Promotion & Tenure

Guidelines and instructions for preparing and submitting promotion and tenure applications to the office of the Provost.

UAB’s promotion and tenure processes reside mostly in the separate schools and college, including deadlines for specific steps.

An extension of the tenure earning period may be approved on a discretionary basis for extenuating non-professional circumstances that have had a significant impact on the faculty member’s productivity.

Section 2.10 of the UAB Faculty Handbook and Policies requires that the university’s policies and the departmental, school, and/or library policies will be used in evaluating faculty members for appointment, promotion, and award of tenure.

Document the review and decision procedures for Faculty Promotion and Tenure awards.

A list of promoted and tenured faculty from 2020.

Faculty with tenure-earning appointments eligible during the Spring 2020 semester remain eligible for the one-year extension provided in March 2020. Faculty who became eligible after that date but before March 31, 2021 will also be eligible. Faculty who were eligible in March 2020 do not get a second year of extension. See Section 2.15.2 of the UAB Faculty Handbook.

If eligible faculty do NOT wish to extend their tenure clock by one year, and intend to apply for tenure during the 2021/2202 academic year, they must use this Adobe Sign form to notify their chair and the Office of Faculty Affairs in the Office of the Provost, of their decision to opt-out of the Tenure Clock Extension due to COVID-19. Faculty not opting to select the one-year extension, which is the default status, must notify their chair and Faculty Affairs by September 1 or other agreed upon deadline of the academic year during which a tenure award will be applied for (e.g., September 1, 2021 for the those seeking tenure during the 2021-2022 academic year cycle).

UAB announced in March 2020 that, beginning October 1, 2020, the University was automatically extending by one year the tenure-earning period for faculty on the tenure track at that time. In March 2021, the University also applied the one-year extension to faculty who were not at UAB or otherwise eligible for tenure as of March 2020 but were eligible as of March 2021 (because, for example, they joined the tenure track for the first time as of October 1, 2020). UAB made these decisions in recognition that the coronavirus pandemic has significantly disrupted academic and personal lives These disruptions include, but are not limited to: moving to on-line teaching of graduate and undergraduate courses, restricted access to research laboratories, restricted travel for professional activities, and increased demands at home for the care and education of children and caregiving responsibilities for vulnerable or sick relatives.

Below are answers to questions tenure-earning faculty may have about the one-year extension of the tenure period. Additionally, the FAQ addresses some common questions relevant to non-tenure earning faculty.