Reviewing Promotion Dossiers as a Professional Responsibility

Promotion is accompanied by additional responsibility, few more important than serving as a formal external reviewer of promotion dossiers. Promotion and tenure committees rely on external peer review to provide an outside perspective regarding the impact of the candidate's work and how they compare to peers with the same or higher academic rank. What the external reviewer writes and opines impacts the promotion and/or tenure decision. When presented with this opportunity, a faculty member needs to respond to the request, familiarize themselves with the candidate and their promotion and/or tenure criteria, conduct a critical read of the dossier, and write an evaluative letter. This commentary serves as a call for faculty members at the rank of associate and full professor to engage as a reviewer when called upon, provides advice about how to approach an external review and write the letter, and discusses how schools and professional organizations can participate in this process.