The Triennial Review

Overview

Tenured Associate Professors undergo a triennial review, generally every three years. The triennial review process is an opportunity for Associate Professors to assess their own progress toward promotion to Full Professor, to create a promotion plan that will guide their next few years at Lehigh, and to receive constructive feedback from their Department Chair and Full Professors in the department. 

For Department Chairs and other colleagues, the focus should be on providing constructive feedback toward the goal of promotion, rather than on criticizing faculty for gaps in their career accomplishments to date. (See Guidance for Department Chairs and Guidance for Internal Faculty Evaluators.) 

The Promotion Plan

A key document in the triennial review is the promotion plan. A promotion plan helps an Associate Professor map out key features along their post-tenure career path, with an eye toward promotion criteria. The plan helps faculty have more choices and opportunities to grow, pivot, innovate, lead, take risks, and make an impact throughout their post-tenure career. 

A promotion plan is dynamic and should be consulted, examined, and updated on a regular basis, with support and mentorship from senior faculty internal and external to Lehigh. It aligns skills, strengths, and expectations with career choices and work activities. It helps keep faculty members accountable to what matters to their goals for success. It can help them prioritize and see tradeoffs when new opportunities or roadblocks arise.

Promotion is the goal, but don’t forget to celebrate successes along the way!

For more information about the promotion plan, see the ADVANCE website. 

The Process

Who Undergoes a Triennial Review, and When?

Per R&P §2.2.4.2, all tenured Associate Professors are reviewed every three years, but Associate Professors may request to be reviewed sooner, or may request to postpone a scheduled triennial review. 

How Does the Triennial Review Process Work?

The triennial review process formally kicks off in the Fall of the year in which the review is to take place. However, a faculty member should feel free to work on their promotion plan even before the Fall, with guidance from their Department Chair or other colleagues as the faculty member wishes. 

The Department Chair meets with the Associate Professor in the Fall to discuss the triennial review and the materials to be included as part of the triennial review file. A triennial review dossier looks much like a tenure or promotion dossier, plus the promotion plan. (See Faculty Candidate List of Materials, below.) The Associate Professor supplies most of these materials, but the Chair may also supply materials to be included. If they do, those materials are shared with the Associate Professor, who has a right to include written comments regarding those materials in the review file.

The Associate Professor uploads their triennial review materials to Interfolio. The deadline for doing so is typically around October 15. (See Triennial Review Schedule below for the schedule for the current academic year.)

Next, the Department Chair shares (via Interfolio) the triennial review file with the faculty involved in the review process. This is typically the tenured Full Professors in the department, but may differ, e.g., for small departments or for faculty with joint appointments. The Department Chair meets with the faculty involved in the review to discuss the Associate Professor’s dossier, promotion plan, and progress toward promotion.

The Chair then summarizes the faculty’s evaluation in a letter addressed to the Associate Professor, sending a copy to the faculty members involved in the review. The Chair’s deadline for doing so is typically around December 15.  The Chair meets with the Associate Professor, discusses the faculty’s review of their dossier, and gives them the written summary evaluation letter. The Associate Professor either responds in writing to this letter or submits a declination to respond. Copies of both the departmental evaluation and the written response become part of the triennial review file. 

The file is then forwarded to the Dean. The Dean reviews the substance and process of the evaluation for consistency with the criteria of excellence in teaching, research and scholarship, and service, and forwards the dossier, the departmental evaluation, and the Associate Professor’s written response to the Provost for review and inclusion in the Associate Professor’s triennial review file.

For more details about the triennial review process, see R&P §2.2.4.2.

How Do I Request an Earlier or Later Triennial Review?

To request a review earlier than the normally scheduled triennial review, an Associate Professor notifies their Dean via their Department Chair.

An Associate Professor may ask that a scheduled triennial review be postponed for one year by submitting a written request to the Dean through the Department Chair, with notification to the Provost. 

Is There a Deadline for Coming Up for Full?

There is no deadline for an Associate Professor to be considered for promotion to Full Professor. There is no limit to the number of triennial reviews that an Associate Professor may undergo. 

Note: R&P is somewhat vague on this question. Discussions are currently underway to clarify this issue in R&P.

Faculty with Joint Appointments

For faculty members with joint appointments whose MOU specifies a special committee, the special committee meets with the faculty of the home department who are participating in the review to discuss the candidate’s portfolio. The Chair of the home department writes a single letter summarizing the collective views of both the department and the special committee, with feedback from both groups. If the department and special committee disagree significantly, the summary letter should reflect this. The Chair of the home department and the chair of the special committee meet with the faculty member to discuss the summary letter. The candidate may submit a written response to the summary letter.

For faculty members with joint appointments but no special committee, the Chair/Director of the secondary unit provides feedback, which is reflected in the summary letter by the Chair of the home department.

Materials to Be Submitted

The Office of the Provost requires certain elements to be included in the faculty dossier for triennial review. Individual colleges may require additional materials; candidates and Department Chairs should consult with their Dean’s office regarding any additional requirements.

Faculty Candidate Materials

CV and Statements

• Curriculum vitae (CV), using the Lehigh CV template.
• Promotion plan. Maximum 2 pages.
• Statements on teaching, research, and service, including the significance and impact of the candidate’s own contributions in each of these areas. See the Dossier Materials for further guidance. Statements may be uploaded as one document or three. Maximum 10 pages for the three statements combined.

Teaching

• Student course evaluation tabular listing. This is provided upon request by the Office of Institutional Data. The listing should include summary reports for all courses the candidate has taught at Lehigh. Optional.
• Student course evaluations. These are available for download at https://go.lehigh.edu/evalkit. Include evaluations from all courses taught at Lehigh. Optional.
• Sample course materials (syllabi, tests, assignments, etc.) and any other supporting materials (commendations, student letters, etc.). Maximum 30 pages.

Joint Appointment Information

(Only for faculty with joint appointments.)

• Memorandum of understanding (MOU). 

COVID Impact Statement

• COVID impact statement. Optional. Maximum 2 pages.

Department Chair Materials

Department Summary

• Department summary letter. Department Chair’s summary of department review, addressed to candidate.
• Candidate’s response to department summary letter, or declination to respond.

Joint Appointment Information

(Only for faculty with joint appointments.)

• Program director letter or special committee summary letter.
• Candidate’s response to program or special committee summary letter, or declination to respond.

Triennial Review Schedule

The Provost’s office publishes a schedule each year for each step in the triennial review process, in order to accommodate a December 31 deadline to submit the dossier to the Provost’s Office. The Department Chair and/or Dean’s office should inform the candidate and the Provost’s Office about any concerns in meeting the deadline.

Confirming Candidates for Review

 

The Review Process

The Provost expects quality checks at each level to ensure that all documents are included in Interfolio to avoid having to send the dossier back for corrections. College-Level Administrators (CLADs) are responsible for completing a full review of the online dossier to ensure that all letters and other materials are uploaded to Interfolio before submitting the dossier to the Dean.

Relevant Sections of R&P

• 2.2.4.2 Triennial Review of Tenured Associate Professors
• 2.2.8.2 Ninth-Year Promotion Review for Tenured Associate Professors
• 2.2.3.1.8 Triennial Review of Associate Professors [for faculty with joint appointments]

Additional Documents

• Interfolio login page
• Interfolio at Lehigh
• ADVANCE guidance on Faculty Promotion Plan

Notes

• This overview is intended to supplement the information contained in Lehigh’s Rules and Procedures of the Faculty (R&P). If there is a discrepancy between the guidance on this page and R&P, the provisions of R&P govern.
• Feel free to contact your Department Chair, Associate Dean for Faculty, the Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs, or the Director of Faculty Affairs with any questions or concerns.