Post-Tenure Reviews

Indiana University’s post-tenure review policy is mandated by Indiana state law (specifically IC 21-38-3.5 and IC 21-39.5-2.2) and was formalized in the IU Board of Trustees’ Post-Tenure Faculty Productivity and Annual Review policy (BOT-24) as of June 2025.

The IU policy:

• Holds the university in compliance with the state law.
• Helps affirm tenured-faculty contributions in research, service and teaching are at levels in line with IU’s high academic standards and mission.
• Provides a structured path (performance improvement plan) to help faculty regain acceptable productivity, if needed.
• Promotes clarity in what is expected of tenured faculty, reducing uncertainty and enhancing fairness. This is largely in part due to the establishment of discipline-specific criteria (standardized rubrics*) for assessing performance in the areas of scholarship, teaching and service.
  

The post-tenure review includes a thorough review of the past five faculty annual reviews. It is critical that you have a review each year, so that the post-tenure review is an accurate and complete picture of your previous five years of productivity.

Faculty annual reviews are designed to foster continuous improvement, accountability and alignment with institutional goals. 

Under the IU policy, post-tenure reviews examine performance in three broad categories:

• Teaching
• Research/scholarship
• Service — including university and public service

At minimum, the review considers:

• The faculty member’s teaching workload
• The number of learners taught (graduate and undergraduate)
• Time devoted to instructional assignments, including graduate student supervision
• The faculty member’s research/scholarship productivity
• Service contributions consistent with the expectations in the unit, school and university

Discipline-specific criteria

Each school (e.g., IU School of Medicine) is required to define discipline-specific criteria that specify expected performance levels in each area, tailored to norms in the field and allowing for variations in allocation of effort. View the IU School of Medicine rubrics*. 

Possible rating outcomes

As a result of post-tenure review, faculty will receive one of three possible university-level ratings:

• Meets productivity expectations
  • The faculty member meets performance expectations in research, service and teaching.
  • When this rating is the outcome, the faculty member will receive their next post-tenure review in five years.
• Does not meet productivity expectations
  • The faculty member:
    • Received a "does not meet expectations" rating on one annual review in the prior five-year window AND did not successfully complete a performance improvement plan (PIP).
    • Or has demonstrated a sustained failure to meet duties
  • When this rating is the outcome, a performance improvement plan (PIP) that outlines goals, timelines, support structures and criteria for defined improvement is required. The PIP cannot exceed 12 months, and noncompliance can lead to dismissal.
• Unsatisfactory productivity
  • The faculty member received "does not meet expectations" for two or more annual reviews in the past five years without successful completion of a PIP.
  • When this rating is the outcome, the faculty member may be subject to dismissal at the end of the academic year.

You will receive a letter of response from the dean upon completion of your post-tenure review. After receiving the dean’s letter, you have the right to submit an optional response before your dossier and dean’s letter move to the chief academic officer for final review. You will have 10 business days from the receipt of the dean’s letter to respond.

You may appeal an adverse decision via a Faculty Board of Review.

Yes. All tenured faculty at public higher-education institutions in Indiana are subject to post-tenure productivity review, unless they meet a specific exemption outlined in policy. This requirement comes from a state law passed in 2024 and implemented through an IU Board of Trustees policy that took effect in 2025.

Exemptions include:

• Faculty with an administrative role of 50% or greater (e.g., department chairs, vice chairs). The five-year review clock begins once administrative effort drops below 50%.
• Faculty on a 100% leave of absence during the review period. Those on partial leaves are not exempt.
• Faculty who are leaving IU, whether through resignation or retirement, including those participating in the formal phased retirement program.

The Indiana University Post-Tenure Faculty Productivity and Annual Review policy — based on requirements of a 2025 Indiana state law — requires all tenured faculty to have a post-tenure review every five years.

When you receive your first review depends on your effective date of tenure.

* For 2026, about 60 of those faculty were from the IU School of Medicine. 

Exception: If you have an administrative role (e.g., department chair, director) of 0.5 FTE or greater, you will receive your first post-tenure productivity review five years after your administrative role concludes. You will, however, continue to receive regular annual reviews during this administrative period.

The first cohort (receiving post-tenure reviews in spring 2026) consisted of:

• Faculty whose tenure became effective five years prior (2021, based on tenure-effective date, not promotion date)
• 20% of the most senior tenured faculty on campus, determined by sorting all tenured faculty by longest tenure and selecting the top 20%.

Faculty will generally be notified of their upcoming post-tenure reviews during the fall before the review should take place.

If you are unclear about when you will receive your first post-tenure review, you should check the accordion “When will you receive a post-tenure review?” question above. If you are still unclear, contact your human resources contact in your department or FAPD at fapd@iu.edu to confirm your review year.

Post-tenure productivity review is not a one-time process. Under IU policy and state law, it occurs every five years, calculated from the faculty member’s tenure-effective date.

Yes. For faculty on regional campuses, the appropriate regional campus dean, associate dean or campus director participates in the review process.

No. The post-tenure review schedule is based on your tenure-effective date at IU, not time credited from another institution. If you were hired to IU with tenure, your five-year clock starts upon your IU hire date.

Faculty should contact Faculty Affairs and Professional Development at fapd@iu.edu for review-timing questions or corrections.

1. Familiarize yourself with evaluation criteria.

   Review the standard evaluation rubrics for research/scholarship, teaching and service.
   
   

2. Maintain detailed documentation.
   • Get/keep your Elements profile up-to-date.
     • Using Elements is required for all faculty annual review processes. The reports generated from your faculty annual reviews form the building blocks of post-tenure reviews.
     • Be sure your profile includes all activity for all years covered during your review. 
     • Be sure to complete the teaching details that are required by state law (e.g., teaching workload, number of students taught and time spent on instructional activities).
   • Keep an up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV), as well as a summary of accomplishments in each of the three domains: Teaching, scholarship/research and service.
     
     
3. Prepare required materials.
   
   
   
   • If you received a "meets" or "exceeds expectations" rating on your prior five years of annual reviews, you must:
     • Ensure your Elements profile is complete (see #2, above)
     • Submit your current CV.
       
       
   • If you have received one or more "does not meet expectations" on an annual review in the prior five years, you must:
     • Ensure your Elements profile is complete (see #2, above)
     • Submit your current CV
     • Submit a one-page summary for each domain (teaching, scholarship and service), summarizing your accomplishments over the review period.
       • Include both quantitative metrics (publications, citations, grants, student evaluations, service roles) as well as qualitative narrative (explanation of context, challenges, innovations, collaborations).
       • Integrate clinical, translational, education and service metrics (e.g., clinical productivity, patient outcomes, curricular innovation, external funding, committee work) into your narrative and documentation.

     RESOURCE | Download guidelines for preparing post-tenure review one-page summaries

     • Research Summary
     • Teaching Summary
     • Service Summary
       
       
4. Anticipate questions and possible areas of concern, such as gaps or less active periods in your record. 
   • Prepare brief explanations.
   • Be ready to show plans for how to strengthen future performance.
     
     
5. After your in-person meeting with your supervisor, submit your post-tenure review packet to your chair or chair’s designee in Elements by Feb. 1.
   
   
6. Use feedback proactively. Use all feedback — positive, negative or mixed — as a roadmap for your next cycle of productivity and development.

All faculty must prepare a post-tenure review packet. The contents of your packet depends on the results of your prior five annual reviews.

• If you received a "meets" or "exceeds expectations" rating on your prior five years of annual reviews, you must:
  • Ensure your Elements profile is complete.
  • Complete your annual review in Elements before completing your post-tenure review in Elements.
  • Upload your current CV in Elements as part of the post-tenure review exercise.
    
    
• If you have received one or more "does not meet expectations" on an annual review in the prior five years, you must:
  • Ensure your Elements profile is complete.
  • Complete your annual review in Elements before completing your post-tenure review in Elements.
  • Upload your current CV in Elements as part of the post-tenure review exercise.
  • Submit a one-page summary for each domain (teaching, scholarship and service), summarizing your accomplishments over the review period.
    • Include both quantitative metrics (publications, citations, grants, student evaluations, service roles) as well as qualitative narrative (explanation of context, challenges, innovations, collaborations).
    • Integrate clinical, translational, education and service metrics (e.g., clinical productivity, patient outcomes, curricular innovation, external funding, committee work) into your narrative and documentation.

  RESOURCE | Download guidelines for preparing post-tenure review one-page summaries

  • Research Summary
  • Teaching Summary
  • Service Summary
    

Your department chair will compile your past five annual reviews and upload those into your post-tenure review exercise in Elements.

Yes. You should update and/or correct all activities for all years that will be covered by your first post-tenure review (five years prior to your review date) — as well as future years — in Elements before beginning your annual review exercise. (Your annual review will need to be completed before you begin your post-tenure review exercise).

Note: Items added or changed while completing an exercise in Elements will not show in your profile after the exercise is submitted. Be sure to update all activities before beginning any review exercise.

Yes. You should prepare your CV and one-page summaries before submitting the post-tenure review form in Elements.

No. You are discouraged from retroactively entering your entire career into Elements. Elements is intended to capture activity from 2025 forward. Prior years are documented through previously completed annual reviews.

All submissions occur in Elements and involve three separate actions:

• Annual activity entries (update review-year's activities -- e.g., 2026 activities for a spring 2027 review)
• Annual Review Exercise (update review-year's activities and submit narrative)
• Post-Tenure Review Exercise (upload CV and, if required, one-page summaries)

Both the annual review and post-tenure review exercises must be submitted to your department chair by Feb. 1. Chairs complete their review and forward materials by March 1.

No. Consistent satisfactory or better annual reviews over the five-year period indicate satisfactory performance. If you have had five satisfactory reviews, you can feel confident about a positive post-tenure review. 

If one or more annual reviews is missing, your department chair should:

• Compile all available reviews
• Comment on any gaps in documentation
• Base their evaluation on available materials, including the CV and, if required, faculty summaries

This is recognized as a transitional issue, particularly in the first review cycle. From 2025 on, every faculty member must receive an annual review.

Preparation time will vary. To be safe, plan to spend a few hours completing your materials and the review process.

Yes. Departments and chairs/campus deans are notified when faculty are scheduled for post-tenure review.

You will also receive direct notification via an email in the September before you undergo your review.

Answers to additional questions

The Academic Leadership Council has published answers to frequently asked questions about post-tenure and faculty annual reviews. There, you can find answers to questions like:

• Are there templates for post-tenure productivity review letters and performance improvement plans?
• Are individual departments and units responsible for identifying specific criteria for post-tenure productivity reviews? 
• And more

Annual review information and Elements training

See the Faculty Annual Reviews page for detailed information about training opportunities and resources related to annual reviews and Elements, based on your role (reviewer or reviewee).

Did you receive at least one "does not meet expectations" rating in an annual review in the past five years?

• If yes: You must submit one-page summaries for each mission area (teaching, research and service).
• If no: You do not.

Because the state law requires certain information related to teaching, all faculty, including those who do not have effort specifically allocated for teaching, should make all teaching visible in their post-tenure review exercises in Elements.

If you do not have time or responsibilities specifically allocated for/designated as teaching, include mentoring, supervision, clinical instruction, research training and the like in your activities (and one-page summaries, if required), even if teaching is not the primary effort.

Faculty should make all teaching visible, even if it is not funded or formally protected time. 

Teaching may include:

• Clinical instruction
• Bench-side mentoring
• Graduate or undergraduate supervision
• Graduate student committee service
• Other opportunities for education, both inside and outside the classroom, lab or clinical environment

Because the state law requires certain information related to teaching, faculty should clearly explain the nature of their teaching in the one-page teaching summary and include details in the teaching activities area in Elements even if percent effort appears low or zero.

When quantifying teaching activities, best estimates are acceptable.

There are currently no strict definitions. You should:

• Estimate total learners taught (e.g., course enrollment, rotations)
• Estimate time spent in instructional activities broadly (e.g., teaching, mentoring, office hours, student thesis committees, etc.)

You do not need to have exact numbers. You should provide reasonable, good-faith estimates of learners taught and time spent on instructional activities.

While there is no specific instruction on what the summaries must include, other than what is required in state law, the School of Medicine has created guidelines for each one-page summary. You can download them here:

• Research one-page summary guidelines
• Service one-page summary guidelines
• Teaching one-page summary guidelines

You will need to complete two separate exercises in Elements by Feb. 1:

1. The annual review exercise — which should be completed before your post-tenure review exercise.
2. The post-tenure review exercise (uploading your CV and one-page summaries)

Be sure to update and/or correct all activities in Elements before beginning your annual review exercise.

Delegates may assist with updating activities in Elements, but only you, as the faculty member, can:

• Enter narrative content for annual review and post-tenure review exercises
• Complete and submit the annual review and post-tenure review exercises

No. Effort must total 100%, even though faculty work is often integrated across missions. Best estimates are acceptable.

If you are on a partial leave of absence, the percentages you report in Elements should still add up to 100%, reflecting your total contributions.

• Meets expectations
• Does not meet expectations
  
  • Results when a faculty member either:
    • Receives a "does not meet expectations" rating on one annual review in the prior five-year window and did not successfully complete a performance improvement plan
    • Has demonstrated a sustained failure to meet duties
• Unsatisfactory
  • Results when a faculty member both:
    • Received "does not meet expectations" ratings for two or more annual reviews in the five years prior to the post-tenure review
    • Has not successfully completed a performance improvement plan

The review focuses on overall performance across teaching, research and service during the most recent five-year period. No single metric outweighs others; the emphasis is on sustained productivity and contribution.

The formal focus of the review is on the most recent five years. You may briefly reference the broader arc of your career for context, but the evaluation is based primarily on performance during the five-year review window.

Yes. The process and supporting systems continue to be refined, and feedback from faculty is being used to improve implementation.

Consequences of negative reviews are as follows:

• A rating of Does Not Meet Expectations
  • A performance-improvement plan (PIP) is required.
  • Faculty are placed on probation (as required by state law).
  • Probation lasts no longer than 12 months and may lead to dismissal if progress is insufficient.
• A rating of Unsatisfactory
  • Faculty receive notice of dismissal with a 12-month notice period.

You will receive a letter of response from the dean upon completion of the school-level portion of your post-tenure review. After receiving the dean’s letter, you have the right to submit an optional response before your dossier and dean’s letter move to the chief academic officer for the next level of review. You will have 10 business days from the receipt of the dean’s letter to respond. 

You have a right to appeal an adverse decision via a Faculty Board of Review. Learn about the Faculty Board of Review process, or contact the IU Indianapolis Office of the Provost for further instructions.