Pursuant to the proposal approved by the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees in April of 1993, the guidelines governing tenure for the faculty of Geisel School of Medicine shall be as follows:
- All tenure commitments in existence prior to April 1993 will remain in force. There will be no change in the terms of the institution's obligation to those faculty members to whom tenure had been granted previous to the acceptance of this plan.
- Eligibility for Geisel tenure will be limited to full-time faculty whose paymaster is Dartmouth College. For any individual deriving partial compensation from a DHMC entity other than Geisel, eligibility will depend on the willingness of Geisel to accept the potential responsibility of full support, or on the assurance of continued partial support from the other entity.
- Tenure may also be awarded to eligible individuals with the rank of professor who join the Geisel faculty or are appointed as departmental chairs, named chairs, or Dean. In all cases the awarding of rank (professor) and the awarding of tenure are separable actions and require separate review and approval by the Appointments, Promotions and Titles (APT) Committee, the Dean, the Dean’s Academic Board, the Provost of Dartmouth College and, for awarding of tenure, the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees. The Dean will include a status report on the tenure program in their annual report to the President, Vice-President and Treasurer, and the Provost.
- Faculty with tenure will be entitled to retain their academic appointments until resignation, retirement, or death. They will not be subject to dismissal except for specific cause, as described in Organization of the Faculty of Dartmouth College.
- The number of tenured positions granted will be determined by the rolling three (3)-year average of the sum of [(1) tuition paid by enrolled students (less internally funded scholarships), plus (2) the annual income from Geisel unrestricted endowment, plus (3) income from endowed chairs], divided by the average of potential tenure-derived compensation for all tenured senior faculty at that time.
- Tenured faculty will ordinarily be expected to derive their compensation from a mixture of internal and external sources. To be fully compensated, a tenured faculty member is expected to derive at least 40% of compensation from extramural sources. External sources may include payments for research, teaching, consulting, clinical practice, or other sources designated as "extramural" (i.e., qualified) by the Dean. In the absence of external compensation support, tenured faculty members are guaranteed at least 40% of their previously determined full compensation from internal funds.
- For a faculty member who does not derive at least 40% of full compensation from external sources, the Dean in consultation with the departmental Chair may provide up to 60% of additional compensation as an internal supplement to the 40% that is guaranteed, in recognition of continued effort in teaching, scholarly activity, and other valued institutional service.
- In the event of loss of expected support from external sources adequate to assure full compensation, the downward transition from full compensation to a reduced level will not exceed 10% per year.
- External support for faculty compensation in the aggregate is essential to the long-term health of the Medical School. To the extent possible, tenured faculty members are expected to derive compensation from external sources at a level determined at the time of hire (unless subsequently modified by policies of the school). The Dean may declare a moratorium on the awarding of tenure if external support of compensation as a percentage of full compensation for all tenured Geisel faculty falls by more than 20% in one year (compared to the rolling average of the three (3) previous years), or falls by that amount over a period of more than one year following the onset of a decline. If the number of tenured faculty meets or exceeds 95% of the institutional support available for those positions, the Dean may also declare a moratorium on the awarding of tenure.
- In the event of a moratorium on the granting of new tenure/tenure-track positions, the awarding of tenure will be reinstated by the Dean once external support for faculty compensation again becomes adequate. Faculty members promoted to the rank of Professor during the period of the moratorium will be eligible for the award of tenure in order of the time of their promotion.
- Revisions redefining the financial obligations to faculty members must be approved by the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College. Other revisions that change the intent of the document must be reviewed by the Faculty Council of Geisel School of Medicine. Minor revisions and specific clarifications (e.g., re-naming of the Medical School) that do not alter the meaning of the document may be made by the Dean.