Appointment Process

Promotion Strategies

Following is the process for being appointed to the University of Michigan Medical School:

Appointment Timeline

• Submit your CV to the appropriate department.
• If the department is interested, it will conduct an interview with you.
• If the department plans to pursue your employment, it will send you a letter of intent.
• At this point, you will need to provide the University of Michigan with:
  • A list of references
  • Five of your most recent and significant publications
  • Your teaching evaluations (if available)
  • A criminal background check authorization form
• We will conduct a criminal background check.
• The department will then prepare an appointment recommendation casebook, which consists of pertinent documents, and submits the casebook to the Office of Faculty Affairs.
• The appropriate approval bodies will review your casebook. Approval bodies vary by appointment title rank and may include:
  • Advisory committees
  • Assistant Dean, Office of Faculty Affairs
  • Dean, Medical School
  • Executive Committee
  • Executive Vice-President for Medical Affairs
  • U-M Board of Regents
  • U-M President
  • U-M Provost
• When we approve your appointment, we will send you a formal offer letter.
• When you accept our formal offer, please fill out and return all personnel forms.

Clinical Privileges

If you need to apply for clinical privileges, U-M Medical Staff Services will conduct credentialing and privileging that will begin simultaneously with your appointment process.

• You will need to complete the Online Faculty Application that includes information regarding:
  • Educational programs (medical school, dental school, internship, residency, doctoral program, postgraduate training, fellowships) - including start and end dates with month and year
  • Work experience since graduation from medical/dental school/doctoral program (include month/year).
  • Board certification
  • Licensure - Michigan and other past and current state licensure with dates
  • Current and past malpractice carriers within the past 5 years
  • Attestation (you must attest that the information is accurate to the best of your knowledge)
• You must also answer a list of Supplemental Questions, attest that the information is accurate to the best of your knowledge, and provide the names of three recent clinical references who can attest to your clinical skills and abilities (reflecting pertinent clinical activities occurring within the past 12 months). A Personal Identification Form will require a recent photo that must be notarized.
• Medical Staff Services' primary source verifies all information collected above.
• Once verification is completed, we verify a current appointment in the Medical School/Dental School, and we give your completed application to the Credentialing Committee for review and recommendation for approval. The application then moves forward to the Executive Committee for Clinical Affairs for approval, and the Hospital and Health Center Executive Board for final approval.

Tenure

Tenure is awarded only to faculty with appointments in the instructional track. Faculty members must hold their tenured positions in full recognition of the responsibilities they owe the University, as well as the responsibilities the University owes them. Tenure for the instructional faculty at the University is defined and governed by Bylaws 5.08 and 5.09. On the Ann Arbor Campus, the administrative supervision of these bylaws rests in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Tenure Clock Considerations

In recognition of the competing demands faced by faculty members who experience pregnancy, childbirth or extraordinary family care responsibilities (such as caring for an aging parent) during the tenure probationary period, the University provides the opportunity to exclude one year from the countable years of service that constitute the tenure probationary period. Faculty members may benefit from this policy even if they work full-time throughout the tenure probationary period.

If a faculty member bears one or more children during her tenure probationary period, she shall be granted an exclusion of one year from the countable years of service that constitute her tenure probationary period. If a faculty member is experiencing significant demands of family care, he or she may be granted an exclusion of one year from the countable years of service that constitute the tenure probationary period.

To request the exclusion of one year, a request must be submitted in writing to the relevant dean. To promote University-wide consistency, a copy of all requests and responses made under this policy on the Ann Arbor campus are forwarded through the Office of Academic Human Resources to the Provost for review.

Under this policy (SPG 201.92) (PDF) the tenure probationary period may generally be extended for only one year, regardless of the combination of circumstances.