Procedures
for Consulting and Removing Material From the Faculty File
A faculty
member wishing to review the whole File (cf. the Faculty Handbook,
II.A.11, for a description of the different sections of the
Faculty File) will first meet with the Dean, who will indicate
what is in the File which the faculty member may not see,
that is, the Dean will indicate what SAC, departmental, and
CTP evaluations and what solicited letters are in the File.
The Dean will then give to the Faculty member the rest of
the File which is to be reviewed in the office of the secretary
of the Dean.
The Faculty
Handbook, Section II.A.11, allows candidates to review the
material in their Faculty Files according to the following
procedures: the first section of the Faculty File may be reviewed
in the Dean's Office; in the second section, the faculty member
may not see signed copies of SAC, departmental, or CTP evaluations;
in the third section, letters not addressed to the faculty
member, if solicited by him or her directly or indirectly,
may not be read, but the faculty member will be given a list
of the authors and dates of such letters. The faculty member
may read all other letters and materials in the file. Any
material that the faculty member has placed in part one of
the file may subsequently be removed, provided the individual
indicates in writing that the material is being withdrawn;
requests for removal of material from parts two and three
of the file must be addressed to the Dean, whose final decision
it is whether to comply with the request.
Faculty
members will have access to their departmental Faculty File
in the presence of the Chair, who must first remove from it
all signed SAC and departmental reports, letters from members
solicited by the Chair in accordance with The Statutes of
the Faculty, and any letters of recommendation solicited by
the faculty member either directly or indirectly. With the
exception of old copies of Faculty File forms, the individual
candidate may remove any material placed in the file, but
must leave a written statement to that effect. Those people
undergoing departmental evaluation shall be offered the opportunity
of examining their files prior to the process.
Whenever
a faculty member places information in his or her Faculty
File in the Dean's Office, a copy should go into his or her
Departmental Faculty File too. Periodic review of the content
of that file should be arranged with the Department Chair,
who will ensure that the faculty member has access to those
parts of the file that are appropriate. Occasionally the two
files are not completely identical to one another. This most
often occurs when
1. A letter
addressed to either the Dean or the Department Chair is placed
into the corresponding file without a copy being sent to the
other file.
2. Correspondence between the faculty member and the Dean
or the Department Chair isplaced in one file and not the other.
The Dean
and the Department Chair should meet at the time of the tenure
or promotion review to ensure that both files contain the
same information, but it is ultimately the faculty member's
responsibility to oversee the contents of both files and to
ensure that they are current and orderly.
