.. Adbk .. Allk 0 0 0 0 IM - - -iy Jnury4 2012//Th taem Wednesday, January 4, 2012 // The Statement Stashu Kybartas: Why can't films get you tenure? Peter Hammer: Prejudice on the track? The University's Board of Regents approved a revision to its bylaws last April, which allows schools and colleges to extend the upper limit of their tenure probationary periods to lOyears. The regents left the decision up to schools as to whether they wanted to change their clock periods, and as of now, none of them have cho- sen to implement the extension. Christina Whitman, the University's vice provost for academic and faculty affairs, said someone rarely goes through the whole five to seven year process without obtaining tenure. "It doesn't mean that every assistant profes- sor gets tenure by any means," Whitman said. "But we get very few people who go all the way through the process and don't get tenure at the end." A HIERARCHY OF EVALUATIONS LSA departments: the Running the tenure track By Mary Hannahan Who is the Lamberto Cesari Collegiate Professor of Mathematics? What sets him apart from a recently hired assistant professor in the Department of Germanic Lan- guages and Literature? While such distinctions may seem meaningless to University students, they denote a complex process of faculty standing at the University. Tenure is a concept most often associated with aca- demia, allowing a professor a lifelong appointment within the University and a guaranteed salary in many schools and colleges. According to Mathematics Prof. Daniel Burns, presi- dent of the University's chapter of the American Associa- tion of University Professors, tenure is about being able to hold unpopular or controversial views without the fear of losing your job. During the McCarthy era in the 1950s, professors around the country were fired for the views they held, both public and private. According to Gina Poe, an asso- ciate professor in the Medical School, tenure is meant to prevent similar events from happening. "Tenure is a wonderful thing," Poe said. "In an aca- demic environment, we need to be free to express our opinions." A former Vice Chair of the Senate Advisory Commit- tee on University Affairs, the leading faculty governing body, Poe is familiar with the University's tenure pro- cess. SACUA has the power to recommend dismissal of a faculty member to the Board of Regents. Poe said it's incredibly difficult to fire a tenured pro- fessor. Only grave breaches of ethical conduct, like sexu- al harassment or stealing money from the University, are offenses warranting dismissal. But the process of actually landing tenure is no walk in the park either. STARTING THE RACE The tenure process consists of three stages: assistant professorship, associate professorship and full professor- ship. A professor only becomes tenured when he or she gets promoted to associate professor. Faculty start the tenure track as an assistant professor, a position that almost always requires a Ph.D. According to information compiled by The Michigan Daily, assistant professors currently constitute 19 per- cent of faculty in LSA. Many individuals teach classes for the first time after they become assistant professors, though many others have had prior experience working as graduate student instructors. During the tenure probationary period, a time when faculty have not yet obtained permanent employment, assistant professors teach, research and complete other administrative duties - all the while proving they're qualified to obtain tenure. Poe calls the tenure probation- ary period a time of uncertainty when tenure hopefuls "stew in hot water." Tenure expectations differ between schools, colleges and even departments. Poe said an assistant professor in the Medical School, for example, would be expected to teach classes, start a research lab, obtain at least one major grant from a fed- eral research institute to fund the research and publish articles in accredited journals. An assistant professor in the LSA English department might be expected to teach one to two classes, conduct research, publish articles and write a book. Assistant professors start with a three-year contract. At the end of the third year, they undergo a review to assess if the work they've done is up to departmental standards. "It sort of gives them three years to fish or cut bait," Poe said. "If they're totally failing after three years, they get a poor third year review, and they see the writing on the wall." What happens then? "Their contract is not renewed, and they're out." But Poe said most assistant professors at the Univer- sity pass the review and have their contracts renewed. Each school in the University currently sets its tenure probationary period at a maximum of eight years. The Medical School uses eight years, so an assistant professor would undergo a tenure review his or her seventh year. LSA has its tenure clock window set at seven years, so he or she would be reviewed in the sixth year. When an assistant professor aims for tenure, he or she will have to go through a final stage of review before becoming an associate. The long form review starts at the depart- mental level, where a committee of tenured faculty members examines the candidate's credentials and performance while taking into consideration internal and external letters of evaluation. The committee then makes a ten- ure recommendation to the dean of the school. Following the recommendation, the dean adds a letter to the assistant professor's case- book, which also includes a teaching statement, research statement, curriculum vitae, course evaluations and external letters from "arm's length" reviewers - colleagues from peer insti- tutions who don't have strong personal ties to the person under review. tenure spread 0% 32.8% 37.5% 6% .96% 26.7% Sce42 0% 15,38%0 48.08%°l 1% 14,63% 17.07% 9% 36.84% 4737% 0% 16.33% 55.10% 6% 4.65% 62.79% Scre % 24.24% 39.39% 9% 38.10% 16.67%;4 0% 15.28% 51.39% 5% 21,88% 43.75% 8% 1489% 53.19% 2% 123% 50.7% % 20.80% 28.80% )% 45.00% 25.00% 7 5%' 28,42% 50.53% . % 34.78% 52,17%c ,s )% 50.00% 33.33%f ;% 31.82% 50.00 % 50 0% 9.02% 42.62% o )%/ 33,33% 33.33% 0 40 7%r 16&67% 35371% 0 % 33.33% 36,36% 0 30 - 3% 5L.00%"0 1;6.67% w3%' 19,35 % 51. 6 1% 20 4% 8.70% 63.77%c 13% 16.39% 55.74% 11 9% 11.94% 60.45% After the dean's letter, the assistant profes- sor's casebook is sent to the provost, where two additional expert reviewers, including Whit- man, start evaluating them. About 200 casebooks are reviewed each year over a period of approximately two months. Finally, the provost makes a recommen- dation to the University's Board of Regents, which typically makes the final tenure deci- sions at their May meeting. The final stage of the tenure process can take many months. AIMING FOR A HIGHER STANDARD "It's not like you're free from pressures," Whitman said of the post-tenure period. "You just have different pressures." Associate professors are working toward * 4 ' 1 rv " " " ' 1P' 1 their next major promotion: full professorship. The next promotion usually arrives with their second major academic accomplishment, like publishing a book. LSA professors have a guaranteed salar while tenure-track and tenured professors in the Medical School are responsible for half of their salaries, which come from research grants. Grants are used to fund their research, their salaries and the salaries of researchers in their lab. A guaranteed salary could cause a lack o4 motivation among professors who've already obtained tenure. But Poe said this wasn't usually the case, since a combination of peer and self-applied pressure motivates professors to continue See TENURE, Page 6C Professors out of total faculty: a sample en Arts & Cult. Informatics Physics Departments What are the top 50% of departments with the highest proportion of professors? .1m I- -- - - --- --- - , mm Department