Tenure Review Guidelines

Columbia employs a standing committee system to conduct a final University-wide evaluation whenever a school or department, including Barnard College but excepting the Faculty of Law and Teachers College, recommends a candidate for tenure. This evaluation is the culmination of a process of review involving multiple considerations of the nomination within the department and school. The purpose of the final review is to confirm that the earlier reviews were rigorous and substantive and that all candidates meet the same high standards, regardless of the school or department originating the nomination. By examining both the process by which candidates are nominated and their qualifications, the standing committee seeks to ensure a University-wide consistency in the evaluation of nominations to tenure and thereby to promote the appointment of faculty of exceptional quality and distinction throughout the institution.

The standing committee–the Tenure Review Advisory Committee (TRAC)–serves in an advisory capacity to the provost who determines whether the candidate should be recommended to the president and trustees for tenure. The University’s standing committee system of tenure review is administered on behalf of the provost by the vice provost for faculty affairs.

: April 1, 2020; List of faculty from each School who will be reviewed for tenure in 2020-21 along with the candidate’s CVs and field descriptions are due in the OVPFA.

: May 15, 2020; Confirmations that referees were solicited for each candidate to be reviewed in 2020-21 by the Schools, along with the list of top institutions, list of referees and list of comparable scholars are due in the OVPFA.

: December 15, 2020; All internal candidate nominations are due in the OVPFA.

: February 1, 2021; All external candidate nominations are due in the OVPFA.

: April 1, 2021; List of faculty from each School who will be reviewed for tenure in 2021-22 along with the candidate’s CVs and field descriptions are due in the OVPFA.

: May 15, 2021; If a review of an external 2020-21 candidate cannot be held by May 15th the nominating Dean or Executive Vice President will have to obtain a waiver of the AAUP’s deadline from candidate’s institution before the review can occur.

: May 15, 2021; Confirmations that referees were solicited for each candidate to be reviewed in 2021-22 by the Schools, along with the list of top institutions, list of referees and list of comparable scholars are due in the OVPFA.

: May 31, 2021; Notices of nonrenewal for nontenured officers of instruction in their seventh or tenth counted year of service are due.

TRAC members

Michael Ting (Chair)
Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science

Suzanne Bakken
Alumni Professor of the School of Nursing and Professor of Biomedical Informatics

Keren Bergman
Charles Batchelor Professor of Electrical Engineering; Scientific Director, Center for Integrated Science and Engineering

Gil Eyal
Professor of Sociology

Pierre Force
Professor of French and of History

Ali Gharavi
Jay Meltzer, M.D. Professor of Nephrology and Hypertension (in Medicine)

Ann McDermott
Esther Breslow Professor of Biological Chemistry and Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemical Engineering

Cathy Lee Mendelsohn
Michael and Stella Chernow Professor of Urological Sciences (in Urology) and Pathology and Cell Biology and Genetics and Development (in the Institute of Human Nutrition)

Molly Przeworski
Professor of Biological Sciences and Systems Biology

John Santelli
Professor of Population and Family Health and Pediatrics

Joanna Stalnaker
Professor of French and Romance Philology; Paul Brooke Chair for Literature and Humanities

Olivier Toubia
Glaubinger Professor of Business

David Weiman
Professor of Economics, Barnard College

The Principles and Customs Governing University-wide Tenure Reviews policy governs TRAC’s review of all tenure nominations with the exception of those originating in Barnard College (read the Barnard College Tenure Guidelines). The procedures followed in evaluating candidates from Barnard College differ in some respects, as provided for in the inter-institutional agreement between the College and the University. Therefore, the process by which Barnard nominations are reviewed is described in a separate document

Tenure Nominations Timeline 2020-21

Tenure Review Advisory Committee 2020-21

TRAC members

Tenure Review Advisory Committee Statistics

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