Rank, Tenure & Promotion

Special Considerations

Merit Acceleration

In order to recognize excellence in the academic community, the RTP Committee follows a procedure whereby faculty may progress through the academic ranks more rapidly than normal progression as shown on the Eligibility for Advancement and Promotion Table (see Appendix B, page 54). This procedure, called a "merit acceleration," involves a reduction of one year from the length of time normally spent at a particular step as stipulated by the Eligibility for Advancement and Promotion Table. To receive a merit acceleration, a faculty member must be judged by the RTP Committee to have achieved an exceptionally high ranking in the four areas of evaluation: teaching effectiveness, scholarly activity, service, and support for generally accepted Christian values and the mission of Pepperdine University. A faculty member may be nominated for this high honor in any one of the following ways:

• By the faculty member's Associate Dean or the Dean
• By a colleague in GSEP
• By the faculty member himself or herself

Using the established procedure for tenure and rank increases, the RTP Committee then makes a thorough evaluation of each candidate before a final decision is reached. Faculty members may be accelerated through the Eligibility for Advancement and Promotion Table no faster than a one-year reduction at each step position with approval of the Provost.

Support of Tenure-track Faculty

1. Annual reviews of tenure-track faculty members should be conducted by the Associate Dean. The faculty member should be given feedback using guidelines from the RTP Manual to prepare him or her for future promotion and tenure evaluation. The Committee recommends that a form similar to the Supervisor's Evaluation Form be used for this purpose.
2. An annual informational meeting held early in the Spring semester will be conducted for tenure-track faculty by the Dean, Associate Deans, Provost, members of the RTP Committee, and when possible, recent successful candidates for tenure.

Pre-tenure-track Faculty Appointments

In the event there is interest in hiring someone who has not yet completed his or her doctorate degree, the faculty and Associate Dean of the division in collaboration with the Dean may make an administrative decision to hire the individual into a pre-tenure-track position with the condition that the position will change over to one that is tenure-track with the completion of the doctorate within a predetermined period of time. The starting rank will be Assistant I: Section III.B.3 states that no experience prior to the receipt of the doctoral degree may be counted.