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November 24, 2009
Dear Colleagues:
President Raines and Provost Faudree have requested that the Faculty
Senate consider a revision to the Faculty Handbook regarding language in
the section on tenure and promotion (T&P) practices. The proposed
revision addresses the statement acknowledging that “as departmental guidelines change, tenure-track faculty should
receive information and support to deal with the changes.” The purpose
of the revision is to specify the meaning of having adequate time to adjust
to changes in T&P criteria and how that period is determined.
Please note that the proposed revision would apply only when there are
changes in the evaluative criteria
for tenure and promotion, not other changes in T&P procedures. For
example, procedural changes—such as having letters of recommendation
submitted in a new electronic format—would not be subject to this language.
Two proposals for the Handbook revision have been suggested:
1. The first version is a rule-based
approach that specifies a set time period. In the current draft, the period
is five years, but it could be altered to some other length of time. This
proposal reads as follows:
“As departmental, college, and
university standards for T&P evolve, the expectations for faculty
members seeking tenure and promotion will also evolve. However, faculty
members who apply for tenure or promotion must be given adequate
opportunity to adjust to any substantial change in expectations that would
affect the status of their candidacy. Therefore, when applying for tenure
or promotion, candidates cannot be subject to revisions of the evaluative
criteria in T&P guidelines that
are more recent than either (a) five academic years prior to their
application or (b) the academic year in which they began service at the
university, whichever time period is shorter.”
2. The second proposal uses a judgment-based
model in which the length of time for adjusting to a change in T&P
criteria is determined on a case-by-case basis using current university
procedures. Those procedures would involve a recommendation by the
department faculty followed by approvals from the college dean and provost.
This proposal reads as follows:
“As departmental, college, and university
standards for tenure evolve, the expectations for faculty members seeking
tenure will also evolve. Therefore, when faculty members apply for tenure,
they do so under the guidelines and criteria in effect at the time of the
application. However, faculty members who apply for tenure must be given
adequate opportunity to adjust to a change in expectations for tenure which
have occurred since they were hired. The determination of what constitutes
an adequate opportunity to adjust to a change will be made in the same
manner as the university procedures for establishing department, college or
university tenure and promotion criteria as described in the 2009 Faculty
Handbook, Chapter 4 – Tenure and Promotion, Tenure and Promotion Overview,
taking into consideration the significance of the change.”
The tenure and promotion process is of the highest importance for a
university and the Faculty Senate wants to hear the views of all faculty
concerning the proposed revisions to the T&P language in our Faculty Handbook.
We therefore invite you to offer feedback and suggested changes to the
proposals using this survey link.
The survey is anonymous and your responses will not be identified with your
name.
If you have questions about the survey, please contact Carolyn
Featherstone <cafthrst@memphis.edu>
in the senate office for assistance.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey S. Berman
President, Faculty Senate
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