Dear Colleagues,
During the University Promotion & Tenure Committee deliberations, the committee discussed the impact of the recent disruptions to federal agencies. This included disruptions across the grant review and funding process, revocation of funding, and executive orders limiting specific types of research or scholarly inquiry on a candidate’s opportunity to meet unit and college norms and criteria for promotion and/or tenure. Committee members concurred that these political events hold significant potential to disrupt the productivity of UIC faculty and to deny them the opportunity to satisfy norms and criteria developed under historical assumptions.
Therefore, during the 2025-26 review cycle, all faculty committees and designated administrators are to consider what, if any, impact the evolving federal landscape has had on a candidate’s research funding and/or scholarly activity when conducting their reviews. Candidates should not be penalized for failing to meet any norms and criteria that are no longer possible to achieve as a result of administrative actions at the local, state, or federal level that occurred during calendar year 2025. Administrative actions prior to 2025 should not be considered. As appropriate, candidates may discuss the impact of administrative actions in their Statement of Current and Planned Research, Creative, or Scholarly Work. Unit executive officers and deans should similarly discuss the impact of administrative actions on the ability of the candidate to fulfill requirements for promotion and/or tenure in their respective evaluations.
Please share this information with all relevant promotion and tenure committee members and remind members at the start of the committee meetings in the next academic year.
Regards,
Karen J. Colley
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Mike Stieff
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
