Section III: Application Format

Effective December 1, 2000
Revised December 8, 2022
Revised August 4, 2003
Revised July 1, 2010
Revised October 17, 2019
Note: This format is used for all Extension Faculty personnel action packets, except Post Tenure Compensation. It corresponds to that required of all UMaine Faculty members, including section and sub-section numbering. PTC packets include only the cover letter, job description, program summaries, and expanded CV; other sections, including appendices, should not be included.

Cover Letter

A cover letter should accompany the Faculty member’s packet. The cover letter provides a context for the Faculty member’s work as described in their packet and guidance for reviewers. The cover letter should include:

  • A statement of the personnel action and rank requested and the date it is to be effective
  • Faculty members with a joint appointment should indicate the proportional breakdown of the appointment
  • Faculty members on fixed length, soft money, or non-continuing contract should indicate the specifics of their appointment
  • Information about any extenuating circumstances that reviewers should be aware of, such as additional work taken on during a colleague’s absence or during a position vacancy
  • A brief overview of how the packet was compiled, such as how supporting documents are arranged
  • Face to face meetings with the PRC will be reserved for reappointment and promotion packets only. Faculty members planning to submit a packet for promotion to full professor in the fall may request a face to face meeting with the PRC, but this request must be included in the cover letter of the packet.
  • For post-tenure compensation (PTC) packets, the PRC will answer questions by telephone or electronic means only.

I. Face Data

A. Name

B. Current Rank

C. Cooperative Extension Office and Location

D. Professional Experience
(Provide a list of previous salaried positions, with dates, beginning with the most recent.)

E. Educational Background
(For each degree obtained, provide field, institution, and date received.)

II. Record of Actions

A. Initial Probationary Appointment
(Provide date of hire, rank, and number of years credit towards any continuing contract, if any.)

B. Reappointments
(Provide effective date and length of each reappointment.)

C. Promotion(s)
(Provide effective date and new title and rank information for any promotion.)

D. Continuing Contract Recommendations
(This section will be completed as the application for Continuing Contract moves forward.)

1. Promotion Review Committee’s Recommendation:
Positive ____ Negative ____ Date:
2. Program Administrator’s Recommendation:
Positive ____ Negative ____ Date:
3. Director’s Recommendation:
Positive ____ Negative ____ Date:
4. Chief Academic Officer’s Recommendation:
Positive ____ Negative ____ Date:
5. President’s Recommendation:
Positive ____ Negative ____ Date:

E. Exceptions to Board of Trustees Policy
(not applicable to Faculty members with majority Extension appointments)

F. Transmittal Letters
(The appropriate administrative review letters will be inserted in the application for continuing contract as it moves forward.)

  1. President
  2. Chief Academic Officer
  3. Director
  4. Program Administrator

III. Candidate’s Profile (This section must start on a new page.)

A. Job Description
Include a copy of your current job description, followed by a listing of the Performance Areas with days and weights assigned to each and the POW issues and outcomes addressed in Performance Area I. Please provide a space at the bottom of the page for your Program Administrator’s signature and date.

Example 1:

Performance Area Days Weight (%)
I – Educational Program Development
Sustainable Communities
Entrepreneurship – Small and Home Based Business
Community Development: Capacity-Building Skills		 140
(60)
(40)
(40)		 61
(42)
(29)
(29)
II – Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching and Advising n/a n/a
III – Scholarship and Professional Activity 40 17
IV – County, Organizational, and Campus Service 20 9
V – Public Service 5 2
Unassigned 25 11
Total 230 100

Program Administrator: _________________________________
Date: ___________

Example 2:

Performance Area Days Weight (%)
I – Educational Program Development
Youth Development
Healthy Lifestyles
Sustainable Communities		 140
(70)
(40)
(30)		 61
(50)
(29)
(21)
II – Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching and Advising n/a n/a
III – Scholarship and Professional Activity 40 17
IV – County, Organizational, and Campus Service 20 9
V – Public Service 5 2
Unassigned 25 11
Total 230 100

Program Administrator: _________________________________
Date: ___________
B. Professional Development Plan
Include a copy of your Professional Development Plan using the form ( Word | PDF ) provided in the Document Library at the UMaine Extension Community Portal. (You may be prompted to login to myUMaine Portal; use your gmail user name and password.)

IV. Program Summaries

Packets can include between one and six program summaries. The number of summaries should reflect the nature of the appointment and the length of the evaluation period. Each program summary should be no more than two pages in length. Program summaries should address these criteria:

Performance Area I: Educational Program Development
Criterion 1: Conducts issues and needs assessment
Criterion 2: Sets goals and outcome-based objectives in relation to the State Plan of Work
Criterion 3: Designs, delivers, evaluates, refines, and reports programs; individually or as part of a team
Criterion 4: Documents impact with emphasis on economic, environmental, and social conditions for Maine citizens and others
Criterion 6: Conducts or collaborates on applied research to support program development
Criterion 7: Seeks and acquires grants, contracts, and special funds in support of educational program development
Note: Criteria 5 and 8 are addressed in the Expanded CV.

It is not expected that every program summary will fully address each criterion; however, each criterion should be addressed at least once among all the program summaries submitted.

V. Expanded Curriculum Vitae (CV)

The remainder of a Faculty member’s packet consists of an expanded CV that principally covers the evaluation period. The CV is composed of two parts.

Part one should contain:

  • Brief job description
  • Personal information
  • Academic background
  • Employment experience
  • Professional organizations
  • Licenses and certifications
  • Teaching experience (if applicable)

Part two should contain:

  • Performance Area I: Educational Program Development
    • Criterion 5: Engages in professional development to enhance teaching preparedness and effectiveness
    • Criterion 8: Demonstrates educational program leadership
  • Performance Area II: Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching and Advising – (If applicable)
    • Criterion 1: Teaching philosophy, strategies, and approaches
    • Criterion 2: Efforts to address multiculturalism, gender, and international issues and other curricular goals of UMS
    • Criterion 3: Efforts to enhance teaching effectiveness
    • Criterion 4: Courses Taught
    • Criterion 5: Special teaching assignments or innovations
    • Criterion 6: Strategies and approaches to student advising
    • Criterion 7: Advising commitments for honors theses, masters theses and doctoral dissertations
    • Criterion 8: Student Evaluations (summary provided elsewhere, do not include individual evaluation forms)
  • Performance Area III: Scholarship and Professional Activity
    • Criterion 1: Scholarly works completed and in progress
    • Criterion 2: Unpublished professional presentations (Optional)
    • Criterion 3: Other scholarly activities (Optional)
  • Performance Area IV: County, Organization, and Campus Service
    • Criterion 1: Serves on organizational committees
    • Criterion 2: Serves on search and interview teams
    • Criterion 3: Enhances skills and knowledge of County Executive Committees and other advisory groups
    • Criterion 4: Builds and sustains UMaine Cooperative Extension linkages with county, UM, and UMS (Optional)
    • Criterion 5: Conducts administrative roles and responsibilities including the role of county coordinator (Expected)
    • Criterion 6: Demonstrates commitment to UMaine Cooperative Extension civil rights expectations, and UMaine Extension and UM diversity goals
  • Performance Area V: Public Service
    • Criterion 1: Presentation and programs that do not require engagement in the full educational program development process
  • Performance Area VI: Awards and Recognition
    • Criterion 1: Type of award or recognition (Optional)

VI. Evaluations of Teaching (applicable only to Faculty members with joint teaching appointments who teach undergraduate and graduate credit courses)

A. Student Evaluations of Teaching
Provide a summary of qualitative and quantitative student evaluations. Sample formats for reporting student evaluations are provided in the tenure packet. A candidate is not limited to using only these formats if another method of exhibiting the data is preferred. Individual student evaluation forms should not be included.

B. Other Evaluations of Teaching

  • Provide Peer Evaluations, if any
  • List teaching awards, if any
  • If your department has a graduate program, provide evaluative information on your teaching of graduate students in the classroom and on your thesis advising (e.g., student evaluations, peer evaluations, administrative evaluations, presentation and publications of your students)

Candidates are encouraged to include the number of enrolled students as well as the departmental or college mean in any statistical summaries, if available.

C. Examples of Staff Promotional Packets

VII. Departmental Peer Committee Evaluation (applicable only to Faculty members with joint appointments – see Section I.K for information about Peer Committees for Faculty members with joint appointments)

A. Evaluation Letter (Evaluation must be based on the Unit’s evaluation criteria.)

1. Evaluation of Teaching (Note: Candidates should submit copies of course syllabi to the departmental peer committee in an appendix.)

    • Evaluate the Faculty member’s performance as a teacher and advisor of undergraduates (classroom, laboratory, office, special projects, etc.). Comment on strengths, weaknesses, student evaluation results, syllabi, and evaluations by colleagues
    • Evaluate the Faculty member’s role in the program of the department, college, and University
    • Evaluate the Faculty member’s performance as a graduate teacher and thesis advisor when applicable
    • Note any special efforts undertaken to enhance the effectiveness of the Faculty member’s teaching

2. Evaluation of Scholarship

    • Evaluate the quality of the Faculty member’s scholarly writing and the journals in which it appears; which appear in the major refereed journals in their field?
    • Assess the Faculty member’s regional, national, and international reputation in their field; has the Faculty member been sought out to review papers submitted for publication or presentation, grant proposals, or to serve as a member of a review panel?
    • Frequently Faculty members are active in more than one area of scholarship and collaborate with persons in other departments or in scholarly groups off campus; if appropriate, letters that speak explicitly to the kind and quality of the Faculty member’s contributions should be requested from the responsible individuals in such scholarly organizations

3. Evaluation of Service

    • Evaluate the Faculty member’s public service activities, both compensated and non compensated, that utilize professional expertise; these should be activities conducted as a Faculty member, rather than those performed as a citizen
    • Particular emphasis should be given to service that contributes to the economy, culture, and quality of life of citizens of Maine, the region, and the nation; if appropriate, letters of evaluation of public service activities should be included in the appendices
    • Evaluate the Faculty member’s service to the department, if applicable, and to the University, school, or college, or other committees

B. Recommendation – Recommended Action

  • The dated recommendation should be prepared on departmental letterhead; it must list the names of the voting members of the committee along with their signatures and be copied to the unit member
  • If the recommendation for action is not unanimous, the vote tally should be noted
  • The recommendation should include a notation that the Faculty member received a copy
  • Recommendations for tenure before the end of the probationary period represent an exception of Board of Trustee policy; if this recommendation is an exception, the departmental peer committee evaluation should include a brief rationale for such an exception

VIII. Letters of Support

Include in applications for promotion and continuing contract only. Organize letter of support under these headings:
A. Letters Internal to UMaine Cooperative Extension, UM, and UMS
B. Letters from Program Clients, Members of Advisory Groups, and Program Volunteers
C. Letters from Collaborators in Institutions, Agencies, and Organizations External to UMS