Personal Statements

Former CAP Chair:  Other UC campuses limit statements to 2, max 3 pages. A bit more is fine. But not too much more! ( longer statements for major/complicated promotion cases are acceptable)

RESEARCH, TEACHING, SERVICE

Personal statements should be written for an audience of reviewers (deans, CAP members, ad-hoc committee members, CP/EVC, and/or chancellor) who might not be familiar with the field. Use layperson’s language and be concise.

See also CAP’S TOP TEN LIST OF TIPS FOR FACULTY PREPARING PERSONNEL FILES below.

RESEARCH

•  Place the research contributions in context, explaining how they compare to standards in the candidate’s sub-field. 

• Describe the selectivity or impact of the publication or performance venue. 

• Describe your contributions to jointly authored work, and the conventions for author order in your field. Do not assume that reviewers understand the nature and prestige of awards, prizes, fellowships, or grants in your field.

• Annotated Biobib - can be included as part of your statement but does not count towards number of pages. PI’s should provide an annotated version of the bibliography that lays out contribution to multi-authored papers. Files should indicate clearly when the first author is a student or postdoc mentored by the faculty, and when the faculty member is the corresponding author. For situations where the faculty member’s research group is not in the lead on the publication, it is especially important to indicate their contribution.

DEI

Faculty under review for merit and promotion are encouraged to include information in their personal statements addressing their contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion at UCSC through their research, teaching, and service. Such contributions should be explicitly recognized, in accordance with policy on criteria for advancement (see policy excerpts at Evaluating Contributions to Diversity for Faculty Appointment and Promotion below).

TEACHING

 It is a UC policy requirement that merit and promotion files include more than one form of evidence of excellence in teaching. The CITL Guide to Providing Evidence of Excellence in Teaching is a helpful resource. 

https://tlc.ucsc.edu/resources/demonstrating-teaching-effectiveness/demonstrating-teaching-effectiveness-for-personnel-review/ 

Teaching INCLUDES mentoring

SUMMER TEACHING

 While summer teaching does not count toward academic year teaching loads, summer teaching during the review period counts toward evidence of teaching excellence. Teaching excellence involves assessment of quantity, quality, and impact, and summer teaching can be part of this assessment (and while summer teaching can often fall short on quantity compared to academic-year teaching, quality is still relevant in such cases).

Any summer teaching performed by PBSci senate faculty should be included in departmental assessments of their teaching excellence.

COMMUNITY ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP

EVC CAP Memo

Note:

It should be left entirely up to a candidate whether or not to include personal information re:  medical and/or childbearing leaves, etc.; even though well-intentioned, department and/or chair letters should not discuss personal information regardless of what may be included in a personal statement.

CAP’S TOP TEN LIST OF TIPS FOR FACULTY PREPARING PERSONNEL FILES

Evaluating Contributions to Diversity for Faculty Appointment and Promotion Under APM - 210