Appointments and Promotions Committees

Departmental Committees

All departments and most institutes should have appointments, promotions and tenure committees (APT committees). Departmental APT committees are almost always composed of senior faculty who have undergone appointment and/or promotion with or without tenure and who may be involved in the promotion process in other respects. These individuals are particularly well-positioned to serve as resources for more junior faculty who are seeking promotion within the department. The size of the committee will vary with the department.

When a faculty member relies upon an Institute for salary, resources and space, their membership in the institute is treated as a secondary appointment. As with all secondary appointments, appointments, promotions, and/or tenure are considered within the institute and support for the appointment, promotion, and/or tenure must be documented. Therefore, institutes need to appoint either an APT committee or an equivalent, and should also have mentoring systems in place.

Committee members at the rank of Professor may evaluate promotion of those at all lower ranks, while Associate Professors may evaluate Assistant Professors and Instructors. For departments with faculty being considered for tenure, or for promotion to Professor with tenure, only faculty who are tenured can vote on those decisions (as per the Faculty Handbook). This does not mean that faculty members who have clinical or research designations cannot serve on APT committees and discuss every appointment and promotion; it simply means that they cannot vote on decisions related to tenure. Senior members of the committee who are tenured or have a designation of clinical may vote on a Clinical Scholar designation.

Where departments do not have many faculty members at senior rank, it may be appropriate to have division chiefs at assistant professor rank serve on the committee in an advisory capacity, but they should not vote on individuals being promoted to a rank above theirs. If there are insufficient tenured faculty to consider a tenured or tenure-track candidate in a specific department, if there are insufficient senior faculty to evaluate junior faculty promotions, or if there are specific difficulties unique to a particular department, the department chair should work with the Keck Office for Faculty Affairs to develop a fair, alternative mechanism to evaluate their candidates.

School Committees: Faculty Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee (FAPTC)

The Faculty Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Committee (FAPTC) reviews all appointments and promotions at the rank of Associate Professor or above for tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical faculty (including Clinical Scholar and Educational Scholar), and research-track faculty. The committee is divided into two panels, with each department having a representative on one of the panels. Each panel meets approximately once per month. Most of the committee members are Professors, approximately 2/3 of the members of each panel are tenured, and the basic science and clinical department representatives are divided so that each panel has a similar proportional makeup. In addition there are at-large members who represent the faculty as a whole, including a representative of the Keck Faculty Council on the committee, and the Chair of the FAPTC (who may cast a deciding vote when there is a tie). The Chair of the CAPC (see below) may also attend meetings in an ad hoc capacity, if not already a sitting member of the FAPTC. Other ad hoc members of the committee are the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs, the Associate Dean for Appointments and Promotions, and the Assistant Dean for Faculty Development. Staff members from the Keck Office for Faculty Affairs and the Office of Academic Affairs at CHLA also attend.

School Committees: Clinical Appointments and Promotions Committee (CAPC)

The Clinical Appointments and Promotions Committee (CAPC) is a smaller committee that is composed of 9-10 representatives of clinical departments with staggered three-year appointments to the committee (the membership rotates among departments). It meets approximately once per month. This committee considers appointments and promotions at the rank of Clinical Associate Professor or Clinical Professor on the Clinician-Educator and Practitioner series. Ad hoc members of the committee are the Chair of the FAPTC, the Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs, the Associate Dean for Appointments and Promotions, and the Assistant Dean for Faculty Development. Staff members from the Keck Office for Faculty Affairs and the Office of Academic Affairs at CHLA also attend.

School Committees: Ad hoc Committees

For appointment of Chairs and Institute Directors and occasionally other eminent faculty recruits, an ad hoc committee of eminent faculty members from a number of departments is convened to evaluate the appointment and provide their advice to the Dean. Members of this committee may also be members of one of the promotion committees.

University Committee: University Committee on Appointments, Promotion and Tenure (UCAPT)

Different panels of the University Committee on Appointments Promotions and Tenure (UCAPT) review dossiers for Tenure Track, Tenured or Clinical Scholar candidates for appointment or promotion (at the Associate Professor and Professor ranks), after they have been reviewed at the school level. For information about these panels, please consult the most recent UCAPT manual.
UCAPT Manual 2022