Tabular Presentation of Descriptor Changes

The table in the link below compares descriptors in the current policy with those in the proposed policy.

Comparisons in the table suggest three major changes.

1) Lower standards for those applying for tenure who already are at the rank of associate or full professor. The table shows tenure at a given rank and promotion to that same rank right after each other in order to highlight a rather significant and perhaps unintentional change. Current policy has the SAME standards for tenure at a given rank and promotion to that rank. This proposal has LOWER scholarship standards for someone applying for tenure at a given rank than for someone applying for promotion to that same rank. Hiring someone at the associate or full rank without tenure is a rare situation, but it can happen, most usually when the university hires chairs or department/school heads from the outside.

Though rare, this may raise an issue of fairness in terms of equal treatment. For example, someone hired as a full professor without tenure will not have to demonstrate to the P&T Committee the same high standards in scholarship as someone applying for the rank of full professor. That full professor applying for tenure could possibly be the supervisor of the person applying for full professor and be passing judgment on the quality of scholarship of the applicant for full professor, applying standards that the supervisor does not have to meet.

2) Devaluation of service. All descriptors suggesting high levels of service are dropped. "Outstanding service," "significant contributions," and even the lowest level descriptor of "active involvement" are gone in the proposed policy. The only standard one has to meet is simply "involvement" in service or "sustained service" for those applying for full professor. This seems to set a rather low bar. One of the complaints about current policy has been that "active involvement" does not suggest that anything should be accomplished. Dropping the term "active" suggests that even passive involvement might be good enough in service.

3) One-size-fits-all in the balance between service and scholarly activity. Current policy rewards faculty for very high levels of scholarly accomplishment or very high levels of service by allowing them to have lower levels in the other area. The proposed policy gives no choice or reward for great accomplishments in either area. Faculty need only meet some minimal level of involvement in service and what seems to read as a high level of scholarly accomplishment.

Notes:
1) Teaching descriptors are not shown in the table because they remain the same in the proposal as in current policy.

2) To shorten the presentation of scholarly activity descriptors,"..." is used in place of the phrase "scholarly/creative/applied professional activities."


Click Here for Link to Table