Effective May 2024 Revised Expedited Appointment Policy (Draft)

Goal: 

To facilitate hiring outstanding senior-level faculty (associate professor, professor, senior lecturer, and librarian (II or I) faculty ranks) who have already attained that rank/experience, while still ensuring a rigorous, fair review of each candidate is conducted.

Eligibility: 

Faculty candidates who hold the rank of associate professor or professor, librarian (II or I) title faculty roles, or senior lecturer (or equivalent) at a comparable institution, with or without tenure, may be proposed for expedited appointment to the same rank (with tenure, if already awarded tenure elsewhere, and if the hiring unit would like to offer appointment with tenure). This process may also be used internally when appointing faculty to a new title series (“title series change”).
Please note: promotions in rank or award of tenure if not already awarded are not eligible for expedited appointments (e.g., associate professor with tenure will have to go through full process if wanting to appoint as full professor with tenure at UK).

Procedures:

Pre-vetting:

 The candidate’s CV and any supporting material including the Dean’s assessment of the candidate must be pre-vetted via an email to the Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement (APFA) well in advance of an expedited offer letter at an elevated rank or with tenure. Note: The Dean’s assessment must address if the candidate’s credentials meet or exceed the hiring unit’s statements of evidence and the AR for the proposed title series. The dean’s letter must also compare the academic unit at which the candidate obtained rank and/or tenure compared to the hiring unit at UK. If the academic unit is not deemed equivalent or superior in rigor and stature then the usual full dossier review process is required.

The APFA will provide an email indicating approval for expedited dossier review, which should be included in the documents submitted to offer letter workflow approval request.

Offer letter: 

The offer to the candidate must include an explanation of the expedited review process and indicate what materials are required from the candidate (either as part of the offer letter itself, or as an addendum). The offer letter must be sent through the hiring workflow, and the submitted packet must include the email from the APFA indicating pre-vetting approval for expedited review. The offer letter must contain language indicating that appointment is subject to review and approval by the Provost and Board of Trustees.

Example language:

This appointment, and the proposed rank (and tenure if applicable), is subject to approval by the Provost and Board of Trustees, but we will process an expedited review of this appointment at rank to be completed within your first year of employment at UK.
Dossier: Once the offer is accepted, begin preparing the dossier using the checklist below.

Expedited Dossier Checklist:

The suggested checklist has been adapted from Administrative Regulation 2:1-1, Appendix II.

1. Digital Coversheet with Candidate Name, Proposed Title Series, Proposed Rank, Tenure status, College, Academic Unit, Proposed Distribution of Effort
2. Dean’s letter
3. College APT committee letter
4. Academic Unit Leader letter
5. List of Academic Unit Faculty followed by letters of recommendation from all required consultations of academic unit faculty
6. Letters of recommendation from other UK faculty (optional)
7. *At least three external recommendation letters from the application or applicant references (the Dean may require additional letters) plus brief biographical information on the letter writers. *If the faculty candidate went through promotion and/or tenure review within 5 years of the date of the expedited review, documents from that assessment may be used. If more than 5 years have occurred since last promotion or award of tenure, then prior documents may be used but should be updated, or additional validation of the faculty candidate’s current status should be obtained. For example, external letters may be updated by original authors or supplemented with new letters.
8. Candidate’s updated CV (with hyperlinks to materials as appropriate such as DOIs/URLs)
9. Personal statement(s) on research, teaching, service and/or administration (as applicable)
10. Teaching portfolio (specific content needed will vary based on college/department rules and proposed position) if candidate will have teaching DOE >5% using Appendix I of Administrative Regulation 3:10 for guidance in the context of available materials
11. Academic Unit’s statement of evidences as appropriate
12. Administrative Regulation for the title series proposed
13. Approved Position Description
14. A list of procedural steps taken by the parties assembling the dossier
15. Other documents as required by hiring unit (department or college)
16. Evidence of pre-approval for expedited dossier review (APRA email)

Dossier review steps:

1. Pre-approval for expedited review – email approval from Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement
2. Academic Unit faculty
3. Academic Unit leader
4. College APT committee
5. College Dean
6. Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement [who has discretion to refer to area committee (e.g. special title series appointment, split decisions on rank or tenure from department or college)]
7. Provost
8. BOT approval