Update on APT reviews

January 14, 2021

Dear colleagues,

As we begin the new term, I write to share first steps in pandemic adjustments related to faculty consequential reviews (i.e., APT reviews). As you know, the Faculty Senate modified the APT in both April and June 2020 to provide opt-in one-year clock delays due to COVID-19 for faculty who were employed at the University of Denver between March 1 and June 15, 2020. The full language of the APT amendment appears at the above link.

The Faculty Senate is now considering further measures related to faculty consequential reviews, about which I have also been in conversation with the deans and vice provosts. Pending the Faculty Senate’s further recommendations, I am writing today to share that faculty at the rank of assistant professor (tenure-line and teaching and professional track faculty) who opt-in to one-year clock delays, and who are ultimately successful in their reviews, will receive their promotion stipend as if they had not opted to delay their review. This is so as to avoid any financial penalty for faculty opting-in to one-year COVID-19 review delays.

More specifically, all faculty at the assistant professor level who select a one-year clock delay due to COVID-19 will receive a one-time payment equal to the salary adjustment received at promotion from assistant to associate, plus an additional amount equivalent to the retirement match of the prior year to reflect the value of the retirement benefits that would have been paid on that promotion salary increase. This lump-sum payment will be paid on September 1 following the faculty member’s successful promotion to associate professor. This decision will apply to all those at the assistant level who followed the Senate procedures and opted-in for an extension by September 2020. If you are due for contract renewal and/or promotion review in AY 21-22 and would like to delay that review until AY 22-23 as a result of COVID-19 impacts on your work, as per the Senate amendment, you should inform your chair (if applicable) and dean by April 1. The dean’s office will then send a list of all faculty opting into the clock delay to the provost’s office immediately thereafter. Further instruction will be sent to Chairs and Directors and deans’ offices as we prepare for this deadline. The same process for making a retroactive payment of your assistant-to-associate promotion stipend and associated retirement benefits will apply.

I hope this retroactive payment will allow faculty to take advantage of the clock delays without concern about negative financial consequences. Supporting faculty at the assistant level to thrive at DU is critically important, and I hope this announcement offers such support.

Moving forward, the Faculty Senate, working together with the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs, has formed a committee to make recommendations about advancement, reappointment, tenure, promotion, and annual evaluations and how these reviews have been affected by COVID-19. Recent research makes abundantly clear the effect the pandemic has had on the research and teaching activities of faculty, particularly BIPOC faculty and women faculty. 

I look forward to working with the Faculty Senate to develop more guidance on these issues to support faculty success and increase equitable practices in pandemic times and beyond.

With very best regards,

Mary

Mary Clark
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor