Promotion & Tenure

The NSF-funded ADVANCE Program for Institutional Transformation has offered the opportunity to conduct a critical self-study of issues related to advancement of women in academia. Provost Jean-Lou Chameau (PI on the NSF ADVANCE Program grant, with co-PIs Mary Frank Fox, Sue Rosser and Mary Lynn Realff) seized the opportunity to expand the study to address effectiveness of a wide range of faculty development and evaluation issues campus-wide, across all academic disciplines. The mission for the Promotion and Tenure ADVANCE Committee (PTAC), as a grassroots faculty-driven effort, was conceived to encompass a broad study of potential forms of bias in faculty development and tenure/promotion evaluations, building on ADVANCE program research investigating the foundations of gender bias. In addition, PTAC was charged to look into any conceivable set of issues related to faculty development, mentoring, and evaluation procedures that could serve to improve the overall climate for faculty achievement and satisfaction at Georgia Tech. Finally, PTAC confronted the challenge to develop a methodology to periodically measure faculty perceptions to assess “Institutional Transformation” as an ongoing effort of the ADVANCE Program.

Responding to this broad, ambitious charge, PTAC pursued a series of manageable tasks resulting in documents and tools designed to enhance evaluation processes. The committee met once or twice monthly from October 2002 through July 2003, and in April 2003, PTAC contributed case study sessions on promotion and tenure cases at the annual Georgia Tech ADVANCE Conference. The final report, along with its related survey and web-based tools, is intended to be a living document, providing the basis for ongoing self-study and evaluation to support continuous improvement of the quality and equity of Georgia Tech’s faculty development and evaluation procedures.

Promotion Tenure Advance Committee (PTAC) Report

ADEPT

PTAC Outcomes:

• summary reports on forms of bias from scholarly literature
• overview of procedures and best practices guidelines from colleges and academic units across Georgia Tech
• Recommended Best Practices in RPT Processes document
• survey of academic faculty at Georgia Tech in spring 2003 collecting data on perceptions of resources and success, mentoring, evaluation, interdisciplinary collaborations, entrepreneurship, and Institute culture
• analysis of existing Institute guidelines for evaluation and noted best practices
• web-based Awareness of Decisions in Evaluating Promotion and Tenure (ADEPT) tool for use by both prospective candidates for P&T as well as by unit-level committees. (web site coming soon)

ADVANCE Committee

David McDowell, Chair
Regents’ Professor
Carter N. Paden, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Metals Processing
School of Mechanical Engineering

Douglas Allen
Professor
College of Architecture

Willie Belton
Associate Professor
School of Economics

Paul Benkeser
Associate Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering

Mostafa El-Sayed
Julius Brown Chair and Regents’ Professor
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Dana Randall
Associate Professor
College of Computing

J. Carlos Santamarina
Professor
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ronald Schafer
Regents’ Professor
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Marie Thursby
Hal and John Smith Chair of Entrepreneurship
Director, Technology and Innovation Program
DuPree College of Management

Jeannette Yen
Professor
School of Biology


Liaisons to the Committee

Tabitha Barnette
Administrative Manager
Office of the Provost

Carol Colatrella
Associate Professor
Ivan Allen College

Beth Gourbiere
NSF ADVANCE Project Coordinator
Office of the Provost

Mary Hallisey Hunt
NSF ADVANCE Project Director
Office of the Provost

Robert McMath
Vice-Provost
Office of the President