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[svenskjim]

I am new to this side of the desk, but will soon be needing to request external letters for several P&T cases that will go forward in fall 2009.  As is typical at many R1 universities, the candidate puts several names forward and the P&T committee puts names forward.  The majority of letters will need to come from the P&T list. 

I would like any advice on how to select individuals for these external reviews, how to contact them, how to package the material sent out for review, how to nag, and anything else that you think might be helpful.  Also hearing about unexpected comments in letters would be helpful. (All letters must be included in the dossier sent forward to the college and campus.)

[systeme_d_]

This is the time to use your contacts in the field. 

First, generate a P&T committee list of scholars in the tenure applicants' subfields.  At your place, it may be ok to have external people not in the subfield.  If so, listen closely to suggestions from the senior scholars on your department's P&T committee.

When you have a long list, containing several more people than you will need, then talk to other chairs in your field who have had folks go up for tenure recently.  Find out which folks from your list have written good letters.  By good, I don't mean necessarily supportive, but attentive.  You want folks who take the process seriously, and adhere to deadlines.  What you are doing is fishing for information about people who are unreliable, or who have poor attitudes. 

Then rank the folks on the long list.  Contact the top ones via email, and ask if they would be available to serve as an external reviewer.  Try to do this very early, as the plates of senior scholars fill up quickly.  If some decline, proceed down the list.  When you have assurance of availability, then send formal letters of solicitation.   At my place, we make the deadline for the review letter two weeks before we will actually need it.  You may want to build in a cushion as well.

The materials for each tenure package will have to conform to your university's guidelines.  Many universities are very strict about this.  Consult your faculty handbook, or other institutional rules.  At my place, each candidate for tenure puts together a binder or two containing a complete CV, and everything they've ever published.  We do not include teaching or service materials.  YMMV.

Your job as chair is likely to compose a letter that summarizes each external reviewer's letter, and contains your P&T committee's evaluations of each candidate's teaching and service.  There may well be unexpected comments, and it is your job to interpret or contextualize these comments in the letter you compose.

Having several tenure cases coming up in one year is hard work for the committee and the chair.  Good luck!

For full disclosure, I should note that I have not yet been in your position, but the current chair is preparing me for chairship, and thus has given me lots of information about this process, as well as others.