For those of you that address me by my formal academic title, mine will be changing effective Fall 2009 - I've been promoted to full Professor. :)
This whole process started back in September when I asked to be considered. Then I had to put together a **bunch** of material documenting my record, and then all that goes through various levels of evaluation - first the department makes a recommendation, then the Dean makes a recommendation, then the Vice-Chancellor makes a recommendation, then the Chancellor makes a recommendation, and then the Board of Regents finalizes things....if you allow about a month for each step (which is about what it takes) then you see why this has to start back in September to get a decision by April... In my case and I think in most other cases, the single most important factor in arriving at a promotion decision is what your external letters of recommendation say - as a part this process your department will ask leading people in your field to comment on your work, and if they say good things then you usually get promoted, and if they don't or worse yet they say "Who???" ... well .... then it gets problematic. :) So in addition to the department, Dean, Vice-Chancellor, Chancellor and Board of Regents, you also need the support of the external reviewers. When you manage all that, it's a nice feeling. :) Ted -- Ted Pedersen http://www.d.umn.edu/~tpederse
