The transfer of a faculty person’s primary department appointment and/or title series appointment can occur at any time in a faculty’s career (there is no “clock") following the established procedures.

1. Transferring Departments:

If a faculty member wishes to transfer their department home, they should reach out to the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the College of Medicine. If both the current department chair, and the proposed new department chair agree, then the process is fairly simple.

A dossier is compiled containing the faculty’s CV, current and new job description, and DOE. The appropriate faculty (per the matrix of Consultation and Written Judgments, Appendix I of AR2:1-1) in the receiving department review this dossier, and indicate in writing their agreement or disagreement with the transfer.

The Chairs of the involved departments also sign documentation agreeing to the transfer.

If the faculty is not yet at the rank of Professor, then they must indicate in writing their acceptance of the new departments’ statements of evidence for their future promotions.

The documentation is reviewed by the Dean and the Provost.

2. Changing title series.

Officially, faculty cannot change title series. However, if the faculty and Chair concur that the current title series is no longer appropriate for the faculty member (for example, due to changes in job description), then the Chair can create a new position in the desired title series per standard protocols, and the faculty can apply. This is usually financially neutral, thus straightforward. If the faculty is leaving a tenured or tenure-eligible position for a non-tenured position than this should be clearly communicated in writing so the faculty member understands. If the faculty is moving into a tenure-eligible position then standard appointment processes are followed, with the following exceptions:

• Outside letters from faculty persons external to the University will not be required unless the tenured faculty in the ‘receiving unit’ request that the unit’s chair or director solicit such letters.
• The contents of the review dossier shall contain the following items:

          (a) an up-to-date CV

          (b) copies of the faculty person’s past three (3) merit reviews

          (c) a personal statement on research and representative scholarly publications

          (d) a personal statement on teaching, teaching evaluation summaries from the past four (4) years and a summary of theses/dissertation supervision, as may be appropriate

          (e) letters from the tenure faculty in the ‘receiving unit’

          (f) the unit administrator’s letter of recommendation to the dean of the college

          (g) the dean’s letter of recommendation to the Provost and the letter from the college advisory (aka APT) committee

• The tenured faculty in the receiving unit may also request other items that are ordinarily included in a tenure review dossier.

If supported by the Provost, the transfer of the faculty person’s tenure home shall be sent as a favorable recommendation through the President’s Office to the Board of Trustees for final action.

The faculty in the ‘sending unit’ shall not participate in the transfer-of-tenure review process.

Appeal Routes

You have the right to either an academic appeal or an administrative appeal. The ‘academic’ appeal is through the University Senate Advisory Committee on Privilege and Tenure1 (SACPT) and the ‘administrative’ appeal is through the Provost.

Academic Route (SACPT)

These cases are appealed to SACPT and are based on violations of: (1) procedures, (2) privilege and/or (3) academic freedom. For example, “the dossier was missing required document X, so let’s add document X and go through the process again”. This committee is composed of tenured faculty and makes a recommendation on the case to the President. The committee CANNOT be involved in an appeal that is based on the academic merit of your dossier. This committee ONLY hears appeals based on errors involving procedure/privilege/academic freedom. If you elect this route, you may file your case directly to SACPT. [SR 1.4.4.2]

Administrative Route

These cases are appealed directly to the Provost [AR 2:1-1 XI A-C or AR 2:1-2 VIII A-C] and under certain conditions it may go to the President, and/or Board of Trustees Executive Committee. [GR I.I]3 You can make the appeal be based on procedural/privilege/academic freedom or on the substantive merit of the decision itself. For example, “on the basis of the merit of my record, the administration made a substantive error in judgment that I ask be reversed”.

More information is available for download.

The Office of Faculty Affairs and Development are thankful for your willingness to share your experiences as a faculty member at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. When possible, want to schedule a brief exit interview with the faculty that are moving on from the University of Kentucky. The exit interview can be conducted via telephone or in person, please email ofa@uky.edu to schedule an interview with someone from our office.

Please contact our office if you have any questions or comments.