Promotion is the process of deciding if the promotion candidate (faculty) will be promoted to a higher rank within one or more of their current appointments. There are many documents to collect, which will ultimately be combined into 'packets' that are used by approval committees. Promotions are managed by the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA).

URL for Departments & OFA: https://www.umms.med.umich.edu/meridian/promotion/ 

NOTE: The promotion candidate (faculty member) does not have access to a 'Candidate Site' as they do in Hiring. This means the Department contact must enter and submit the Promotion details themselves. 

The Promotion Detail page is primarily composed of:

• Main and Additional Appointments
• Documents for Academic Reference Solicitation
• Academic Reference solicitation
• Other Supporting Documents, such as portfolios or forms
• OFA and Committee Approvals

At the top of the form area is the "Promotions Packet Items" link that leads to a 'wizard' that will guide you through OFA's requirements for documents and references by track & rank.

Then, the promotion(s) the faculty is involved with are listed. First is the main promotion (selected during the Initiate step) and then any additional appointments that may be included with this promotion, such as in a joint appointment. For each additional appointment, the New Rank must be selected. These additional appointments will be mentioned in the emails sent to the Academic References.

• If the faculty member does not have any joint appointments, the message "No additional appointments found that can be promoted." will be displayed, and this subsection can be ignored.

Next, the Department contact can complete the "Documents for Academic Reference Solicitation" subsection, containing the CV, Faculty Narrative, Bib Notes, and Publications options. 

The References subsection is composed of the following:

• A set of introductory input fields that are used to insert the Department contact's name and contact information into the solicitation emails
• A table of References suggested by the Department and/or Candidate. Within this table, you can do the following:
  
  • Add & delete new references
  • Send the solicitation email
  • See the status of each reference
    
    • Note that there is now a History toggle on the Status column. This allows you to see all past actions taken on the assessment record, such as previous send attempts.
  • Review received letters
  • Add letters and biosketches (if sent to Departments by the reference)

A few things to keep in mind about References:

• References can be collected any time, but the sending of the solicitation email is restricted until:
  
  • The Solicitation Document requirements have been met
  • The department contact's Name and Email address fields are filled in

References go to their own mini-site via a link in the email they receive; here they review the Solicitation Documents, and can choose to fill out the online form or upload their letter (and optionally their Biosketch)

• The user pushing the Send Email button will be copied on the solicitation email
  
  • Meridian will automatically save a copy of the most recently-sent letter, to be used in Packets

If online form is chosen by reference, Meridian will automatically generate questions to be answered based on Promotion track.

Once the online form is completely filled out, the Reference will need to provide attestation and a digital signature and Meridian will generate the letter for them automatically.

Once the reference submits (either online form or uploaded letter), the Reference row 'locks', which means Departments cannot change most fields while awaiting OFA approval. (Departments can continue to update the Reason for Selection and Biosketch/CV fields.)

OFA must review each letter (they will either Approve the Department's proposed type (e.g. Arm's Length-External) or Deny it). Once approved (or denied), Meridian will send an email alert to everyone on the candidate's Watchlist.

• While Meridian knows some track-and-rank requirements for each Candidate, it does not yet know about Letter types and numbers, so Departments and OFA must keep track of what is required by the Medical School.

Below the References subsection is the "Other Supporting Documents" subsection. It is a continuation of the many documents needed for the Appointing process. Unlike Hiring, it is a unified list for the Department only, since promotion candidates are not currently involved in the promotion workflow.

At any time, Departments can preview the OFA Packet by clicking on the "View OFA Packet" link near the bottom of the section. This launches a viewer that shows you all the documents and references you've collected for the promotion candidate.

Once References have been received and all required Supporting Documents have been uploaded, OFA's review and committee packet processes can begin. The workflow steps look like this:

• Department finishes collecting References, uploads the Other Supporting Documents, and sends to OFA for Packet Approval
• OFA reviews everything, and marks it as "Ready for Committee", or sends it back for revisions
• OFA then builds packets based on the submitted information, sends them to the requisite committees for approval
• Once all required committees have been cleared, OFA will mark the promotion workflow as Completed

Similar to the Hiring process, email alerts will be sent to the Watchlist upon every status transition (every time someone pushes a blue button), so that everyone involved with the promotion workflow is informed.

Stopping a Promotion

If a promotion workflow needs to be stopped for any reason (typically due to a deferral to a future year, a denial, or a withdrawal), Departments should contact OFA and request the cancellation, since only OFA has this ability.