Faculty Senate vigorously debated promotion and tenure procedures and a possible censure of top Ohio University administrators at an extraordinary meeting last night.
Senate was dealing yesterday with resolutions that never got discussed at its meeting two weeks ago when it lost a quorum partway through the meeting. All three resolutions were up for a first reading, meaning they'll be edited and resubmitted for a vote in two weeks.
Senate discussed a resolution to censure the president, provost and chief financial officer for violating the faculty handbook and not consulting faculty on an academic reorganization. Ken Brown, who sponsored the resolution, said censure is basically a method of publicly shaming people.
Some members questioned whether there might be a better way to express senate's disapproval.
In some ways it seems to me that perhaps we're just stamping our feet and saying
No, no, I'm right about it and you're mean,' Beth Quitslund said. I would like to look more dignified than that.
Faculty who agreed with Quitslund suggested language such as condemning or protesting particular decisions rather than going after particular people. Others said a censure resolution would help regain the
senate's dignity.
The senators also dealt with proposed changes to the promotion and tenure process that a senate committee hoped would clarify simplify and standardize policies across the campus.
Peter Coschigano chairman of senate's Promotion and Tenure Committee
presented the group with a question of how to organize the appeals process to ensure fairness for faculty. The debate was essentially how many times an appeal should be sent back to the department for reconsideration before being simply overruled by the president to encourage departments to provide more specific reasons for denying tenure.
Yes, we want to protect the department from being stuck with someone they don't want, but we also want to protect the untenured faculty member, Coschigano said. How do we strike that balance?
Senators seemed conflicted between wanting to keep the final decision at the department level and wanting to ensure faculty aren't punished by a grudge-holding tenure committee.
A second P&T resolution called for departments to adopt policies to make their expectations of untenured faculty clearer. Senators debated how to effectively measure progress while ensuring tenure candidates aren't simply doing the minimum work possible.
Coschigano said his committee would try to incorporate comment before the next meeting from senators
other faculty and groups that may have a role in the promotion and tenure process.,",1,News,Emily Grannis,",",",",",","
28096,2009-04-28 00:00:00,Union claims layoff confirms university's misguided priorities, The hiring of Chris Clifford at more than $170
000 two years ago amid custodial layoffs was a source of great frustration for the local union
and Clifford's recent layoff confirms the university's wasteful administrative spending
says the union president., The hiring of Chris Clifford at more than $170
000 two years ago amid custodial layoffs was a source of great frustration for the local union
and Clifford's recent layoff confirms the university's wasteful administrative spending
says the union president.
It's hard to understand the necessity of a chief when you are laying off the Indians, said Dave Logan
