CS Department Promotion Guidelines

THIS DOCUMENT IS CURRENTLY A DRAFT IN PROGRESS

College policy has officially recognized the demands and stresses placed on faculty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Department takes this into account when evaluating these guidelines.

Promotion to Full Professor

Excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service are required for promotion to full professor in the Computer Science Department.  We recognize that there are different pathways through this career stage and contributions may be more significant in some areas than others.  Evaluation for promotion will be holistic and will take all aspects of the candidate’s professional activities into account.  Faculty being promoted to Professor are also expected to foster a collegial and collaborative work environment. They should also take on increased leadership responsibilities within the department.

Teaching

Candidates for promotion are expected to demonstrate continued excellence in their teaching. Examples of excellence in teaching at this stage of the career include, but are not limited to, engagement with research on teaching and learning; engaging in reflection and responding to student and peer feedback; and showing evidence of thoughtful course and curriculum design. In addition, the department expects an ongoing commitment to advising and mentorship of students and efforts to expand access to computer science.  Assessment of the quality of teaching will be based on letters from students, peer evaluation of colleagues based on repeated regular classroom observations, and contributions that may include new course offerings, syllabi, reading lists, lab assignments, teaching innovations, and contributions to the department's curricular design.  Collaboration is expected particularly with respect to the design of the department curriculum and courses.  Candidates are also expected to teach classes at all levels of the curriculum.

Research

The candidate will have established an active research program that extends beyond their contributions before tenure. Peer-reviewed conference or journal publications are an important component of the candidate's research portfolio. We recognize CS conferences as being the typical premier peer-reviewed publication venue for CS research. However, we also recognize that there exists variation across sub-disciplines of computer science in publication venue norms, publication rates, and in other artifacts of scholarly output.

In preparing dossiers, the department submits the following CRA article to the Swarthmore Committee on Tenure and Promotion to aid in their evaluation of the candidate's scholarly work, in particular to help describe the role of conference publications in our field and how conference publications should be evaluated in CS: Unique Considerations for Evaluating Computing Researchers, published by Computer Research Association (cra.org).

Because we are a liberal arts college, the rate of scholarly production is necessarily conditioned by the responsibility that teaching is of the highest quality. We also note that expected publication rates in different sub-fields of computer science vary greatly. Assessment of the candidate's scholarly work is based on letters from external reviewers who are experts in the candidate's sub-field. We also rely on the expertise of colleagues within the department. Evidence of expertise within a field (or more than one field if applicable), and the potential for future growth and development as an active scholar is important. Mid-career faculty often take on significant service roles within their fields, such as organizing meetings and initiatives. Evidence of providing Swarthmore students with research experiences, including providing summer research experiences and involving students in one's scholarly activities is also highly valued.

We recognize the importance of Computer Science Education Research as supported by the following CRA's report: Why CS Departments Should Embrace Computing Education Research. Scholarly endeavors in CS Education are highly regarded by the CS department and help to support a candidate's broader CS scholarly work portfolio.

Service

Service and initiative within the Department and the College is expected at a level beyond the expectations for promotion to associate. Assessment of the candidate's service will be based on letters from members of the College community both within and outside the Computer Science Department. Collegiality and a collaborative spirit are important for creating a positive working environment for all members of the department.  Faculty are expected to contribute to, and take ownership of, department initiatives such as hiring, assessment, and faculty mentoring.  We also expect an increase in service in scholarly communities beyond the college.

Regular Part-Time (RPT) Faculty ADDENDUM

For regular part-time (RPT) faculty being evaluated for promotion to Professor, expectations across service, teaching, and scholarship are the same, but prorated at 80% time. 

Similar scholarly criteria apply, but with a more expansive view of scholarship. For instance, their scholarship could primarily focus on Computer Science education. In addition, regular part-time faculty are ineligible for some forms of internal research funding, including start-up research funds, and are ineligible for appointment with tenure.