The College requires as supporting evidence for tenure and promotion recommendations at least three current letters reviewing the candidate's achievements by specialists in the field. These external reviews are to be accompanied by a short description of the credentials of the authors of the letters (do not present C.V.'s) and of the procedures used by departments/schools to obtain objective and unbiased reviews.

Guidelines for the Selection of Evaluators

1. The process by which evaluators are identified, selected and invited to serve is to be coordinated by the department chair/school director, and should allow, minimally, for the independent nomination of potential evaluators by the candidate for promotion and/or tenure, the department/school promotion and tenure committee, and the department chair/school director.
2. The policy requires departments/schools to describe the credentials of the external evaluators and the procedures used to obtain objective and unbiased reviews, and so a brief written rationale for each nomination should be provided. Moreover, reviewers suggested and selected should be persons whose professional and personal distance/detachment from the candidate is clear. (For example, "friends," dissertation advisors and graduate school contemporaries are not to be asked to serve as evaluators.)
3. It is recommended that five to six external evaluations of a candidate's work be solicited to insure that the three letters minimally required by the policy will be obtained. All letters received, however, must be submitted.

Guidelines for Requests to Provide Evaluations

1. Department chairs/school directors should extend all invitations to review candidates' records of achievement. (Candidates should not be involved in the process.)
2. External letters of evaluation have been declared 'public records' by the State of Ohio Supreme Court (8/31/94) and external evaluators should be so informed. No promise of confidentiality can be made.
3. Promotion and tenure recommendations are due in the college office in early November. Because faculty need access to the comments of the external reviewers before department/school recommendations are formulated, it is recommended that letters soliciting external evaluations be distributed no later than September 1 with a return date of no later than October 1.
4. Written requests for external evaluations should consist of an appropriate cover letter from the chair/director and the following attachments:
   1. copy of college Guidelines (and unit guidelines when they become applicable)
   2. copy of Charter provisions pertaining to promotion and tenure
   3. candidate's vita
   4. representative sample of publications of candidate (3)

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