The Provost’s Advisory Council on Tenure and Promotion (PACTP) advises the provost on whether recommendations for tenure and promotion at the academic unit level are consistent with the criteria and standards of the University of Pittsburgh.
Implementation of PACTP was endorsed by the Council of Deans (on January 10, 2020) and approved by the Faculty Assembly (on March 4, 2020) based on the Promotion & Tenure Ad Hoc Committee Final Report and Recommendations, dated December 29, 2019.
The ad hoc committee recommended institution of a University-wide tenure and promotion committee based on its beliefs that “a University-level committee would ensure consistency in — as well as strengthen and elevate — the standards for tenure and promotion across the University” and would serve to “make the promotion and tenure process more transparent to the faculty, and be helpful in calibrating standards within the schools and campuses.”
- Membership
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View the current roster of PACTP members. Lu-in Wang, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, oversees and facilitates the work of PATCP as its non-voting chair.
2024-2025 Roster
Pittsburgh Campus Subcommittee Name School/Campus Heather Bachman School of Education Aaron Barchowsky School of Public Health Jerome Branche Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Kim Coley School of Pharmacy Catherine Cox University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Jeffrey Johnson University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Fengyan Tang School of Social Work David Vorp Swanson School of Engineering Jeremy Weber School of Public and International Affairs Regional Campus Subcommittee Name School/Campus Jill Henning University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Martha Koehler University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg Alexandros Labrinidis School of Computing and Information Susan Sesack Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Seth Weinberg School of Dental Medicine Read the Conflict of Interest and Recusal Rules that apply to PACTP.
- Phased Implementation of PACTP
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The ad hoc committee recommended that PACTP comprise four subcommittees, with one subcommittee handling each of the following types of cases:
- tenure/tenure stream (T/TS) cases for the Pittsburgh campus (excluding School of Medicine (SOM) cases);
- appointment stream (AS) cases for the Pittsburgh campus (excluding SOM cases);
- T/TS/AS cases from the regional campuses; and
- T/TS/AS cases from the SOM.
The ad hoc committee addressed the timing of implementation on page 9 of its report. First, the committee recommended that the process of transition to a University-level review committee be phased in, with the first year to serve as a “pilot test” of the new process using promotion cases from tenured associate to full professor. The ad hoc committee cited two reasons for selecting these cases for the pilot: the manageable volume of such cases and the fact that these decisions do not affect individuals’ employment status. Second, the committee recommended that, “[a]fter the pilot test, an assessment of the University-level review process can occur, and adjustments can be made as needed to strengthen the process and ensure it is transparent, fair, consistent, and timely” (p. 9).
In 2020-2021, the Office of Faculty Affairs began to phase in the review committee as recommended by the ad hoc committee. In order to maintain status quo during the development of a collective bargaining agreement, PACTP will continue to review promotions from tenured associate to full professor and will not review other types of promotions until a collective bargaining agreement has been finalized. All other promotions will be reviewed under pre-PACTP processes.
- tenure/tenure stream (T/TS) cases for the Pittsburgh campus (excluding School of Medicine (SOM) cases);