Who judges your case file? – By your colleagues.

How is your case judged? – By the standards that your department, college and university colleagues have written, and using the written case that has been prepared.

Two important points to note. The first is that it will benefit you to provide a well-written and straightforward positive case that addresses the main points of the standards. How would you feel about spending one evening at home reading a 1000-page case file full of mistakes, multiply reported items, misrepresentations, and exaggerations, and then spending another evening in committee making sense of it with half a dozen or more committee members? If you repeatedly give the benefit of the doubt to case files like that, you might be a saint! Many committee members feel the same as they would feel about an ill-prepared thesis draft, or a sloppily written paper submitted for peer review.

Your case file is a key document in your career – treat it as such.

The second point is that there is little that the Association can do if you do not meet the standards. There are mechanisms for managing extenuating circumstances and matters of procedure, but the standards have been drafted by academics in departments and colleges, and have not been bargained at the negotiating table.

Questions about tenure or promotion? Let us know in a reply to this email and someone will get in touch with you. Or, call us at 306-966-5609.