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WHY IT MATTERS
Teaching-track faculty make up a growing and essential segment of UW’s academic workforce across all three campuses. Promotion pathways and sabbatical opportunities are central to recognizing instructional excellence, supporting career advancement, and ensuring equitable access to professional growth. Clear understanding of processes empowers faculty to plan ahead and build strong cases for advancement.
THE CHARGE
Goal: Provide clarity, transparency, and consistency for teaching-track faculty as they navigate promotion and sabbatical processes.
Key issues addressed in the workshop:
- Growth of the teaching professor track across campuses.
- Expectations for promotion, including teaching excellence, scholarship, service, and leadership.
- High-level milestones and timeline for promotion (≈1.5 years from start to decision).
- How to prepare a strong, complete portfolio.
- Sabbatical eligibility and prioritization processes across tracks.
WHAT SUCCESSFUL ADVANCEMENT LOOKS LIKE
Promotion
Strong promotion cases demonstrate:
- Teaching Excellence: Evidence from peer evaluations (within the past year), student evaluations, teaching innovations, curriculum design, and reflective improvement.
- Scholarship: Teaching and learning scholarship, disciplinary contributions, or field‑specific outputs (practice-based, community-engaged, or traditional). Not required for research-track faculty.
- Service and Leadership: Contributions at local, school, university, national, or international levels. Professional service helping establish reputation.
- Reputation: Evidence of growing recognition—local to national/international depending on rank.
Tip: Faculty who consistently track accomplishments and meet regularly with mentors and chairs are best positioned for success.
Sabbaticals
Teaching faculty are increasingly utilizing sabbaticals, with strong participation across AY20–AY26. Sabbaticals support pedagogical renewal, scholarship, and professional development.
PROCESS ESSENTIALS
Promotion Timeline (≈1.5 Years)
A typical cycle includes:
- Winter (Year 1): Decision to pursue promotion
- Spring: Assemble portfolio
- Summer: External letters solicited
- Autumn: Department review and vote
- Winter (Year 2): Elected Faculty Council / Dean review
- Spring: APF and Provost decision
- Negative decisions at any stage may still move forward at the candidate’s request.
What Goes in the Portfolio
- Peer evaluation (from the past year)
- Student evaluations of teaching
- Mentoring of research or clinical trainees
- Evidence of teaching and learning improvement
- Teaching, scholarship, and service contributions
- Documentation of leadership roles
- Updated CV and annual activity report (kept current monthly)
Unit Criteria
Promotion criteria vary by unit; every department must make criteria accessible to faculty. UW maintains a central reference for unit-level expectations.
SABBATICAL POLICY SNAPSHOT
- Eligibility: Sabbaticals are independent of track; teaching faculty qualify similarly to tenured faculty.
- Funding: Comes from regular salary sources.
- Decision Process:
- Chairs rate requests (high/medium/low priority).
- Chairs must outline how teaching needs will be covered.
- Deans make final decisions within allocated sabbatical slots.
- APF reviews for policy compliance, not content.
- Patterns of Use (AY20–AY26):
- Teaching faculty show steadily increasing sabbatical use (126 taken across AY20–AY26*).
WHAT TO AVOID
- Waiting until the promotion year to begin assembling materials.
- Losing track of scholarly, teaching, and service activities—delayed reconstruction is difficult and incomplete.
- Assuming expectations are identical across units—criteria differ significantly by field, discipline, and track.
- Overlooking mentorship; regular check‑ins with chairs and senior colleagues are crucial.
- Treating the sabbatical process as automatic—chairs and deans weigh departmental need and capacity.
IN SUMMARY
Promotion and sabbatical processes for teaching-track faculty are robust, structured, and designed to recognize instructional excellence and scholarly growth. Teaching faculty should:
- Plan early and assemble materials continuously.
- Document teaching impact, scholarship, and service.
- Engage in reflective practice supported by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
- Lean on mentors and chairs as partners in preparing a compelling case.
- Pursue sabbaticals as opportunities for renewal and advancement.
Clear processes—and proactive preparation—enable teaching faculty to progress with confidence.