Tenure Standards

Tenure Standards
Economics Department
Swarthmore College

Promotion to associate professor with tenure

Excellence in teaching and scholarship is required for tenure in the Economics Department.

The candidate will have taught classes at all levels of the curriculum. This includes both classroom settings and seminars. The Department will assess the quality of teaching based on letters from students and course/seminar materials such as syllabi or reading lists. Evidence of curricular and/or pedagogical innovation, intellectual depth, analytical rigor, and accessibility of subject matter will be highly valued.

Peer-reviewed publications are a necessary component of the candidate’s research portfolio. The Department expects dissertation-related publications by the conclusion of the first leave, if not sooner.

The Department values participation in professional conferences as speaker, discussant, or attendee. It values discipline-related advisory and consultancy work. It values contributions to public discourse such as op-eds, blog posts, and interviews.

The Chair will meet with junior faculty members at the end of each academic year (in June, typically) and before the Chair’s annual meeting (in December, typically) with the President of the College and the Provost. In each meeting, the Chair will hear from and provide feedback to junior faculty members on their professional development. At the end of the faculty member’s first year and at the beginning of the third year review, the Chair will inform the faculty member of the structure of the review process. At the conclusion of the third year process, the Chair will meet with each junior faculty member to assess the findings of the review and to consider strategies for further professional development.

The Department expects that the faculty member will have established an active research program that extends beyond the candidate’s dissertation before the tenure review in the sixth year at the College. The Department will assess progress by examining research output and work in the research pipeline. Research output may appear in various forms but it should include peer-reviewed publications.

The Department values collaborative research and co-authored publications. The Department values single-authored publications.

The Department values collaborative research and co-authorship with students. This kind of collaboration is not required of all faculty members for tenure, however.

The Department recognizes that scholarly discourse can occur across multiple mediums or platforms. Thus, it values publication in traditional formats and new or alternative media if the latter are peer-reviewed or subject to published critical review by authoritative analysts.

Service to the Department and the College is expected. The Department will assess the candidate’s service based on letters from members of the College community within and outside the Department. The Department will consider evidence of engagement with and contribution to the College community.