Passed: May 28, 2021
Vote Results with comments
Posted: February 24, 2021
Sponsor: Academic Freedom and Professional Status of the Faculty Committee
Background:
While general policy regarding tenure is provided by the university through the Faculty Handbook, implementation details tend to be left to the colleges. Sharing college tenure processes is somewhat difficult because most of our colleges have chosen to store their procedure documents on local intranets that prevent public viewing. CALS and Engineering are exceptions.
There are several reasons for making college tenure documents publicly visible via the internet:
- It helps demystify the process. Why hide what is arguably our most important set of procedures?
- It promotes best practices across the colleges. Why not make it easy for one college to see how things are done in another college?
- It minimizes the chance for procedural missteps. Chairs are busy and need to be surrounded by colleagues and staff who have easy access to the rules.
- It guarantees that all the players are using the most recent set of documents. “Version control” become a non-issue.
- It fosters clarity. The document-writers know that they are not just writing for a small experienced group of policy-savvy individuals.
The Resolution
Whereas the processes that pertain to the granting of tenure are of utmost importance both to the candidate and the university;
Whereas it is essential to promote the clarity of these processes, their consistency with university level guidelines, and their accessibility;
Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate recommends that each college make all its tenure-related procedures publicly visible on its website.
Vote Results:
Yes = 63, No = 4, Abstain = 2, DNV = 57
Yes to the resolution