Best Practices for Effective Dossier Preparation

Approved April 28, 2025

Bowling Green State University encompasses several colleges, schools, and departments. This guidance serves the interest of fairness, consistency, and accuracy across all review types, ranks, disciplines, and programs. It is intended to augment and align with unit reappointment, tenure, and promotion (RTP) policies and Article 14 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).¹

Getting Started

1. Familiarize yourself with Article 14 of the CBA
2. Familiarize yourself with and follow the timeline
   1. The Evergreen Calendar (consistent dates for each type of review, including rebuttal periods)
   2. The years and semesters under review
      1. If you have prior service credit, check with your chair/director to set up your dossier accordingly.
   3. Unit/college policy for solicitation of external reviewers for TTF tenure and promotion.
3. Compile dossier in line with your Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion (RTP) Policy
   1. Consult with chair/director or dean’s office to confirm the applicable policy.
   2. Align narratives and artifacts to the key indicators in your RTP Policy.
   3. Highlight key accomplishments in your CV that align with unit policy standards.
4. Seek mentorship
   1. Your unit/college may have a mentoring policy. If not, have others who have successfully completed this process review narratives and other documents.

The Dossier Itself

1. The candidate is the one responsible for creating a dossier that makes a successful case. With that in mind,
2. Your CV must comply with BGSU format. BGSU CV Format
   1. As you update your CV:
      1. Make it easy for reviewers to understand your record
      2. Focus on work done in the review period (including prior service years)
      3. Proofread carefully
      4. List items only once
      5. Avoid abbreviations. Spell-out position titles, organization names, etc
3. In Faculty 180
   1. Upload your appointment letter under “appointment letter.”
   2. Upload your unit RTP policy under “unit merit and PRT policies.”
   3. Upload prior APR and EPR letters, if required by your college.
   4. Upload peer evaluations/observations.
   5. Follow unit practices for uploading student evaluations.
4. Explain relevance of each artifact as it meets unit’s required criteria and standards. Reviewers must apply unit policy standards and criteria.
5. Upload all text-based documents in PDF.
   1. Label documents to align with dossier requirements thus allowing reviewers easy access.
   2. Use bookmarks for easy navigation if you have a combined PDF.
   3. Consult your Dean’s Office for guidance on uploading multimedia materials.
   4. Several days in advance of deadline, post, regenerate, and preview dossier to ensure documents are captured. This allows time for troubleshooting.

General Tips

1. Work with your mentor and chair/director.
2. Attend workshops conducted by your college.
3. Make a convincing case through your complete and accurate dossier, including
   1. narratives that reference unit policy standards;
   2. carefully selected and assembled signature contributions files that work in concert with the narratives; and
   3. additional materials and information as specified by unit and college policies.
4. In your narrative,
   1. avoid jargon and discipline-related abbreviations since most reviewers will not know your discipline;
   2. tie all artifacts clearly to your unit criteria as you highlight how your accomplishments align with RPT/unit policy; and
   3. highlight, where applicable, any work connected to professional credentials/accreditation.
5. With observations and evaluations,
   1. follow unit expectations and applicable RTP policy for peer evaluations/observations.
   2. student comments are as important as numerical evaluations.
6. Highlight, where applicable, any work connected to professional credentials/accreditation.
7. Review strong portfolios of recently successful candidates and seek guidance from those recently tenured and/or promoted to the rank for which you are a candidate.
8. Delete all extraneous materials from your profile.
9. Preview the dossier before regenerating and submitting through Faculty 180.

¹Adapted from the preamble of Arts & Sciences Policy on Dossier Preparation.