A&P Voting

Voting for appointment and promotions is an important responsibility of YSM and Departmental A&P Committees. For the YSM A&P Committees, this is coordinated by the OAPD. For the departments, this is coordinated by the faculty affairs departmental teams under the leadership of faculty affairs vice chairs and department chairs.

Most departmental voting involves senior faculty members (e.g., all professors on all ladder tracks and tenured associate professors) who formally and anonymously vote on the appointment, reappointment, or promotion of faculty to the ranks of associate or full professor. The chair may also invite or allow associate professors with term appointments to attend and vote on appointments or promotions of associate professors with term appointments. Faculty on the Clinical track may only vote on appointments and promotions of faculty on the Clinical track up to and including the rank they hold.

Research scientists and senior research scientists are not eligible to vote on ladder faculty appointments, but they may, if the chair approves, vote on research faculty appointments up to and including the rank they hold. They may not vote on reappointment to ranks equivalent to their own.

Those who are eligible to vote should have the ability to review materials prior to presentation of the cases. Materials should be accessed through Interfolio RPT or some comparable secure document management system.

Cases being considered should be presented and discussed. This can be in person or remotely if those attending remotely are connected by video and audio in a confidential setting where only they are able to see and hear the discussion. During the meeting, the eligible faculty vote by closed ballot on the approval of the appointment, reappointment, or promotion. If being done virtually, the most common voting platform utilized for this is Poll Everywhere (process questions can directed to OAPD).

Action shall be by majority of those eligible to vote and who are present for the case presentation and discussion. Faculty may vote Yes (approve), No (disapprove), or Abstain. Absentee ballots may not be counted. Recommended minimum quorums for voting are as follows:

• YSM A&P committee voting:
  
  • Term Appointments & Promotions Committee: 4 voting members
  • Senior Appointments & Promotions Committee: 6 voting members
• YSM departmental voting (whichever of the following is smaller is recommended minimum for quorum):
  • N=15 eligible voters for the rank being voted on
  • 50% of eligible voters for departments where this is less than the above stated number (but cannot be less than N=4)