Dr. Banerjee is also active in his service to the University and to the broader community, serving as an Advisory Board Member for the Franklin Center for Innovation and serving community STEM programs such as the Kentucky Science and Engineering Fair, along with extensive service as a session organizer and moderator at academic conferences, and service on University committees and Faculty Senate.

This letter is not exhaustive of Dr. Banerjee’s accomplishments; his contributions to the University and to his field are numerous. Multiple other pertinent examples can be found within his dossier and are listed in the favorable Chair Recommendation and Unit Committee Report.

The University Tenure and Promotion Committee would like to note that the Dean’s report was not favorable with respect to his application for promotion to Full Professor. In that letter, Dean Coulson-Clark noted that Dr. Banerjee was ineligible for promotion at this time due to a lack of years of service. The Committee points to the language of the Faculty Handbook Section 2.6.2.1 as follows:

Professor: For promotion from the rank of associate professor to the rank of professor, the highest academic rank, the candidate’s academic achievements and professional reputation should be superior. This rank can be earned only by the faculty member who has a cumulative record of teaching effectiveness, substantial peer-reviewed publications and/or peer-reviewed creative achievement, professional contributions and service, and who has ten (10) years of teaching experience in an institution accredited by one of the accrediting agencies recognized by the US Dept. of Education (or its equivalent as determined by the academic unit/division and the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs). (Emphasis ours.)

While Dean Coulson-Clark references the four years of service granted by the prior Provost, those years are associated with the granting of tenure and are unrelated to the application for promotion (see Faculty Handbook Section 2.6.3.3, Tenure Eligibility and Review Schedule). Dr. Banerjee has been employed for more than 10 years as a faculty member, across three universities, and thus his years of service, by the definitions set forth in the Faculty Handbook, meet the qualification for the rank of Full Professor. Nevertheless, some Committee members continued to express reservations about the calculation of years of service for purposes of promotion.

The University Tenure and Promotion Committee, after careful deliberation and discussion of Dr. Banerjee’s dossier, including his record of teaching, scholarship and service, and all associated elements of the dossier including the Chair’s letter, the Unit Committee Report and the Dean’s letter, along with Dr. Banerjee’s letters of response, rendered the following vote: with respect to tenure: 6 in favor, none opposed, no abstentions; with respect to promotion: 2 in favor; 3 opposed; 1 abstention. Please note that one elected member of the Committee was fully recused from all deliberations and voting due to a Conflict of Interest, having served on the Unit Committee, as required by Faculty Handbook Section 2.7.7.4.