In accordance with the Hamilton College Faculty Handbook, the Department of Psychology’s criteria for tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor include three factors: teaching, research, and service. The tradition of the Department is to select and retain colleagues who are highly capable teaching scholars. This means that those recommended for tenure and promotion are people who are active participants in behavioral science, both as independent investigators and as talented teachers.
Our criteria for evaluating the quality of professional activities reflect standards shared by our peer institutions (i.e., highly selective liberal arts colleges), and it is our intention to interpret these standards with an understanding that the discrete composition of produced work will differ from candidate to candidate. Nevertheless, it is the expectation that the record of a viable candidate will provide clear evidence of a successful pattern of accomplishments in both teaching and research, coupled with high motivation to sustain this activity for his or her professional life. Teaching is the most heavily weighted criterion for reappointment, promotion, and tenure. Scholarship is almost equally important.
The Senior Project is a central part of the curriculum in Psychology at Hamilton, and often it provides an opportunity for students to take ownership of a project that is conducted in close collaborative relationship with the faculty advisor. Thus, aspects of this experience might in certain circumstances be evidence of accomplishment in either teaching or scholarship. Similarly, the supervision of students in summer research might provide evidence of successful teaching, whereas the final product might reasonably be considered in the category of scholarship.
The Department expects its faculty to be excellent teachers, which may be demonstrated by the candidate in several ways:
The Department expects its faculty to be productive scholars who have demonstrated a commitment to research, and the ability to initiate and maintain an active and independent program of scholarship that goes beyond dissertation or postdoctoral work. Evaluations of the candidate’s program of research will include the number of publications, the quality of individual publications, and the importance of the journals in which the candidate has published. Because the criteria for evaluating the quality of one’s professional activities reflect standards shared by our colleagues at other institutions, and in order to have an independent, objective assessment, the Department’s judgment will incorporate the evaluations of colleagues at other institutions in order to take into account the broader, shared standards in the academic community.
Publication with student coauthors is evidence of effective integration of teaching and scholarship at Hamilton. Although the Department encourages faculty-student collaboration in research, this is not required. Therefore, while we recognize the positive features of a research program that incorporates students, the absence of such a program does not count against a candidate upon the evaluation of the scholarly record. Furthermore, student involvement in research weighs at least as heavily in the evaluation of teaching as it does in scholarship.
The Department expects that its faculty will engage regularly in service to the College in a variety of ways. These include:
In accordance with the Hamilton College Faculty Handbook, the Department of Psychology’s criteria for promotion to the rank of Professor include three factors: teaching, research, and service. The tradition of the Department is to select and retain colleagues who are highly capable teaching scholars. The Department nominates candidates for promotion to the rank of Professor who “have distinguished themselves as teacher scholars” and “who have shown sustained professional achievement in scholarship, teaching, and service.” (Faculty Handbook, 2010.)
Our criteria for evaluating the quality of professional activities reflect standards shared by our peer institutions (i.e., highly selective liberal arts colleges), and it is our intention to interpret these standards with an understanding that the discrete composition of produced work will differ from candidate to candidate. Nevertheless, it is the expectation that the record of a viable candidate will provide clear evidence of distinction as a teaching scholar.
The Senior Project is a central part of the curriculum in Psychology at Hamilton, and often it provides an opportunity for students to take ownership of a project that is conducted in close collaborative relationship with the faculty advisor. Thus, aspects of this experience might in certain circumstances be evidence of accomplishment in either teaching or scholarship. Similarly, the supervision of students in summer research might provide evidence of successful teaching, whereas the final product might reasonably be considered in the category of scholarship.
The Department expects its faculty to be excellent teachers, which may be demonstrated by the candidate in several ways:
The Department expects its faculty to be productive scholars who have demonstrated a commitment to research, and the ability to initiate and maintain an active program of scholarship. Evaluations of the candidate’s program of research will include the number of publications, the quality of individual publications, and the importance of the journals in which the candidate has published. Because the criteria for evaluating the quality of one’s professional activities reflect standards shared by our colleagues at other institutions, and in order to have an independent, objective assessment, the Department’s judgment will incorporate the evaluations of colleagues at other institutions in order to take into account the broader, shared standards in the academic community.
Publication with student coauthors is evidence of effective integration of teaching and scholarship at Hamilton. Although the Department encourages faculty-student collaboration in research, this is not required. Therefore, while we recognize the positive features of a research program that incorporates students, the absence of such a program does not count against a candidate upon the evaluation of the scholarly record. Furthermore, student involvement in research weighs at least as heavily in the evaluation of teaching as it does in scholarship.
The Department expects that its faculty will engage regularly in service to the College in a variety of ways. These include:
