Swagata "Ban" Banerjee, Ph.D. | Email: Swagata.Banerjee@kysu.edu

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS PHONE: (502) 597-6276 FAX: (502) 597-6404 www.kysu.edu

February 10, 2021

To: Lucian Yates III, Interim Provost / Vice President for Academic Affairs Kentucky State University (KSU)

Re: Letter dated February 5, 2021 (received via email at 7:11 pm, EST, on Sunday, February 7, 2021) from Dr. Cynthia S. Glass, Chair of the University Tenure and Promotion (T&P) Committee

Dear Provost Yates:

I am writing this in response to the above-referenced letter, and in keeping with the Faculty Handbook (latest revision: August 27, 2019) Section 2.7.3 ("Promotion and/or Tenure Dossiers") that begins on Page 57 and Section 2.7.4 ("Review Procedures for Promotion and/or Tenure Dossiers") that begins on Page 62.

• First, I wish to convey my gratitude to the members of the University T&P Committee for the time and effort they took to go through my online dossier and write a fairly detailed letter. More specifically, I thank them for the following reasons:
• For acknowledging the fact that I was kept on hold for two years after applying for tenure (T) & promotion (P) in 2018-19, with hopes of a decision, only not to be rendered one in the end, for neither T nor P.
• For confirming the fact that I am in fact eligible for promotion to professor, unlike what Interim Dean Coulson-Clark contended in her letter dated January 29, 2021. That is, for agreeing with me that “the four years of service granted by the prior Provost...are associated with the granting of tenure and are unrelated to the application for promotion” [per Faculty Handbook Section 2.6.3.3 (“Tenure Eligibility and Review Schedule”)]. I fail to understand and am unclear why “some Committee members continued to express reservations about the calculation of years of service for purposes of promotion” because the Faculty Handbook Sections 2.6 and 2.7 cannot be clearer on this issue.
• For acknowledging the strengths of my contributions in all three areas under review – teaching, scholarship, and service.
• For voting unanimously (6-0) toward granting me tenure with one person recusing to review, deliberate, and vote due to conflict of interest.
• However, I would like to make a very strong rebuttal of the committee's unfavorable vote for my promotion to the rank of Professor. I do so on the following five (5) main grounds: