The department letter is where most corrections are required. Please take the time to read and audit your department letter against the contents of the file. By doing this you will have a large reduction in the number of questions and/or corrections requested from the Dean's Office. Some of the department chairs like to prepare the department letter themselves. It is still your responsibility to audit the letter. Some of the items that we audit and look for follow.
Use the department letter form from the Call.
Justify a recommendation for off-scale salaries and include a plan to return to scale. If the candidate is currently off-scale, state so in the letter and on the biography form.
Explain any negative votes.
Extramural referees should not be identified by name. Reference to the stature of letter writers should be made only in very generic terms.
Check all "facts" in the letter. For example, if the letter addresses a specific number of publications, make sure the number is correct. If it includes a description of certain courses, make sure they are on the Teaching Load Data. If service activities are summarized in the department letter, make sure they are included in the service section of the file.
If corrections are made to the department letter, keep the original date and add the "revised" date. Same for the chair's letters if there is one. This applies even to minor corrections which might be requested by the Dean's office.
Be careful of the timing of mailing letters in the 7th-year tenure cases. The Call now specifically addresses the number of quarters as part of the timeline for individuals who have begin dates other than July 1.
Use solicitation letters as they are in the Call. The Chair may add to the wording, but do not delete or revise any of the wording for the specific letters.
Acknowledge unsolicited letters with the Model letter in the Call and provide a copy in the file.
Make sure all letters are signed.
If a Self Statement is sent to the outside reviewers and is different than the one in the file, attach a copy to the solicitation letter.
Try to make sure the chair keeps the list of reviewers evenly balanced with names suggested by the candidate and the department faculty.
When sending forward the extramural letters please be sure that the chair has not highlighted or otherwise noted specific statements.
Make sure that all entries are complete with year, publisher, and page numbers. "In Press" items should have acceptance as well as the number of manuscript or galley pages. "Submitted" items must have the name of the publisher, the number of manuscript pages and the submission date.
List items under the appropriate categories.
List reprinted and translated items with the original publication, just underneath the original, leaving a space between.
Account for every item on the old bibliography. If an item does not appear on the new bibliography, make a notation in the margin explaining what happened to it. Do not put the explanation on the difference list.
Make sure entries (and category headings) are exactly as they appear on the bibliography.
Publications which were inadvertently omitted at the last advance (published before the last advance, but left off the bib) cannot go on the difference list.
If there are multi-authors on a paper the candidate's role should be explained on the difference list, immediately following the bibliographic entry.
Include items from the period under review only. Refer to the Call for an explanation of "period under review."
Grants should be listed on a separate sheet using the format from the Call. (Do not list grants under "Awards, Honors, ....." on the biography form.)
If the candidate wishes to list memberships in professional societies in the professional activity section, do not list them again on the biography form. Note "see professional activity" so that we know there are memberships listed in the file.
Fill out all three years of the TLD for all types of advancements.
On the TLD note if the candidate was on leave in any quarter--do not leave blank. Include the fall quarter assignments. Check the enrollment figures against those on the evaluations. Explain any large discrepancies.
On the TLD form, include only the graduate students for the period under review.
For cross-listed courses include the department summary from the candidate's home department only.
Do not include department summaries for courses that have only comments. Do not include campuswide summaries. One summary for each quarter is sufficient; no need to submit one for every class in the quarter.
Include teaching evals only for the period under review or last three years, whichever is shorter. If the candidate insists on including evals that go back further than the period under review, note on the evaluation that it is included at the candidate's request and has been previously considered.
The first time the candidate signs the form, have him/her sign on the first page. If changes are made to the file he/she should sign on the back of the form and the changes should be explained on the lines provided. This will be true for every change made after the file comes forward.
Use the new Checklists from the Call. On the checklist please put in the number of letters received including those that are declining. Do not include phone calls in that total.