KampusKoncern

TaiHing' on Tenure

The Cadre has written critiques of the Tenure system_before7 yet most students do not know the nature of how a professor receives tenure! I will ate tempt, in this-essay, to alleviate this lack of in- formation, pronto.

To begin, some quotes frcn‘

the Senate tenure document: (1972)-

. from pg. 12 — A) DEFINITION:

"Tenure" means appointment without term, the right.of a faculty member not to be dismissed except for cause. Appointment without term _ includes the right during the appoihtment to fair

consideration for increases

of responsibility and sal— ary, and promotion in rank."

B) CRITERIA:

"The criteria to which part icular consideration shall be given in deciding whe- ther to grant tenure ar the following:' m l). The candidate's pro fessional competence and promise as manifested by his/her teaching perform- ance, research and other creative activities, pub- lications and continuing productivity. 7

2). Evidence of appropri- ate response to the reason4 able expectations of the ‘ candidates department and,

faculty, and tuis Univers- ity with respect to admin- istrative and committee- work. '

3). The forseeable contin- uing academic needs of the candidate‘s department and faculty, and this Univers— ity.

Tenure will not mormally be granted to a candidate who has not met the cri- teria for the rank of assistant professor."

Most profe5sors must apply for tenure after being on staff for four years. I say most because it is written into the Senate document that the Pres— ident may recommend to the Board of Governors, by- passing the tenure commit— tee, the appointment of tenure to’a person who is being hired as an assoc- iate professor or full pro- fessor. Exceptional facul- tY members show outstand- ing performance in all facets of university life may be granted tenure be- fore the expiration of the intiial four-year period. (Sessional lecturors are not eligible for tenure.)

The tenure committee con—,

.‘_.

by ioel hansen

sists of: Three Deans (ex officio)

one student representative,

one representative from .each faculty and tWo un- tenured faculty represent— atives. The terms of office with the exception of the Deans who are on the Senate tenure committee ex offick> ~shall be tw0'years, renew— able by Senate at the end of a term.

In order to see the systen in operation, let us posit an imaginary faculty mem- ber, say Sam Slick, who has been here for four years. Unless Sam Slick writes for a one year deferral of con- sideration, the Chairman of

-his department automatical-

ly begins his file of ap— plication for tenure. (Note: any faculty member may ask for a deferral of one year: however, at the end of the year of grace extended the faculty mem-

An Vt ue ritul shows pressor being assessed! If he sinks, he is granted tenure, but if he ﬂoats he is a heretic and denied tenure.

ber must apply for tenure.) The Chairman of the dept. then asks for a vote from.

,the members of Samy's de-

partment (faculty) on

‘ whether Samy is competent

enough in their View to be given tenure. The vote is carried out by Secret bal-

‘lot. The results 9f this

‘vote are then recorded in Slick's file.

The Chairman then seeks 'from Mr. Slick whatever basic documentation he wishes to present in sup— -port of his application. This is done in the form of a written submission

Afrom Sam Slick.

Student evaluation is also considered and recorded

on his file. The evaluat- ion is usually carried

out via the forms Senate has deemed official.

TheSe forms are given to the students who are stud- ying under Samy's academic (inward?) eye, who then fill the forms out and re- turn them to Samy who for— wards them to the Chairman of the department. The

THE CADRE,

‘TUES. , OCT. 30/73

Page 3

forms are then put in Sam's application file.

The Chairman prepares a summary of Sam's scholarly activities (soliciting ex— pert advice where necess-

-ary) and inserts the sum—

mary into his file.

After all of this infor- mation is gathered, it is put in an orderly form, and presented to the Dean of Sam's faculty. The Dean informs Sam if the Chair- man of his department has supported or opposed his election to tenure. If the chairman has opposed his election, Sam Slick can appeal the Chairman's re- solution to an appeals cone mittee. (the file is then reviewed by this committee and recommendations are made). If the chairman has ‘supported Slick's applica- tion, it is forwarded to the Chairman of the Senate Tenure Committee.-

The Senate Tenure Commit— tee will meet each year between September 15th and October 7th to consider all applications for that_ academic year. This year

rSam Slick is applying,

therefore, the committee shall decide by vote, whether to grant him tenure,

If Sam is refused tenure by the committee, he may” ask for a special session with the committee to re— examine his application. After the re-examination is executed a new vote is held on the granting of tenure to Samy. After this, his application is forward-k ed to the President.

The President will make his recommendations in writting to the Board of Fovernors, a copy of which Sam will receive.

.The Board of Governors then notifies Sam Slick, 31 writting, of its decision.

(In this case Sam Slick was granted tenure — pretty slick - eh?)

Now that I have made known'the system of tenure, granting at this university let us take a closer, more

.critical look at its oper-

ation. -

In preparing for this art- icle, I talked to Cecil Bradley, the student re— presentative on the tenure committee. Bradley expres- sed some pessimism as to the maintenance of a mean— ingful tenure system at U.P.E.I.7 his reason, ten— ure is granted too easily. He claimsﬁthat the criter— ia handed down by Senate up the committee, mentioned aforesaid, are too vague for correct and meaningful granting of tenure. "Basic- ally if a professor is a nice guy, hasn't caused any trouble at the University, and possesses some minimal

con’f on pg.4