Tenure may be granted only by the Vice Chancellor, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer with the concurrence of the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees. Such an appointment may be extended only to members of Syracuse University with faculty rank. Tenure is not attached to appointments to administrative positions or to appointments as department chairs in the University. Appointment to or relinquishment of such positions, however, will not deprive faculty members of tenure in the highest instructional rank they have attained at the University.
Candidates are considered for tenure only once, and tenure cannot be granted through any process other than those described here.
Tenure is granted in one of two ways. First, faculty appointed to a full-time tenure-track position without tenure are reviewed for tenure, following a probationary period. This review is conducted by the department(s) or appropriate unit(s) and school/college, in accordance with each unit’s governance procedures. Each case is forwarded to the Vice Chancellor, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer for a decision and to the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for concurrence. Candidates must be considered for tenure before the end of the sixth credited year but may be considered any time before that date.
Second, faculty may be appointed to the University with tenure through a recommendation for such action from the department(s) or appropriate unit(s) and school/college(s), in accordance with each unit’s governance procedures. Each case is forwarded to the Vice Chancellor, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer for a decision and to the Chancellor and Board of Trustees for concurrence.
The formal review process for faculty in the probationary period will begin with the signed and dated irrevocable request on the standard form from the individual to initiate the tenure review. A request must be submitted to the Office of Faculty Affairs, as well as to the office designated by the respective school and college, prior to the solicitation of external evaluations of the candidate’s qualifications for tenure. If an eligible faculty member fails to submit a formal request for a tenure review prior to the college or school deadline for completing the tenure review before the end of the sixth year of the probationary period, the University will consider the faculty member to have waived all claims for consideration for tenure.
Even if a tenure candidate’s school or college accepts a request for tenure review, such acceptance does not constitute a waiver of the deadline set forth above and the consequences specified for failing to meet the deadline.
After the formal review process has begun, candidates for tenure may not withdraw from consideration and subsequently reapply for tenure.
Whereas the tenure process ends with the recommendation of the Vice Chancellor, Provost, and Chief Academic Officer to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees, the departments and schools/colleges play a significant role in this process, from initial recruitment and appointment, annual evaluation, reappointments, development of candidate dossiers, conduct of tenure review, and associated voting processes. Each school/college that holds tenured appointments has the responsibility to develop and to communicate widely the processes, procedures and criteria for appointments, pre-tenure reviews, promotion, and tenure. The departmental and school/college processes, procedures, and guidelines regarding tenure and promotion to associate professor and for promotion to full professor should be clear and transparent, as well as congruent with the University processes, procedures, and guidelines set forth herein.
Unless the candidate already holds the rank of associate professor or above, the processes and procedures enumerated below should be undertaken in a single process and set of recommendations for promotion to associate professor and indefinite appointment with tenure.
When the text in the sections below refers to tenure, both tenure and promotion to associate professor are referenced jointly.
Updated April 17, 2024