Report of General Faculty Meeting on Retention, Tenure, and Promotion Issues
Submitted by Joel Sipress on behalf of Senate Executive Committee December 4, 2003
On Tuesday, November 11 we held a general meeting of the faculty to discuss retention, tenure, and promotion issues. Approximately 50 faculty attended at least a portion of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to allow a general airing of concerns regarding retention, tenure, and promotion procedures with purpose of identifying issues upon which action is required.
The comments at the meeting made clear that a great deal of uncertainty exists among faculty regarding the expectations for tenure and promotion. This uncertainly is felt most acutely among junior faculty. For this reason, there is a significant degree of urgency that impels us to act swiftly to address these uncertainties.
The specific issues that emerged at the meeting are as follows:
I.	Issues related to promotion
		There was broad agreement that there is a significant problem with current function and charge of the Promotions Committee. The crux of the problem appears to be that the Promotions Committee is asked to evaluate applicants for promotion on the basis of campus standards that are vague and that, by their very nature, are so subject to interpretation as to create great uncertainly regarding expectations for promotion.
		The problem of vagueness of standards is particularly acute in the area of scholarship. We have no common understanding of what constitutes scholarship, nor any agreement regarding how much scholarship is required for promotion.
		In addition to the vague definition of scholarship, concern was also expressed that service is undervalued in the promotion process and that no mechanism for measuring and rewarding teaching excellence exists.
		Opinion was divided on the question of whether the Promotion Committee should be abolished or reformed. A significant number of those present indicated that they lacked sufficient information to determine whether or not the Promotion Committee should be abolished.
II.	Issues Related to Retention and Tenure
		Junior faculty expressed concerns regarding the vagueness of departmental standards (an issue currently under review by the Personnel Council) as well as concerns regarding the vagueness of campus standards that parallel the issues summarized above with regard to promotion.
III.	Other issues
		Concern was expressed that evaluation, particularly for tenure, should be on the basis of standards in place at the time of hire.
		Concern was expressed that the Promotion Committee and Administration need to respect the authority of departments, under UW System Code, to set the relative weight of teaching, scholarship, and service.
Executive Committee recommends that the following steps be taken to allow a timely resolution of the above issues:
		The Personnel Council currently has in place a process to address the issue of vague department standards. We have confidence in the process and believe no additional action, beyond the completion of the Personnel Council's current review process, is needed at this time to address the issue of departmental standards.
		Faculty Senate should adopt the following resolution immediately: "Promotion to Associate Professor and tenure shall be based upon the standards in place at the time of hire."
		All remaining issues highlighted in this report should be referred to the Personnel Council for review and recommendation in conjunction with the council's review of the provost's Faculty Retention Portfolio proposal.
Reformatted into html document by Hal Bertilson, Faculty Senate Secretary, 12-5-03