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Team # 867 -- Promotion and Tenure Automation Process Team
Finance and Business / Information Technology Services (ITS) / Office of the President

January 2006

Objective

To explore and examine opportunities for efficiencies in the promotion and tenure process while maintaining the spirit and integrity of this critical University function. The promotion and tenure process consists of various review levels and has historically been a very paper-intensive process. Several years ago, a cross-unit collaborative effort began with the Office of Human Resources, the Provost's Office, and ITS. We have reached some measurable objectives, and still have an end goal in sight. We have streamlined the review process at the University Committee level by having an automated viewing platform for the eleven-person Committee. This, coupled with a document imagine download to OHR personnel files, has significantly streamlined the process. As a segue and natural progression to that effort, we are now working with Digital Measures for an automated faculty activity database and eventual fully-automated work flow vehicle for the entire P&T process.

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Team Membership

• Blannie Bowen, Sponsor
• Jeanie Andrews, Member
• Peter Devries, Member
• Shawnee Emeigh, Member
• Mike Hartman, Member
• Cathy Kanour, Member
• Steve Selfe, Member
• Clark Wagner, Member
• Hazel Weaver, Member

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Results Achieved to Date

• ExpectedResults: At the University Committee level, we have achieved significant results and those results span to savings across all colleges and campuses at the University. Prior to the automated viewing platform, colleges were required to submit 11 copies of candidates' dossiers; and, with a volume of almost 200 submissions in some years, multiplying that out quickly reveals the amount of paper, human resource and logistical challenges involved. In polling the University Committee at the conclusion of the first year's trial, it became clear that we would never go back to the "old" way of doing things. The measures of performance included the time savings involved in the administration of the process, the flexibility by which the Committee members could view the dossiers, and the time savings involved in supporting such a critical process. The ongoing measures we will be looking at include the rate and acceptance of the next phase of the automation process using the Digital Measures tool and the eventual full work flow automation of the process, from the first levels at the department reviews through to the Presidential review.

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