Academic promotion mishandled; how do I respond

Post date: 2018-04-26 16:09:06

I'm an engineering professor at a large R1 university. Last spring, I submitted my package for promotion to full to my chair. This week, I found out that requests for letters have yet to be sent out. What should I do?

It's a private school, and the promotion process is incredibly opaque. I'm unambiguously qualified for promotion based on my publication and funding record in comparison to recently promoted full professors.

My chair probably dropped the ball big time, but promotion is ultimately the dean's responsibility. Also, my chair has no power to make things happen; everything here is from the top down and the dean has total control over faculty affairs. All I know about what happened is that the people in charge of the process did not execute at all.

Right now, this is the path of action I'm considering: I will ask my Dean for a raise slightly greater than that typically granted upon promotion to full as well as a named chair (the typical means of awarding unrestricted funds at my university). I will also ask that a cover letter be included with my promotion package next year explaining how the school fucked me. I will also retain a lawyer.

Anything else I should do or that I should do differently?

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