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Wish you were here'
Dear Folks,
Having a wonderful time here in Ann Arbor. The weather has been
great, lots of sunshine but don't get to the beach too often. We're
staying at the Student Publications Building, 420 Maynard. There's
lots of nice people here at The Daily. And the night life-simply
wild! Drinks are cheap-10 cents a bottle-and the entertainment is
fabulous. We've changed at least 20 typewriter ribbons and the
headlines and lay-outs we've been working on are marvelous. Even
though we're having lots bf fun we miss you all back home. Stop by
when you get into town. We're near Dooley's! Wish you were hkre.
P.S. Don't forget to water. the plants.
Jerry gives his all
When he was a center on the University football team Gerald Ford
gave his all to this school and now that he's moved on to bigger and
better things, Jerry hasn't forgotten us back here in Ann Arbor. The
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, now under construction, will
house an extensive collection of Ford memorabilia including:
Jerry's framed plates showing Abraham Lincoln, eagles and
eaglets; his miniature elephant statuary collections and his mounted
sailfish. But perhaps University security should keep an extra close'
watch on a potentially hazardous gift-Ford's golf clubs.
The Michigan Daily-thursday, September 7, 1978-Page 3 i
Tenure: Pinning down specifics
By BRIAN BLANCHARD
Some of the most renowned lecturers
and researchers as well as all of the
gxaduate students who teach first and
second year students work without
tenure - the former group because for
one .reason or another they haven't
made the requisite commitment to the
University; the latter because they.
haven't yet had time to earn such a vote
of confidence. But tenure is the em-
*ploynent scheme by which most of the'
yinstuction and research in theUniver-
sity is accomplished, and as far as most
of the administrators and professors
wh abide by its constraints and favors
;ark concerned, it is an institution to be
reckoned with. They aren't so sure,
foigh about just what tenure is.
A professor and an administrator
4oth made the same claim during in-
erviews last spring that .the main
reason unionization, tenure's foremost.
alternative, could never replace tenure
on campus is that, unlike blue-collar
jobs where duties are uniform, no two
professors could ever agree on their
rights and obligations.
VIRGINIA NORDBY, Academic Af-
fairs policy coordinator, -and Charles
Lehmann, an Education professor and
head of the faculty's Senate Assembly,
agreed that the only aspect of the
tenure system which has been set down
on paper is surprisingly fundamental -
the 'right to a hearing before being
dismissed.
In practice, though, it is widely
assumed that the University owes its
tenured faculty much more than sim-
ply the right to a single hearing, and
that professors in turn have many
duties to perform for their employer
which are never spelled out in anything
approaching contractual form.
That's why it has taken the Senate
Assembly and the administration so
much time to put together definitions of
the tenure system in the forms of the
Senate's Tenure Policy and the Univer-
sity's faculty handbook, both of which
should be available in the fall.
TENURE WAS developed about 60
years ago to protect professors from
assaults on their academic freedom
and to guarantee that scholars can con-
tinue their life-long pursuits without
regard for intellectual fads or the state
of the job market. Tenure, which sim-
ply means a job guarantee, provides a
degree of security to lure an accom-
plished group of skilled workers who
could, in most cases, make more money
outside the University.
gut while tenuresin its literal sense,
means that the professor can hold onto
his or her position more easily than
most workers, it has become in-
creasingly hard to earn that security as
budgets shrink and enrollments level
off or taper.
Department heads and ad-
ministrators have good reason to ap-
proach questions of tenure appointmen-
ts and privileges, carefully since it is an
investment somewhere in the neigh-
borhood of a million dollars for the
professor who averages $25,000 and
stays for around 40 years. The decision
to promote a junior (or non-tenured)
faculty member (at the University
these are the assistant professors, in-
structors and lecturers) to the rank of a
senior member (tenured professors are
either associate or full) is not made by
any one dean or chairman, but is rather
the result of a process which, though it
has often been criticized, seems accep-
table to most faculty members and is
undoubtedly thorough.
ACCORDING TO Charles Allmand,
assistant to the Vice-President for
Academic Affairs, last May 61 faculty
members (the lowest number in ten
years or exactly half the number as in
'69-'70) joined the 59.3 per cent of the
teaching body at the University which
works under the protection of tenure.
For the 61 it was the end of a nervous
waiting game that had lasted at least
six years, the amount of time most
faculty members must wait before they
are reviewed.
In a professor's sixth year with the
University, it is time for his or her
department's tenure committee to
decide whether or not to recommend
the faculty member for tenure con-
sideration. If he or she is proposed, the
school's executive committee will be
given a dossier filled with evaluations.
Departments vary a great deal in their
methods, approaches, and budgets, so
there are no hard and fast rules which
govern the selection process.
According to Donald Eschman of the
Geology department who sits., on the
iteratureCollege's Executive Com-
mittee, some departments offer a great
deal of background along with their
recommendations including student
and peer evaluations, while others "do
very little" to aid the Executive Com-
mittee.
"SOME DEPARTMENTS let the
college make the decision for them
more than others," was the way Gor-
man Beauchamp, an assistant
Humanities professor put it.
It is at the departmental level that
much of the disapproval of the system
has been voiced. As departments are
given a great deal of latitude, the
charge has been made over the years
that a strong group of professors in a
department could "stack" their faculty
using standards other than academic
achievement. This has been par-
ticularly sensitive in the area in which
politics may be significant or changing
methodology an issue.
Says Prof. William Uttal, acting
chairman of the Senate Assembly's
standing Committee on Tenure, "No
decision is based on anything that's
irrelevant, whether it's age, ethnic
origin, religion, race and so on." All of
the , faculty members and ad-
ministrators contacted said that
political influences couldn't be
tolerated and that they were convinced
that they played no role in the selection
process. "Sure, you can shaft
anybody," said Gorman, "but the
(Executive) Committee is not biased."
UTTAL DID ADD, however, that
race could be a factor in the decision if
it seemed relevant. This is a sensitive R
point. LSA- Executive Committee
member Bradford Perkins of the
History Department pointed out
(before the Bakke decision was handed
down) that the University could be sued
if it showed any sort of preference with
regard to race in its final decision,
See TENURE, Page7
Monkey business
Ann Arbor chimps won support for their cause this year from local
citizens concerned for the health of the primates. A group calling it-
Self the "Committee to Save the Baboon Seven" sold bumper
stickers and collected petitions in an effort to stop the University's
Highway Safety Research Institute (HSRI) from conducting crash
experiments which would have "terminated the lives" of seven
baboons. Following one such test, the HSRI halted the project,
claiming the data received from the single experiment was sufficient.
for their purposes. Following a temporary reprieve, however, the
remaining six baboons were sacrificed during a hypertension ex-
periment. The tests were so controversial that Johnny Carson took it
upon himself to offer a comment on the issue during one of his
monologues. Carson strongly advocated a reprieve for the chimps
- suggested Gong Show contestants be used instead.
i
appenings .. .
.. This is the spot to check every morning to plan your day around
all the various events happening on campus-free films, lectures,
poetry readings, just about anything. Some of the highlights of past
Happenings have included the Engineering School's double feature
lectures on "Definitions of Teichmuller Space" and "Thermal High
Temperature" not to mention the research seminar on "Pre-
Ceramic Cultural Adaptions in the Peruvian Andes." For now,
though, all you need to know is that school starts September 8. Be
there.
On the outside...
Since we're trying to predict the weather here a month and a half
in advance, don't count on this to be absolutely correct. But we're
hoping that it will be nice and sunny, not too warm but not cold and
breezy either. Then again, Ann Arbor weather always changes at
least five times in one day anyway, so just be prepared for anything.
But do remember that this is the spot to find the day's forecast.
Look to Goodyear's on Main Street for all of your
college needs. Our Housewares Department has just
what you need for your dorm room or apartment.
And Goodyear's has a full line of men's, women's
and children's fashions.
Clip this coupon and use it
throughout the store for one day only!
10% Discount Coupon
On any regularly priced merchandise
ONE DAY ONLY!