Scope

In IU Indianapolis Faculty Council policy, the phrase “early promotion and tenure” shall refer to a request for promotion and tenure based on a probationary period of fewer than seven years, with a tenure review occurring earlier than the sixth year of probationary service.

This policy applies to all tenure-track faculty, including those who have received one or more years of credit toward tenure based on countable service prior to their tenure-track appointment, as long as the number of years of their probationary period added to that of their prior countable service is less than seven. This definition applies equally to tenure-track faculty who serve in schools that have extended the probationary period beyond seven years. In such schools, the seven-year probationary period remains standard ("School Tenure Probationary Period Extension Policy" approved March 2, 2010).

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Policy Statement

No promise, either expressed or implied, regarding early promotion and tenure shall be made to candidates, including promises at the time of initial appointment.

Faculty members who determine they have met or exceeded all applicable promotion and tenure requirements at all levels of review fully one or two years before the start of the customary sixth year of probationary service may request early promotion and tenure.

Candidates for early tenure must discuss the request for early review with their mentors, the department chair, or the appropriate dean to ensure that they understand the process and realize that the review may result in a notice of non-reappointment.

All tenure-probationary faculty members must undergo a three-year formative review in their third full year of academic service, except those who enter that service with more than two years of credit toward tenure. For that reason, no candidate can make a request for early tenure before the fourth year of their probationary period, or the second year of their service at IU Indianapolis if they entered with more than two years of credit toward tenure.

Requirements, procedures, and standards for reviewing early promotion and tenure cases shall be identical to those for reviewing ordinary cases and shall occur at the same time. The case must be made on the merits of the candidate’s accomplishments, which must be comparable to the merits of candidates who have served the full probationary.

Rules regarding dossier reconsideration and negative tenure decision apply equally to all candidates for tenure, irrespective of the length of their probationary period. (University Policy BOT-11 (formerly ACA-37) "Faculty and Librarian Tenure," and the IU Indianapolis Guidelines for Preparing and Reviewing Promotion and Tenure Dossiers.")

No candidate may apply for early tenure more than once.

If a candidate is reapplying for promotion and tenure as a result of withdrawal of the case prior to final decision, all original external letter writers must be contacted with a request to update their letter with the new dossier If provided, the new letter is substituted in the dossier. If not, the original letter must be retained in the dossier. Three additional new letters should be sought at the time of resubmission. In addition, each level of review may request access to the initial dossier’s reviews or reports that were made at an equal or lower level.

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Procedures

Recommendation: Candidates for early tenure should be forewarned that they may only expect one “full” review. In accord with University Policy BOT-11, this implies that candidates for early tenure may withdraw their request for early tenure at any time prior to a final decision by the president of Indiana University. This right does not preclude the risk of a notice of non-reappointment.

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Definitions

Applying’ for early tenure is defined as the submission of materials by the candidate and the sending of materials to external reviewers. From that point, all reviews received must be ‘Full review’ means a review that proceeds through all campus levels up to the decision by the president. A candidate may withdraw an early application prior to the final presidential review. If the application is not withdrawn, then the full review has occurred and the candidate is either tenured or on a one-year terminal appointment. If the candidate does withdraw, then they may have only one more application for tenure, and all letters received must be retained as described above (in reapplying for promotion and tenure).

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Additional Contacts

IU Indianapolis Faculty Council, ude[dot]ui[at]licnuocf

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History

IUPUI was changed to IU Indianapolis.

Under "Rules regarding dossier reconsideration" item under Policy Statement, the footnote in parenthesis was updated to reflect new university policy taking out reference to the IU Academic Handbook and removing page numbers from the Promotion and Tenure Guidelines as those guidelines change yearly. – July 6, 2016

Under Procedures, the reference to the Academic Handbook (August 2008, p. 72) was changed to reflect University Policy ACA-37. – July 6, 2016 (ACA-37 is now BOT-11.) 

Definition of "Applying" was added for clarification. Approved by the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council Executive Committee, August 12, 2021.

Removed section on Purdue, August 4, 2026.

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