d t .f tXJY SEE NE&s 6 PEX cALL' 5 MY 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!