Promotion Time

I’m starting to review promotion files to determine which of the College’s associate professors are deserving of promotion to full professor. We have eight cases up for consideration this year, which is on pace with past years’ candidate pools.

For the unfamiliar, typically a person is an associate professor for at least six years before moving on to full professor, but it can vary by field. The promotion-to-full-professor process starts within individual departments, moves on through a College committee and then works its way to me. It then goes on to UNL’s Interim Senior Vice Chancellor for academic affairs, the Chancellor and finally the Board of Regents

In my review, I’m looking for these people to demonstrate success in all areas of their job description, but first and foremost they must be good teachers. The next consideration is their research and how it has progressed since they became an associate professor. Finally, I look to how they have contributed to the university, including through things like participation on committees and other steps they’ve taken to create an impactful overall presence on campus.

I very much enjoy reading these files, because it’s nice to see faculty members fulfilling the potential that they showed early on, as well as going beyond being associate professors and becoming international scholars. It’s wonderful to read about their achievements and to have this opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge those achievements by promoting them to full professors.