Procedures for Appointment and Promotion for Faculty with Unmodified Titles

       All instructional appointments with unmodified titles (assistant professor, associate professor, professor, lecturer, senior lecturer, and associate) that do not carry tenure are made for a specified term (i.e., stated term). The three professorial appointments can only be for full-time service. In accordance with the Statutes, new full-time faculty with stated terms are appointed for only one year. Reappointment may be for a longer period, with the duration depending on the officer’s title. Full-time nontenured faculty appointed with unmodified titles may be reappointed for one, two, or three years, with possible renewal dependent on statutory limits on nontenured service. At the Irving Medical Center such appointments are made on a yearly basis.

       Responsibility for initiating nominations for appointment, reappointment, and promotion has been delegated to and originates within one of the University’s departments of instruction after it has received budgetary permission from the appropriate dean or executive vice president.

       Every appointment of a faculty member of the University must be made in accordance with the University’s Affirmative Action Plan, which is applicable for the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses and for the Irving Medical Center. No one who will hold a full-time appointment that is subject to the plan’s requirements can start to work in any capacity or be paid in any manner until clearance is given.

       All appointments and promotions require the approval of the appropriate dean. They are also reviewed by the Office of the Provost to ensure that comparable standards of appointment are used throughout the University, that the principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action are observed, and that the nominee has the appropriate academic qualifications before they are submitted to the appropriate appointing authority. The Provost has delegated this responsibility of final approval for the schools at the Irving Medical Center to the Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences.

       Some faculty may be nominated for joint appointments in more than one department, given the breadth of their backgrounds and the expectation that they will contribute to the teaching and research programs of multiple parts of the University. Faculty with professorial ranks with a background that qualifies them for appointment in one department but who work in another department, or in an institute or center, or faculty who fulfill significant functions in more than one department, or in a department and an institute or center, may hold interdisciplinary appointments. The privileges and duties of faculty with joint or interdisciplinary appointments and the division of responsibility for their salaries, space, and voting privileges are defined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that is signed by the officer, chair, director, dean, and, where appropriate, executive vice president of each of the units before the appointment can begin. Such joint or interdisciplinary appointments require the approval of the Provost in those cases where appointments involve more than one Faculty or an institute not belonging to a particular Faculty. The MOU must be signed by all parties before the appointment can be effective.

       For appointments with tenure, the Provost relies upon the Tenure Review Advisory Committee (TRAC) for advice on the qualifications of the nominee, except for those in the School of Law where the tenured faculty, serving as a substitute for TRAC, provides that advice. Following the appropriate review, the Provost forwards all proposed appointments to the President for approval. With the President’s agreement, the Provost seeks the approval of the Trustees for these appointments.

  • Instructors: These faculty may be appointed in a full-time instructional capacity for no more than two years.
  • Senior Lecturers, Lecturers, and Associates: These faculty may continue in a full-time instructional capacity for no more than eight counted years of service and cannot be considered for tenure.
  • Assistant Professors on an Eight-Year Clock: These faculty may continue in a full-time instructional capacity (including a promotion to associate professor without tenure) for no more than eight counted years of appointment unless granted tenure. They must be reviewed for a tenured appointment by May 31 of their seventh counted year of service and be given a final year of appointment if the outcome of that review is negative.
  • Associate Professors and Professors on an Eight-Year Clock: Faculty hired at these ranks without tenure are appointed for no more than four years and must be reviewed for a tenured appointment by May 31 of their third year of appointment. If their review is unsuccessful, they are usually given a final year of appointment. With the approval of the Provost, they may be appointed through their up-or-out date, the date beyond which each faculty member who is subject to the statutory limits on nontenured service may no longer serve in a full-time instructional capacity with an unmodified title.
  • Assistant Professors on an 11-Year Clock: Faculty with substantial patient-facing clinical responsibilities in the Faculties of Dental Medicine, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health may continue in full-time instructional capacity (including promotion to associate professor without tenure) for no more than 11 counted years of service unless they are granted tenure. They must be reviewed for tenure by May 31 of their 10th counted year of service and cannot hold unmodified appointments beyond their 11th counted year if the outcome of that review is negative. These faculty must have an average clinical commitment of two months per year in each of the first four years of counted appointment and are expected to continue to perform at least at that level of clinical service for the remainder of their appointment on the tenure track, once they have passed their fourth-year review. The chairs and deans at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center are responsible for tracking the clinical responsibilities of each of their tenure-track faculty, using annual clinical schedules and practice plan work unit summaries. They must submit that information to a designated representative of the Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences as part of the officer’s fourth-year review. On the basis of that review, the Executive Vice President recommends to the Provost, no later than May 31 of the faculty member’s fourth year of appointment, whether the maximum period of nontenured service of the faculty member should be fixed at eight or 11 counted years. The Provost makes the final decision as to which clock will apply by June 30 of the officer’s fourth year of appointment based on the Executive Vice President’s recommendation.
  • Associate Professors and Professors on an 11-Year Clock: Faculty hired at these ranks without tenure with substantial patient-facing clinical responsibilities in the Faculties of Dental Medicine, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health are appointed for no more than six years and must be reviewed for a tenured appointment by May 31 of their fifth year of counted service. These officers must have an average clinical commitment of two months per year during their appointment on the tenure track. They are not subject to a fourth-year review.

       The limits on nontenured service govern full-time instructional appointments in the University as a whole and not in an individual school or department. Prior periods of full-time service are counted when an officer moves from one part of the University to another without a break in appointment. This provision also applies to service at Barnard College and Teachers College. If a nontenured officer who is initially appointed at Barnard College or Teachers College becomes a full-time member of another Faculty of the University without an interruption in service, the statutory limits are calculated from the date of the first full-time appointment at Barnard College or Teachers College.

       The limits also apply to the total period of continuous full-time instructional appointment in any rank that is subject to the statutory provisions on nontenured service rather than the time spent in a specific rank.

       The Office of the Provost calculates the date beyond which each faculty member who is subject to the statutory limits on nontenured service may no longer serve in a full-time instructional capacity with an unmodified title. This up-or-out date does not, however, guarantee the individual an appointment for the full allowable term. Any full-time appointment may be terminated at the end of its stated term prior to the completion of the maximum period of service, as long as the officer is given adequate written notice (see End of Appointment ).

       The Office of the Provost sends the executive vice presidents and/or deans as well as the chairs a summary report of the appointment histories of the full-time faculty in their respective schools and departments whose appointments are subject to the limits on nontenured service every spring. For each officer listed, the report includes the up-or-out date, which is set at June 30 of the applicable year. Most individuals will have completed the maximum allowable years of counted service on that date. Those whose tenure-track appointments start on January 1 can have an extra half year on their clock, given the manner in which the limits on nontenured service are calculated. In such cases, the officer does not receive de facto tenure as a result of the additional half year of appointment. It is the responsibility of the administrators mentioned above to convey this information to their junior faculty. It is also their responsibility to provide nontenured faculty whose appointments will be terminated with written notice of nonrenewal that is clear, unambiguous, and timely (see End of Appointment).

       There are four ways a tenure clock may be extended: (1) when there is a break in service, (2) for non-professorial service and/or leaves of absences, (3) when caring for a child under the age of one, and (4) with a Tenure Clock Exception. Each is described below.

  1. Break in Service:

        A break in service occurs when there is an interruption in full-time service due to:

  • nonrenewal of a full-time instructional appointment;
  • resignation;
  • service as a full-time officer of research or officer of administration;
  • change from full-time to part-time instructional service (except in the case of the part-time career appointment for parents, which is described below).

       Whenever such a break in service occurs, the limit on nontenured service is recalculated from the date on which the officer is reappointed in a full-time instructional rank that is subject to the statutory limits on nontenured service. However, in keeping with the spirit of the statutory provisions, the total period of the full-time instructional appointment, including any time as a full-time faculty member in a rank that is not subject to the limits on nontenured service, is taken into consideration in determining the year by which the faculty member must be considered for tenure.

       Faculty at the Irving Medical Center who are initially appointed with titles containing the at Columbia University Medical Center modifier may be switched to unmodified appointments which are subject to the statutory limits on nontenured service, provided that they have not already completed six counted years of full-time instructional service, or nine in the case of those with substantial patient-facing clinical responsibilities. However, any time spent in a full-time appointment with the modifier is counted in determining when the officer must be considered for tenure.

       Full-time faculty in the rest of the University may not be switched between appointments whose duration is limited by the University Statutes and those that are exempt from those limits. Faculty with modified titles may not be considered for an appointment with tenure. Exceptions to these rules are permitted only in unusual circumstances and with the approval of the Provost, which the executive vice president or dean must obtain prior to authorizing the school or department to initiate a review of the faculty member’s appointment to tenure.

  1. Non-Professorial Service and/or Leaves of Absence:

       Up to one year of appointment in a non-professorial rank (e.g., instructor, senior lecturer, lecturer, or associate), or up to one year of a leave of absence, postpones the up-or-out date by a year. Semesters of partial leave in which the officer performs more than 50 percent of normal service do not extend the tenure clock.

  1. Child Care Related Extension

      i. Statutory Extension: Under Section §71c(2) of the University Statutes, faculty who assume the primary responsibility for the care of a child less than a year old for a period of three months or longer can have their tenure clock extended. The extension is for one year for each child. An officer is considered the primary care giver if they are a single parent or, where there are two parents, if the other is working full time or is enrolled as a full-time student. This statutory extension is distinct from the Parental Workload Relief Program for Morningside and Manhattanville faculty or the parental leave program at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Faculty may employ a daycare provider and still qualify for this exclusion.

      To request time off the tenure clock, faculty on the Morningside and Manhattanville campuses should write as early as possible directly to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, and on the Irving Medical Center campus to the Office of Faculty Affairs, who will forward to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs the request for exclusion and specifically affirm that they meet all the eligibility requirements. On approval, the Office of the Provost will change the faculty member’s up-or-out date and inform the appropriate chair and dean, and/or executive vice president, as well as the individual. Faculty may not receive additional time discounted for leaves or participation in the parental workload relief program during the year that is excluded from the tenure clock under these statutory provisions.

      ii. Parental Workload Relief Program for Morningside and Manhattanville Faculty

Morningside and Manhattanville faculty are eligible for the Parental Workload Relief program, which provides workload relief for one term at full salary, workload relief for one year at half salary, or a year of workload relief at full salary with half the normal course load for each term, if they are primarily responsible for the care of:

  • a newborn child, or
  • a newly adopted child of less than school age, or
  • a child who is disabled, or
  • a child who meets New York State’s legal definition of “hard-to-place,” and is younger than 18 years of age at the time the leave begins.

      A year of Parental Work Load Relief or a combination of one semester of Parental Work Load Relief and one semester under the statutory extension of Section 71(c)(2) (see above) adds a year to the faculty member’s up-or-out date each time the faculty member is approved for a Parental Work Load Relief leave. For more detailed information about this program, please see the section on “Leaves” below.

     iii. Parental Leave Policy for CUIMC Faculty

      Faculty at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center are eligible for one year of parental leave, with only the first 13 weeks being paid, if they are primarily responsible for the care of:

  • a newborn child, or
  • a newly adopted child of less than school age, or
  • a child who is disabled, or
  • a child who meets New York State’s legal definition of “hard-to-place,” and is younger than 18 years of age at the time the leave begins.

      Faculty should request parental leave six months in advance, whenever possible. A combination of parental leave and the statutory extension of Section 71(c)(2) (see above) adds a year to the faculty member’s up-or-out date each time the faculty member is approved for a parental leave. For more detailed information about this program please see section Leaves.

      iv. Part-Time Career Appointment for Parents

      To assist full-time faculty who must prepare for tenure review while raising a family, the University allows tenure-track faculty who have young children to retain their full-time status, and its associated benefits and privileges, while providing part-time service. Because of the purpose for which it was created, faculty with tenure and those who are exempt from the limits on nontenured service may not hold this type of appointment.

      To be eligible for the part-time career appointment, the faculty member must be primarily responsible for the care of a child under the age of nine and plan to devote the time freed up by the appointment to that responsibility.

      While they are on a part-time career appointment, faculty perform half of their normal responsibilities and are paid half of their normal salary but remain eligible to participate in the University’s benefits programs. Faculty on such an appointment may not work for compensation outside of the University. Each year of a part-time career appointment is treated as a half-year in determining the officer’s up-or-out date, thereby providing additional time before the officer must be reviewed for tenure. Full-time service, either before or after holding such an appointment, is counted in the normal manner.

      A part-time career appointment is authorized by the Provost on the recommendation of the chair and dean or executive vice president. Faculty may hold such an appointment as long as they meet the eligibility requirements for it and annually inform their chair and/or dean or executive vice president of their intention to continue to serve in a part-time capacity. They may return to full-time service upon providing timely written notice to their chair and/or dean or executive vice president.

  1. Tenure Clock Exception:

     In unusual circumstances, it may be necessary to postpone the tenure review of an officer to the final year of allowable nontenured service (eighth year of service for those on an eight-year clock or 11th year of service for those on an 11-year clock). Requests for such an exception should be made before the end of the officer’s sixth year of counted service for those on an eight-year clock or before the end of the ninth year of counted service for those on an 11-year clock. A department or school may establish a reading committee to do an in-depth review of the work that is the basis of a potential Tenure Clock Exception. With the prior permission of the Provost, it may also ask for a few selected letters of evaluation of that work from scholars at other institutions.

     In support of a request for an exception, the department or school, with the support of the dean or executive vice president, should submit to the Provost a statement explaining why they believe that the extra year is justified, a description of the process by which they reached that conclusion, including the vote, the report of the reading committee if one was created, any external letters obtained as part of the review, and the forthcoming work itself. If any of the tenured faculty in the department or school opposed the request for the exception or abstained, they should provide letters of explanation for their vote to the Provost.

The request for a Tenure Clock Exception must show that:

  1. There is already substantial evidence of the candidate’s scholarly excellence.
  1. The candidate is expected to publish scholarly work of completed research, that is already written, during the forthcoming year that will have a material effect on the outcome of the tenure review. This scholarship should be qualitatively better than the candidate’s earlier work and of such significance that it does not make sense to proceed with the tenure review until it is available to the candidate’s discipline and for the tenure review.
  1. The tenured faculty of the department and/or school have, by a formal vote, affirmed both their support for the exception and their expectation that the subsequent internal review of the candidate will result in a positive recommendation.

      In evaluating requests for an exception, the Provost may consult with scholars in the candidate’s field of specialization inside and outside the University. The granting of the exception by the Provost does not, however, guarantee a review by the Tenure Review Advisory Committee; it merely grants that the candidate will be considered by the department or school during the final allowable year of full-time nontenured service.

      In addition to the situations described above, there may be instances in which a review cannot be completed before May 31 of an officer’s penultimate year of service (seventh for those on an eight-year clock; 10th for those on an 11-year clock), owing to administrative delays. The Provost may grant an exception in these cases as well.

      When an exception is granted and tenure is denied, the officer is offered an appointment for an additional and terminal year (a ninth year in the case of faculty on an eight-year clock; a 12th for those on an 11-year clock). Reappointment in these cases does not result in tenure.

      Full-time nontenured faculty with unmodified titles are subject to periodic review by their department or school. These reviews provide timely advice that encourages their professional development while serving as the basis for the decision on whether to reappoint them in a nontenured capacity.

      The Arts and Sciences and Morningside and Manhattanville professional schools have a comprehensive system of review for faculty originally appointed as full-time assistant professors. The reviews must be completed by the end of the years noted below. The reviews are progressively more rigorous in their character.

  • By February 28 of the first year of counted service, the department or school conducts a Confirming Review to determine if a faculty member should be reappointed for up to three additional years. If a department or school determines that the faculty member is not meeting expectations, the individual must be given notice by the statutory date of March 1 that their appointment will be terminated on June 30 of that year.
  • Faculty in their third year of counted service undergo a Developmental Review that provides guidance to help them develop as scholars and teachers while evaluating them for possible reappointment through their sixth year of counted service. If their progress is deemed to be unsatisfactory, they may be reappointed for a lesser period or given notice of nonrenewal effective at the end of the fourth year. In unusual cases, this review may also lead to a recommendation that the faculty member should be promoted to nontenured associate professor.
  • The fifth-year Critical Review determines if a nontenured faculty member exhibits the qualities of a scholar and educator that are likely to merit a nomination to tenure at Columbia or an institution of comparable quality by the seventh year of counted service. It is also the occasion for deciding if the faculty member should be reappointed through the eighth year of counted service and should be promoted to the rank of nontenured associate professor. A positive recommendation resulting from this review represents a statement about the likelihood of being proposed for tenure but does not guarantee an eventual nomination.
  • The tenure review is the point at which the department or school normally decides if it wishes to consider a nontenured faculty member for nomination to tenure. The evaluation should begin in the spring of the sixth year of counted service for faculty on the eight-year clock and in the ninth year of counted service for faculty on the 11-year clock. The tenure review process is described in detail below. Nontenured faculty may request review for possible nomination to tenure in an earlier year of counted service.

      Faculty who are initially appointed as a nontenured associate or full professor are reviewed on a different schedule. All receive a Confirming Review in their first year of counted service. Those who are on an eight-year clock must be given a Tenure Review by the third year of counted service; those on an 11-year clock by the fifth year of counted service. The Provost may make an exception in extraordinary circumstances. Faculty in these ranks on nonrenewable appointments may request a Developmental Review in their third year of counted service to help them prepare for their careers after they leave Columbia.

      Nontenured faculty may obtain the guidelines for these reviews from their chair or dean. The dean or executive vice president makes the final decisions regarding whether to reappoint faculty in a nontenured capacity, promote to the rank of nontenured associate professor, or to nominate for review for tenure by TRAC.

      Since the Faculties follow different policies in deciding whether to reappoint in a full-time nontenured capacity and for how long, nontenured faculty should address any questions about how they will be evaluated to their chair or dean, who is responsible, insofar as possible, for keeping them informed of the likelihood of their reappointment, promotion, and nomination to tenure.

      An appointment to tenure is made in the University only when an individual of widely recognized excellence is found to fill a scholarly need that is demonstrably vital to a discipline central to the University’s purposes. Appointments to tenure are made in the grades of professor and associate professor following a process of peer review. Consideration for tenure begins with an evaluation by the Faculty in which the officer will serve. If the result of that evaluation is positive, the dean or executive vice president submits a nomination to the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs which administers the tenure review process on behalf of the Provost. The Tenure Review Advisory Committee (TRAC), the University’s standing committee on tenure, evaluates the candidate’s qualifications and serves as an advisory committee to the Provost who determines whether the candidate should be recommended to the President for an appointment with tenure. The candidate’s appointment to tenure is presented to the Trustees only with the President’s approval. These procedures are described in detail in the Tenure Guidelines which are updated annually.

      New deans throughout the University, new chairs in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and in the Mailman School of Public Health, and directors of University-wide institutes and centers likewise go through the University’s normal system of tenure review, although on an expedited schedule.

     The review for candidates at the Law School differs slightly. Following the completion of a review by the Law School’s tenured faculty and the acceptance of a positive recommendation by the dean, the candidate’s dossier is submitted to the Provost who decides whether to recommend the nomination to the President. The nomination is forwarded to the Trustees upon the approval of the President.

      Officers with tenure hold appointments “without stated term” until they retire or resign. Tenure necessarily implies some financial obligation, but it does not guarantee a specific level of compensation.

      When a faculty member is denied tenure in the penultimate year of service, the University Statutes permit the Provost to grant a one-year extension to the individual if 1) the faculty member has submitted a grievance relating to the tenure decision to the Faculty Affairs Committee of the University Senate, 2) the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee has conducted an investigation and recommended that the Provost permit a second review, and 3) the Provost has accepted the committee’s recommendation. The sole purpose for this statutory provision is to allow for a new tenure review. It may not be used for any other reason.

      In the past, certain full-time officers of instruction in the Faculties of Dental Medicine, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health who were not eligible for tenure received tenure of title. While tenure of title appointments are without stated term, they do not provide a guarantee of salary from the University. The University no longer makes appointments with tenure of title.

Next Section: Procedures for Appointment and Promotion of Faculty with Modified Titles

Updated November 03, 2022