• May 1, 2020: For candidates with a review year of 2020-2021 (this year). This is a firm deadline. If candidates do not request a delay, they are reviewed in 2020-2021. If they do request a delay, they cannot change their mind and will be reviewed in 2021-2022.
• October 30, 2020: Dossier due to the campus if you are NOT extending your probationary period. This is the normal campus deadline.
• December 31, 2020: For candidates who may go up for tenure after the 2020-2021 cycle (i.e., 2021 or later). If approval is given for a delay, should you later decide you wish to submit your dossier on your original timeline, you are welcome to do so. Just notify the Office of Academic Affairs of the change.

Department chairs (if appropriate), then dean, then Office of Academic Affairs for final approval. You will receive a response acknowledging the extension and specifying your new review year.

Yes, this special extension does not affect your ability to request a future extension for the usual acceptable reasons (e.g., family formation leave).

We predict that gaining the necessary six external letters might be more challenging than usual. We offer the following guidelines to hopefully ease this burden. The campus still expects six external letters^[1]. All must still be at arm’s length. But:

• Letters need not be on letterhead. They should originate from the same institutional email address that the chair has used to contact the referee.  
• External review forms can be typed but need not be ‘signed’ as long as the referee, using his or her institutional email, verifies their validity.  
• The chair should keep track of who was contacted and their response.  
• If six letters have not been received by September 1, chairs should contact the Office of Academic Affairs for assistance in contacting the same or additional reviewers, providing a list of people contacted, when, and responses.
• Review committees may choose to review a candidate even if not all six letters have yet been received, as long as they revisit their deliberations and votes once the letters are in, and all levels have a chance to incorporate this input before the dossier is due to campus (October 31).  

[1] Except for the already-established exceptions:  may be internal for promotion to senior lecturer; for 2020 cycle promotions to Teaching Professor, at least two must be external

We know it may be difficult or impossible to gather colleagues together physically to discuss these deliberations. Therefore, review committees may use Zoom to deliberate. Please make sure all participants ensure privacy on their ends of the connection. Confidentiality is still essential. No recordings are to be made. Avoid using telephone-only connections: use video to enhance engagement. The review letter must be affirmed by the committee members, but this can be documented via email rather than in person signatures. Finally, as always, committees still need a minimum of four votes. You may need contingency plans for timing of meetings or membership on these committees.