University of Notre Dame
ER-19: Interdisciplinary Research in Tenure and Promotion

In September 2008, the Provost announced the appointment of a Task Force on Collaborative Hiring charged with addressing issues raised when more than one academic unit is involved in the appointment of a faculty member. One issue that was addressed involves the mentoring, evaluation, and tenure of teaching and research faculty members affiliated with more than one academic unit. In March 2009, the Task Force submitted its report to the Provost who shared it with the Deans and Department chairs at their annual retreat. In September 2009, the report was distributed to faculty along with a request for their input on the report’s findings and recommendations. The report states: In order to achieve true preeminence we must hire the very best faculty and enable them to excel in their research, scholarship and teaching efforts. While maintaining and/or building strength in core disciplines remains essential, we also must facilitate cross-disciplinary work if we are to remain at the forefront of research, scholarship and teaching. Some of the most exciting and important contributions to research and scholarship are at the borders among disciplines and involve multidisciplinary collaborations (page 3). The current practice is to remove barriers often associated with collaborative appointments. Collaborative units agree ex ante on a faculty member’s terms of appointment including, among other considerations, how nontraditional scholarship will be evaluated for purposes of tenure and promotion. This agreement may take the form of a “memorandum of understanding” between the collaborating units and shared with the faculty member during pre-offer negotiations.