400 East Main Street, Frankfort KY 40601

January 15, 2021

College of Agriculture, Community and the Sciences Tenure and Promotion Committee Kentucky State University

Dear Dr. Sedlacek,

The School of Agriculture, Communities, and the Environment Unit Tenure and Promotion Review Committee is happy to recommend that Dr. Farida Olden be awarded tenure and promotion to the Rank of Associate Professor at Kentucky State University.

Dr. Olden has been employed at KSU since 2013, and started on a tenure-track in 2018. The committee primarily focused on the last five years of work at the University based on section 2.7.3.1.1, item VI.-D. in the KSU Faculty Handbook. The committee also considered Appendix K of the Faculty Handbook which describes the fact that Land Grant Faculty have research and/or extension appointments in addition to teaching responsibilities. Based on communication with the Dean, Dr. Olden's assigned responsibilities during 2013 to 2018 have been 100% Research, and since 2018 have been approximately 87.5% Research and 12.5% Teaching.

Dr. Olden has developed course materials for several courses, and mentored three students for special projects. According to communication with the Dean, Dr. Olden was assigned to teach ENV 545 in Fall of 2018 and has been teaching this course since that time. She has also taught BIO 103 and a special topics course as needed to mentor students in molecular methods. Student evaluations are consistently positive with regard to Dr. Olden’s teaching performance.

Dr. Olden has published four peer-reviewed research articles since she was hired at KSU. Two of these were published as first author, and all of them appear in prestigious journals. The committee recognizes that the transcriptional genetic analyses which Dr. Olden specializes in is tedious and very time-consuming work. She has applied