Dear Colleagues:
I write to provide you with some information and suggestions when soliciting internal (UCSC) letters for an academic personnel review. These types of letters are becoming more common in review files as new interdisciplinary research units are established on campus, and it is not always clear whose views are represented in these letters (i.e., the view of an individual or the view of the unit).
When soliciting letters from campus colleagues to obtain feedback on teaching or service, or in some instances, for an evaluation of the research, please consider the following:
- In your departmental solicitation letter, specifically identify your intent in sending the letter (i.e., are you asking the letter writer for their individual assessment of the candidate or are you asking the letter writer to solicit input from the unit as a whole). Attached is a sample solicitation letter.
- If you have already solicited such letters and have not specifically identified whose views should be represented in the letter, and it is not clear from the letter you received whose views are represented, please follow up with the letter writer to clarify; a phone call or email would be sufficient in this case.
- Clarifying information can be included on the list of letter writers placed in the review file.
Providing this information in the file will help reviewers to better understand whose views are represented in the file; it will also help when forming an ad hoc personnel review committee, if needed.
Please note that this information does not pertain to letters written by host departments for joint appointees. The campus policy on joint appointments provides separate instructions for these situations.
If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Furber, furber@ucsc.edu, ext. 9-4779.
Sincerely,
Pamela G. Peterson
Assistant Vice Chancellor
Academic Personnel
