  Merit based promotion & tenure decision have always been controversial. This
paper suggests an agent based model of the decision making processs using
spectral graph theory, where the voting agents are the vertices of the graph,
and edge weights are determined based on the extent of collaborative research
between the agents, as well as their estimated levels of social interactions.
The model assumes that agents with lower research productivities tend to
interact more often with one another. Using the graph theoretic spectrum, the
paper proposes a 2-dimensional influence diagram that maps the voting agents
into points on a 2-dimensional grid, where agents that are likely to influence
each other more are closely spaced. Next, a dynamic model is addressed, where
votes are determined based on very small randomly assigned initial values, and
the mutual interaction during the decision making process. The model is able to
accurately reproduce a known promotion decision making from a department of a
research oriented university which involved a sizeable number of voting agents
with low research outputs.
