Departmental recommendation for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor December 2012. Thank you, Pitt CS.

Arbitrarily overturned by the Dean's Office April 2013. I had never met or interacted with the Dean, who had been in Office for more than 15 years. Sabbatical approved by the Provost's Office end of April 2013, then canceled July 2013. The university regulations do not allow a second shot at tenure; the only recourse is reconsideration with the same Dean and then appeal.

The School Appeal panel---same college, under the same Dean---finds 5-0 in favor of the appeal April 2014, on procedural violation grounds. Thank you, Pitt School of Arts and Sciences.

Then the upper administration stalls, while attempting to double my teaching load Sept 2014---four days before the start of the term. The university regulations provide no deadline for an appeal's resolution, and this was the second last-minute one-term contract extension I was offered (Summer 2014, Fall 2014). It was the only School of Arts and Sciences appeal filed that year; the denial was not the only intriguing tenure decision that year.

No resolution, despite support wide-spread over four colleges on campus, and a concern notice filed by the School Tenure Council itself. As documented in the appeal, professional performance had been at the very high end of the departmental pre-tenure range, in every aspect. Collegiality had been uniformly praised. All twelve external letters had been in "strong support". Thank you, Pitt colleagues and collaborators.


Thanks, Pitt, I quit. There were worse things happening on campus.

Wonderful colleagues, students and staff, though. The lab gave a goodbye party to honor our Pitt collaborators and friends, and our own accomplishments at Pitt. More than 50 people came, despite the last minute notice. Thank you, we are honored.

P.S.: Ironically, my group's work in biology visualization was later used to justify the presence of Pitt CS on a list of the . My entire lab had quit Pitt in Sept 2014 and moved to greener pastures.

The CS department had a constant number of 20 tenure lines. In my seven years there, I had known 12 Assistant Professors (from Patchrawat through to Kyoungsoo and Jack, and including myself). Among the eight Assistant Professors who reached the tenurable stage, the tenure rate was 50%, and the eighth year retention rate was 38%. At least two of the denied faculty went straight to Associate Professor positions at stronger departments. At least a (third) departmental decision had lead to a lawsuit against the university. Pitt faculty are not required to justify a non-supporting vote in any form.