report, which is available for download here.

Since first convening in April 2019, the FACT conducted extensive consultations and research, meeting with numerous faculty colleagues, as well as relevant committees of the board of trustees. Specifically, the FACT chair and/or Committee members have met with:

• Deans of all tenure-granting schools
• Homewood Academic Council
• Carey Academic Board
• SAIS Academic Board
• Advisory Board of the Medical Faculty
• School of Nursing Academic Council
• Bloomberg School of Public Health Advisory Board
• Homewood Faculty Assembly representatives
• Krieger and Whiting School chairs
• Board of Trustees (Committees on Academic Policy and Student Life)

The FACT also contacted two dozen faculty and university leaders at Ivy Plus peers regarding their respective approaches to and experiences with university-level tenure review. After developing initial recommendations, it put its draft report out for two months of faculty comment, receiving 148 comments from individual faculty across the university, as well as written comments from the Bloomberg School of Public Health Faculty Senate, the Carey Academic Board, and the Homewood Faculty Assembly. Those comments led to a number of substantive revisions to the Committee’s recommendations, described further below.

In its report, the Committee concludes that, if carefully constructed to address stated concerns, a university-level faculty advisory committee at Johns Hopkins would provide the president with a greater depth and breadth of faculty perspectives at a critical stage in the tenure process and enhance shared governance. Therefore, it is recommending to the president and provost that Johns Hopkins University take steps to establish a standing faculty-led Tenure Advisory Committee (TAC). Its specific recommendations around the TAC’s scope, composition, and procedures are described in the report. It is further recommending that this committee be instituted for three years and then rigorously evaluated before being made permanent.

President Daniels has agreed to adopt the recommendations of the report in full with the following modifications, made after receiving further input from the schools, including input and concurrence from the Homewood Academic Council:

• School-level tenure review bodies will provide the President with two or more nominees for each position on the TAC, chosen in concordance with the relevant dean and the Provost.
• The President will share with school-level tenure bodies a confidential summary of the TAC’s rationale for its advice.
• Current school-level procedures for submitting tenure dossiers to the President will remain in place (the FACT report had suggested additional decanal materials).

The Committee extends its thanks to the many faculty colleagues who offered their insights throughout this process, helping to shape its report.

Key Changes to the Report’s Recommendations from its Original Draft

Scope of Authority of the Tenure Advisory Committee

• The committee may provide advice on school-level recommendations for tenure and also school-level denials appealed to the Provost.

Committee Composition

• The committee will be composed of faculty who previously have been elected or otherwise named to their own school’s school-level tenure advisory body and have served at least one full term.
• The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences will have 3 seats on the committee to ensure that the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences are all represented.

Committee Procedures and Timing

• The committee’s initial reviews will include one committee member from the candidate’s school and discipline, as appropriate.
• The committee’s reviews will fit within the existing timeline of JHU Board of Trustee meetings on tenure to prevent prolonging the overall tenure process.