Senior/Master Lecturer Promotion Process

This information pertains to full-time lecturers who are eligible for promotion to Senior or Master Lecturer only. Consult the CAS page on lecturer promotion for an overview of the process and a timeline of dates.

Eligibility

If you are a full-time lecturer or senior lecturer who will have completed five years of full-time teaching in rank at BU by August 31 of your review year, or as otherwise indicated in your offer letter, you will be notified that you are eligible to be nominated for promotion. Eligible lecturers need to state their desire to be considered for promotion by emailing wpadmin@bu.edu. CAS will promote all lecturers who meet to a sufficiently high level the criteria for promotion outlined in this document. CAS views these promotions as “a part of a continuing process of supporting and recognizing the work of full-time lecturers as important contributors to our education mission.” As of 2022, lecturers can go up for promotion early with approval from the dean, who will consider this option only in “genuinely extraordinary cases.”

Writing Program Internal Consideration of Candidates

Candidates for promotion will be considered at the Writing Program level and then, if successful, advanced to CAS for consideration. At the program level, the senior faculty (directors and senior lecturers) will meet to review and vote on all eligible lecturers who express an interest in being considered for promotion to senior lecturer. Candidates for promotion to master lecturer will be reviewed and voted on by Writing Program master lecturers. The results of these votes will determine which candidates the program advances to CAS for further consideration.

Participation in this process is expected of senior faculty–highly encouraged but not mandatory. Anyone who does not attend the meeting is counted as “absent” in the vote tally. Those in attendance can vote for or against advancing the candidacy in question, or they can abstain. We will use secret ballots; all deliberations about these candidates must be kept strictly confidential. Voting in absentia (proxy voting) without benefit of participation in the deliberations is not permitted, for the reasons spelled out in the faculty handbook (see http://www.bu.edu/cas/faculty-staff/faculty-staff-handbook/faculty-personnel-issues/voting-on-personnel-cases/).

The director will inform all candidates of the program’s decisions. If you wish to discuss your situation, you may do so at any time. Please note that CAS has instituted a new process for those who wish to appeal a negative recommendation.

Writing Program Criteria for Promotion (Effective July 1, 2022)

Criteria for Promotion to Senior Lecturer. The criteria the Writing Program will use when considering candidates are described in order of priority below. Excellence in teaching and active citizenship/service/leadership in the Writing Program are the primary requirements for promotion. Broader forms of professional engagement, including scholarship and creative work, are not required for promotion but will be regarded favorably. In applying these criteria, the Writing Program will consider future potential as well as past accomplishment.

Excellence in teaching: The primary responsibility of lecturers at Boston University is to teach. Strong candidates for promotion will therefore be able to demonstrate their excellence as teachers, not only through course evaluations, which are reports of student opinion, but also through evidence of effective and inclusive teaching practices (curricular materials, observation reports). Being an excellent teacher means more than simply teaching one’s classes well; it also means working consistently to improve one’s teaching. Candidates’ efforts to this end—participation in workshops, mentoring, faculty seminars, faculty working groups related to teaching, and so on—will also be regarded favorably.
Citizenship/service/leadership within the Writing Program/College/University: Strong candidates for promotion will be more than just excellent teachers; they will also have shown themselves to be active citizens of the Writing Program, College, or University. This means that they will have made genuine and substantive contributions that extend beyond their own classrooms and that they have both the desire and the potential to assume greater responsibilities if promoted to the rank of senior lecturer. Citizenship within the Writing Program will be weighted most heavily in the program’s nomination decisions for promotion to senior lecturer; other instances of institutional citizenship (e.g., sitting on a College or University committee) will also be regarded favorably.
Professional engagement, scholarship, and/or creative work: Candidates’ involvement in their respective fields and professions—membership and leadership in professional organizations, work as a journal referee, conference papers, readings, and talks, etc.—will be considered favorably in the review process. Professional citizenship beyond BU is not required for promotion, but it can enhance a candidate’s application. Professional engagement related to the teaching of writing is especially valuable. Similarly, a record of scholarship or creative work is not required but can enhance the candidate’s case for promotion, and scholarly or creative activities related to the teaching of writing are especially valuable.

Criteria for Promotion to Master Lecturer. The criteria for promotion to master lecturer are essentially the same as the criteria for promotion to senior lecturer, with an increased emphasis on (1) a candidate’s leadership within and/or beyond the Writing Program and (2) the candidate’s impact within and/or beyond the Writing Program. Strong candidates will demonstrate a sustained commitment to one or more projects that benefit the Writing Program and/or enhance the teaching of writing in the wider institution, and they will describe plans for advancing these in the future.

Leadership includes not only holding formal leadership positions (e.g., committee chair, curriculum coordinator) but also taking initiative in solving problems and creating opportunities that benefit the Writing Program and/or the wider institution (e.g., organizing a teaching collaboration, assembling a group to develop materials for a curricular initiative).

Impact means the influence or effect of a candidate’s work on others. Impact can manifest itself in many ways, including transformative contributions to the Program, College, or University; teaching collaborations within or beyond the Writing Program; mentoring; leadership in professional organizations; and scholarly or creative publication.

Again, in applying these criteria, the Writing Program and CAS will consider not only a candidate’s past accomplishments but also the candidate’s plans and potential to make further significant contributions to the Writing Program and the University.

Promotion Process Steps

Step 1: Statement of Qualifications: If you would like to be considered for promotion, please email a brief account of your how you meet the criteria above (a maximum of one single-spaced page) and a current CV (Word or PDF format) to Dan Ivey. This statement will be read by the Writing Program’s directors and all senior faculty voting on promotions. While this version of your statement is internal, please remember that not all faculty will be familiar with your work. Student evaluations from your last two years of teaching will also be made available for their review. (If you believe the pandemic or other circumstances had a negative impact on your evaluations, please include a response letter that offers this context.) Should you be nominated for promotion, you will have the opportunity to write another, fuller statement that will be included in your promotion dossier.

Use the subject line “LECTURER PROMOTION STATEMENT FALL [YEAR]” in caps. If you do not use this subject line, you risk us losing track of your email.

Step 2: Review by the Writing Program: As described above, candidates for promotion to senior lecturer will be reviewed and voted on by all senior lecturers plus the directors. Candidates for promotion to master lecturer will be reviewed and voted on by all master lecturers plus the directors. Candidates will receive news of the results of this process by early November.

Step 3: Teaching Observations and Dossier Preparation: Each candidate the program votes to advance to CAS will need two recent teaching observation letters. (Note: Faculty who are due for observations should know that the process may feel slightly different than in the past. As you know, the program has been working to refine and standardize our formal observation procedures and make observations more than a superficial exercise. We would like to make them a genuinely useful format for offering feedback even as we continue to write observation letters that show our promotion candidates in the best possible light.)

Those up for senior lecturer will work in consultation with one current senior or master lecturer to prepare a promotion dossier (contents described below). Candidates for promotion to master lecturer will not be assigned consultants but are invited to consult with colleagues and directors about their dossiers. The candidate’s portions of the dossier must be submitted to the Writing Program before the Spring semester begins.

Step 4: Submission of Dossiers to CAS: The Writing Program will review and complete candidates’ dossiers, then submit electronic versions to CAS by the third week in January.

Step 5: Review by CAS Lecturer Promotion Committee: The CAS Lecturer Promotion Committee will review dossiers of candidates and make recommendations to the Dean of the College. The Dean will then make final decisions regarding promotions. Promotions will be effective September 1.

Nomination Dossier (for both Senior and Master Lecturer candidates):The Writing Program is required to upload dossiers to a CAS server. Dossiers may not be submitted in hard copy. The dossier should have the following elements:

A 500-word statement outlining the criteria used to define excellence in teaching and other achievements when considering candidates for promotion within the lecturer track. This statement will be identical in the dossiers of all candidates. (Writing Program responsibility)
The candidate’s up-to-date CV, following standard academic format (i.e., education, positions held, awards, publications, talks and presentations, professional service, academic service, courses taught, etc.) with the relevant dates clearly indicated.
A statement by the candidate about their professional accomplishments and plans for the future that are relevant to the consideration for promotion (max. 1,000 words).
A detailed departmental report discussing the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses in light of the criteria for excellence defined by the department and with specific reference to the candidate’s record (max 1,000 words). The report will also address elements of the candidate’s dossier that may not be self-evident to CAS Promotion Committee members. (Writing Program responsibility)
Supporting materials related specifically to teaching, advising, and curricular accomplishments including syllabi, letters from former students, and other relevant materials (max. 35 pages).
Student teaching evaluations from the most recent two years of teaching, including statistical summaries (Writing Program responsibility)
Peer teaching evaluations (min. of two and max. of three) from the most recent two years of teaching. (Writing Program responsibility)
A brief blurb about the candidate that will be used to announce successful promotions to the college. (Writing Program responsibility)
Other relevant supporting materials documenting professional accomplishments, including representative publications, if appropriate (max. 35 pages, excepting book volumes).

If you have any questions about the process, please contact one of the directors.

Responsibilities of Senior and Master Lecturers

The program’s senior and master lecturers are the core of the Writing Program’s faculty. More than any other group, they are responsible for shaping the program’s identity and character. For this reason, senior and master lecturers should expect to maintain and perhaps even to increase their involvement in the program. Each senior and master lecturer will be assigned one substantive responsibility within the Writing Program (e.g., serving on a committee) and may opt in to other service, such as mentoring, DEI work, curricular projects, or facilitating faculty seminars. Senior and master lecturers should be genuinely and actively engaged with the curricular, administrative, and/or intellectual life of the program beyond their own classrooms.