Iowa State University


Inside Iowa State
Apr. 03, 1998

Vote on P&T policy moves to faculty

by Linda Charles

The full faculty will have an opportunity to vote on a proposed promotion and tenure policy.

Paper ballots were to be mailed to faculty this week and are due May 1.

The policy as approved by the Faculty Senate during its meeting March 24 is in two sections, one dealing with evaluation and review of faculty, and the other with promotion and tenure. The senate approved the first section in a 37-24 vote and the second 49-12. Faculty will vote on the peer review section of the policy separately.

Under the proposed policy, faculty would have an annual departmental review. In addition, tenured faculty would have a peer review every seven years. The peer review would be more comprehensive than the annual review, and would assess the faculty member's scholarship and accomplishments in teaching, research or creative activities, extension or professional practice, and institutional service.

Probationary faculty would have a third-year review to provide developmental feedback on their progress toward tenure.

The promotion and tenure section of the policy calls tenure the "keystone" for academic freedom, which the policy defines as the freedom to discuss all relevant matters in the classroom; explore all avenues of scholarship, research and creative expression; and to speak and write as a public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint.

An addition made to the policy at the March 24 meeting would give faculty who have been denied tenure the right to have a second review during their final year. Faculty normally undergo tenure review in their sixth year, and if they are denied tenure, receive a final year of employment. In some cases, senators said, tenure is denied because the ability and accomplish-ments of the faculty member are not reflected in their dossiers. The proposed policy would give those denied tenure an opportunity to redo their dossiers to better reflect their careers.

Another modification approved by the senate would require members of a college promotion and tenure advisory committee to be elected by the faculty of that college or appointed from a list of faculty elected by the faculty of the college.

The proposed policy also would require deans who make a promotion recommendation contrary to that made by the departmental tenure committee, the DEO or the college tenure committee to notify all parties, including the candidate, of the reasons for that recommendation.

If the new policy is approved, it would affect tenure-track faculty hired fall 1998 or later. Tenure-track faculty already at Iowa State would decide, in discussions with their DEOs or departmental committees, whether they want to be under the old or new policy. Tenured faculty up for promotion between July 1, 1998, and June 30, 1999, also could choose which policy would apply to them.

The next senate meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. April 14 in 260 Scheman.

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