II-1.00(C)

UMB Policy on Extending the Deadline for Tenure Review for Parenthood or Extraordinary Circumstances

Faculty   |   Approved November 1, 2008

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Responsible VP/AVP

Roger Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA

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Applies to Faculty

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Revision History

Approved by the President, January 1992; revised November, 2008

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Policy Statement

I. A tenure track faculty member who becomes a new parent of one or more children through childbirth or through adoption will be granted, upon proper written request, a one-year extension of the deadline for tenure review. A request must be filed not more than 90 days after the date of childbirth or adoption. A request for extension must include evidence of childbirth or adoption, and the documentation submitted must include the date of the event and clearly identify the tenure track faculty member as a parent of the child or children and as the primary or coequal caregiver. Two faculty who are parents of the same child or children may request an extension in connection with the same childbirth or adoption event if they file separate requests and each asserts a coequal role in caregiving. 

Written requests for an extension under this Policy should be filed with a faculty member's Chair and forwarded by the Chair to the Dean's Office (or filed with the Dean's Office, if the school does not have Chairs) in accordance with the procedure set by the school's Dean's Office. Evidence of childbirth or adoption, and the relationship between the child and the faculty member seeking an extension, should be provided in support of the request. Normally this evidence will be a birth certificate or an adoption order. 

The Dean's Office will make a formal notation of the request and the extension in the tenure-track faculty member's file and send a confirmation of the extension to the faculty member with copies to the faculty member's Chair (if applicable) and the Provost. The confirmation will set out the new deadline for tenure review. 

Subject to the effect of Part III of this Policy, a maximum of two one-year extensions, related to two separate events of childbirth or adoption, will be granted under this Part 1.

Part I of this Policy is effective with respect to childbirth or adoption July 1, 2008, or later. 

II. A tenure track faculty member may request in writing a one-year extension of the deadline for tenure review for extraordinary personal or professional circumstances (other than parenthood as described in Part I) that substantially impede the tenure track faculty member's progress towards tenure. A written request for consideration for a one-year extension of the deadline for tenure review that describes in detail the extraordinary circumstances warranting the extension must be provided to the Chair (or to the Dean, if a School does not have academic departments) with appropriate supporting materials. 

The Chair will forward the request and the Chair's recommendation to the Dean of the School. The Dean must submit the request, with the Dean's recommendation, to the Provost, who will make the final decision for the campus. An extension will be granted only for candidates whose record of scholarship, service and teaching indicates strong potential to meet requirements for tenure within the granted period of extension. Each decision concerning an extension will be made on a case-by-case basis. The Provost's decision is non-reviewable. 

III. Extensions of the deadline for tenure review under Part I and Part II may not exceed, in aggregate, three years. 

IV. A faculty member who has received one or more extensions under this Policy may elect to be reviewed sooner than the last year allowed for the review. A faculty member whose review for tenure is underway may not seek an extension under this Policy. 

V. Requests for extensions and the reasons for the requests are confidential personnel information. Appropriate persons will be informed of extensions as they are granted. 

VI. A faculty member will not be discriminated against in promotion and tenure actions as a result of seeking, or obtaining, one or more extensions under this Policy. 

VII. A faculty member who receives an extension under this Policy is not required to take leave, or be in a part-time status, as a result of using the extension. Faculty members who do not take leave, or work part-time, due to parenthood or other extraordinary circumstances, must meet all full-time professional obligations even though an extension has been granted. 

VIII. Extension of the tenure track period pursuant to this Policy does not affect the opportunity of a faculty member to request a delay in mandatory review for tenure, as provided by the USM Policy on Family and Medical Leave for Faculty, USM Policy II-2.31, paragraph IX.A, if that policy is applicable.