Tenure process defined
By Kristin Colyer for The Bucknellian
 

Answer the following to the best of your ability: What is the tenure status of your current professors? Are they currently seeking tenure? Are they adjunct, assistant, associate or full professors? And what do those distinctions mean? What is tenure, anyway?

If you are having trouble answering any or all of these questions, don't worry. You're not alone. Very few students are familiar with the specifics of the tenure process, even though the part they play in it is crucial. Everything you need to know about tenure, but didn't know you were supposed to ask

This process affords students with the greatest opportunity they have to participate in the formation of their university community; they help decide who gets hired and who gets fired. If students know how, they can wield this power to their utmost advantage. Knowing how the tenure process works is the necessary first step.

The Basics

When a professor receives tenure, it basically means that for six years he or she has demonstrated a quality of service and scholarship that the university can be assured will continue. This results in a permanent job for the professor, as long as contractual obligations are fulfilled.

Why do we need tenure? This employment status is crucial not only as a form of security, but as a way of protecting academic freedom. Once professors have tenure, they have more academic freedom; they cannot be fired solely for the views they espouse. Tenured professors also command higher salaries. Without tenure, professors could be strung along for years not being paid as much and without the benefit of academic freedom. Thus, this process is designed to prevent universities from creating a whole group of underpaid, insecure faculty.

Before gaining tenure, professors are employees-at-will of the university. They can be dismissed at any time at the discretion of their employers. After granting a professor tenure, the university must go through a lengthy process to dismiss him or her which includes built-in safeguards (detailed on pages 23-24 of the Faculty Handbook). An inquiry must be conducted by a faculty hearing committee and the university must show adequate cause for the dismissal. This insurance clearly makes tenure a desirable advantage for a professor to have.

The Process

How do professors go about getting tenure? If a person is hired as an assistant professor, it indicates that he or she has been placed on a tenure track. In their quest for tenure, assistant professors participate in second, fourth and sixth year reviews. For each of these reviews, the professor's Departmental Review Committee (DRC) collects information and determines whether or not the candidate has met both the departmental and university standards which are required for continued progress. The DRC then reports to the University Review Committee (URC).

According to Teresa Amott, head of the URC, this elected committee ensures \"that the same standards are being applied fairly across the board. One of the reasons for the university level review is to make sure that departments are all making the same kinds of assessments.\"

At the second and fourth year reviews, both the DRC and the URC give guidance to candidates as to the areas they need to work on in the future. In order to continue, professors must demonstrate that they are responsive to committee and student concerns and are willing to make changes when problems arise.

By the sixth year or tenure review, standards are higher. Major problems should no longer occur. Final assessments of professors are made according to three categories: Service, Scholarship and Teaching.

The Faculty Handbook regards \"[s]ervice on University, Faculty and Department committees [as] a significant responsibility of members of faculty.\" It is a necessary requirement for tenure, but not as heavily weighted or controversial as scholarship or teaching.

Scholarship

Scholarship consists of research conducted and papers published by professors. According to the Faculty Handbook, \"[f]aculty scholarship is essential. It is unlikely that the person would be tenured without some form of peer-reviewed scholarship.\" At the second and fourth year reviews, the department evaluates the candidate's scholarship.

For the tenure review, work is sent to outside reviewers who are usually professors at other universities. These reviewers are asked to comment primarily on the quality not the quantity of the work. This is crucial, Amott says, \"because [Bucknell's] emphasis on teaching means that you're not going to produce anywhere near as much scholarship as you would if you were at a major research university. What we do expect of faculty here is that the work they do be of high quality.\"

Publish or Perish?

Is scholarship more important in determining tenure than teaching ability? How can an institution like Bucknell which prides itself on a high level of faculty/student involvement have it both ways? Amott admits that \"some trade off in time exists.\" Professors need to devote enough time to scholarship to produce work of high quality without compromising time with students. \"Any faculty review committee member would not want to see a professor whose scholarship is having a negative effect on his or her teaching.\"

The rationale for requiring scholarship is two-fold. First, on-going scholarship can make professors better instructors because the ideas they bring to the classroom are new and up-to-date. Second, contrary to the belief that scholarship takes time away from students, professors are increasingly involving students in their research projects. In this way, research gives undergraduates added opportunities to collaborate with faculty members which otherwise would not be available.

The University maintains that scholarship and teaching are equally weighted when tenure decisions are made. However, since the process is entirely confidential, only the candidate and the committees involved know for sure the basis of tenure approvals or denials.

Teaching

According to the Faculty Handbook, \"[e]ffective teaching is essential, and teaching is the principle activity in which the Faculty of the University is engaged.\" Assessment of teaching is based on several elements. Professors submit a syllabus for each of their courses. They also have the option of including exams, graded student work, handouts or assignments. Course teaching evaluations are included and \"every single one of them is read,\" Amott assures.

Some other form of student input is also required. How this input is attained differs depending upon the department. Some departments commission a committee of students to observe classes or participate in interviews. Many times students are asked to write letters describing the candidate's impact on their educational experience.

Candidates can submit a statement explaining their submissions, including reasons they feel they've gotten negative evaluations. For instance, disliked introductory level courses often produce negative evaluations, regardless of the instructor (see box, 20 Ways to Improve Your Teaching Evaluations Without Improving Your Teaching).

Student Evaluations: How Much Power Do You Have?

Student evaluations clearly play a role in determining whether or not a faculty member receives tenure. If evaluations are consistently poor, it obviously reflects negatively on the professor. Low ratings and numerous negative comments on student evaluations can play a serious part in a professor being denied tenure. Therefore, students should not take this responsibility lightly.

In filling out evaluations, students should consider the dual purpose that they serve: to provide feedback to the faculty about the course and to evaluate overall the professor. \"Students need to evaluate the faculty member in the context of their own effort in the course,\" Amott urges. \"They must consider their own effort, the course itself and the faculty member as a teacher in order to arrive at a balanced view of the semester's experience.\"

For nontenured faculty, these evaluations are crucial. But what about those who already are tenured? How do negative evaluations affect them? After gaining tenure, professors assume the status of associate professor and are placed in three year merit review cycles. At these times, professors are placed into one of three categories (low, middle, high).

Consistent, negative evaluations could cause professors to be placed into the lower category which could hurt their salary. In a new system that is currently under discussion, evaluations could hold even more weight. Finer distinctions would need to be made between professors and evaluations might be more closely scrutinized. Evaluations can also affect promotions to full professor which must occur at least six years after tenure has been granted, more commonly much longer. Therefore, professors may not be able to \"move up\" if they do not have positive student feedback.

It is important that students recognize the power that student evaluations grant to them and the part that they play in the tenure process. Not only does knowing about tenure help students to understand the frequently stressful path that their professors must follow, but also enables students to feel that they do have some power in the university community. Exercise it wisely.

Advice from a former professor: How should students fill out course evaluations?
By David Lien for The Bucknellian
 

You have just finished the semester, and you are filling out the course evaluation form. The teacher was very enthusiastic about the course, seemed to know a lot about the material, but seemed to have a difficult time relating to the class at times, and would often go too fast and in too much depth for the level of the class.

However, some of these failings may be due to the inexperience of the teacher, whom you note seems to be relatively young, and who has only been teaching at Bucknell for two years. Generally, the teacher seemed to be about average, and you quickly fill in the circle corresponding to "average" or even "above average" by each of the items.

As you look around you, you see a number of your classmates leaving after they filled in just the multiple choice part of the questionnaire. The general consensus seems to be that these forms are pretty much a waste of time. You've even heard that some teachers don't even read them.

However, you decide to stay a bit longer to make a few written comments on your sheet, saying perhaps how you enjoyed the class, but that you thought that there could be some improvement in a few areas, which you then describe in a number of separate sentences. Although some of your comments seem to be a bit blunt and harsh, you feel that the teacher will take the comments in the spirit of the rest of the evaluation, where you gave the teacher an overall "above average" rating.

You turn in your course evaluation and leave the classroom feeling pleased that perhaps your comments will help the next set of students who take the course.

Congratulations. Your average ratings and negative comments may have just helped to fire your instructor.

To overstate the obvious, all of the faculty at Bucknell were hired to teach. But exactly what makes a good teacher? Does the teacher have to be entertaining in order to be good? Does a good teacher have to be old? Young? Male? Female? Enthusiastic? Does a good teacher have to have a Ph.D.? Are the number of assignments, papers and tests a measure of the quality of the teacher? Is the teacher good if you get an \"A\" but bad if you flunk? What exactly does make a good teacher?

More to the point, how can a teacher's teaching be evaluated in a way that actually measures their teaching abilities, and not their popularity, gender, race, appearance, ability as an entertainer or any ospace as possible with (only) negative comments.

If you want the teacher to actually know what you think, and want to provide some constructive criticism, then vote either "yes" or "no" as described above, then hand a separate sheet of paper with your real comments on them to the teacher. Only in this way will you know for sure that your comments and concerns won't be taken out of context when the instructor is up for review.

If the instructor is tenured, then your vote means absolutely nothing. 95 percent or more of all of the faculty (tenured and un-tenured) get raises which are at or above the rate of inflation every year regardless of their evaluations (the other 5 percent usually get a bigger raise). Your comments and "votes" are essentially meaningless in determining the tenured instructors only external incentive (their salary).

For the nontenured instructors at Bucknell who read this article, I highly recommend reading Neath's article, (on previous page), on improving your teaching evaluations. His suggestions are much easier than actually improving your teaching (and will result in better evaluations, which is more important than being a good teacher, unless you have some silly moral or ethical feelings about actually providing a quality education for the students who are paying for it, in which case you should probably leave the teaching field as soon as possible).

For the students who read this article, you may notice that your classes are getting easier and that there are fewer assignments and tests. However, I'm sure that your high GPA more than makes up for any uneasy feelings you may have about whether you are actually learning anything useful. But most important is the fact that you are happy at Bucknell, and that you will continue to pay the ever-rising tuition for your exceptional grades.

And if you are happy, then your comments on your course evaluations will be positive, and your instructors will be happy. And of course, the administration will be very happy, because, as one tenured professor told me before I left, "Bucknell is now in the business of selling diplomas. If a student happens to get an education along the way, that's great, but it's not a high priority."

David J. Lien, Ph.D. is currently a Research Astronomer at Vanguard Research, Inc. in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Division.

After 6 years at Bucknell, Dr. Lien was denied tenure by the University Review Committee despite a unanimous recommendation by the Department of Physics DRC, primarily because the URC felt that he would not be able to maintain a viable research program at Bucknell, but also because of the number of negative comments and number of students who rated him \"average or below\" on their course evaluations.

The views expressed by David Lien do not necessarily reflect those of the Bucknellian staff.