Timelines for Renewal and Tenure Cases

Assistant professors in the college serve on a seven-year tenure “clock.” An assistant professor is normally hired on a first contract for three years. He or she will apply for renewal at the end of the second year or start of the third year (departmental CRPT documents and the department chair will advise of precise deadlines for submitting materials). Following a successful renewal, the assistant professor will receive a second contract for four years, and will normally apply for tenure at the end of the sixth or start of the seventh year (again, departmental CRPT documents and the department chair will advise of the precise deadline for submitting materials). Notifications of tenure decisions are normally delivered at the end of the spring semester of the seventh year. Associate professors without tenure will be retained in a probationary status following the schedule of assistant professors, i.e. they will apply for renewal in their third year and will normally apply for tenure in their seventh year.

Faculty may choose to be considered for tenure and promotion earlier than the regular schedule; if they do so, the case will be treated as a non-obligatory promotion case.

Faculty members may not “stop the clock” during or in connection with research leaves. Faculty may, however, “stop the clock” in connection with family and medical leaves or primary caregiver status, as dictated by the Academic Articles. Each clock extension adds a full year to the probationary period. Faculty may receive one extension per FMLA leave, up to a maximum of two extensions before they must apply for tenure.

The University of Notre Dame responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing disruption by extending the tenure clock by one year for all faculty who were assistant professors during the 2019-2020 academic year or who joined the university as assistant professors during the 2020-2021 academic year. We explicitly have not reduced tenure standards, and we are asking all evaluators not to use any additional time on the tenure clock as a reason to elevate expectations in their review of candidates.