Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 26, 1993 TAG: 9307260035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In 1975, the American Association of University Professors placed the state's community college system on its list of institutions that allegedly had violated faculty's academic freedom and tenure.
The Virginia Community College System three years earlier had abolished its faculty tenure system. That was enough, the AAUP claimed, to impose the strongest sanction it could against a higher-education institution.
Today, the state's system of 23 community colleges remains on the list, unable to shake what some call a less-than-flattering label. But its effect, says Chancellor Arnold Oliver, has been slight.
"I honestly think that it's such old news that people feel confident that if the system were a troubled system, if the VCCS were treating faculty unfairly, then our reputation for doing that would be well-known," Oliver said.
"But that's not our reputation at all."
On Sept. 20, 1972, the state Board for Community Colleges adopted a new faculty appointment and tenure policy that removed faculty tenure from the state community college system.
The AAUP was harsh in its response to community-college officials' actions. A report prepared by an AAUP committee criticized then-Chancellor Dana B. Hamel and the state Board for Community Colleges for embracing policies that would leave faculty members with less protection than was due them under AAUP standards.
But Hamel says the community college system had good reason to do away with tenure.
"The community college system was designed in the initial stages to provide opportunities for people who needed more than a high school education and less than a bachelor's degree, to get work," said Hamel, now executive director for the Virginia Center for Public/Private Initiatives. "The tenure system embraced by our senior brethren did not seem to quite fit what we were about."
Some say the AAUP's action was justified. Others say the censure has aroused little excitement over the years.
The AAUP's list of censured administrations contains the names of 50 institutions in 27 states and Washington, D.C. The Virginia Community College system is the only higher-education institution in Virginia on the list. It also is the only system of community colleges on the list.
"When an institution is on the list, it's saying to the community of higher education that conditions for academic freedom and tenure are not secure," said Jonathan Knight, associate secretary for the Washington-based AAUP. "It is not on a list of pride. In the company of other institutions, it is viewed as perhaps not the happiest place to be."
More concretely, Knight said, it could hinder an institution's ability to recruit faculty members. It could also affect the willingness of professional organizations to hold conferences at an institution and the willingness of individuals to receive honorary degrees, he said.
Elizabeth Payne, who chairs the chancellor's Faculty Advisory Committee, joined the faculty of Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke two years before the tenure system was abolished. Payne would have been eligible for tenure the year the system stopped offering it.
Its effect, personally, was minimal, said Payne. She has remained on the faculty for 23 years.
And Payne is not alone in her longevity, she said.
"Most hold faculty rank," Payne said. "Some of us have been here almost from the beginning."
(The Virginia Community College System, which began operating in 1966, did not have figures readily available on faculty employed in the system for more than 15 years.)
"The truth of the matter is, we have such an excellent faculty grievance policy that we're now probably just as well off [as] if we were tenured," Payne said. "According to the grievance procedure, you can't be dismissed without just cause."
The grievance procedure, revised in 1989, gives faculty members the protection they need, Payne said.
"I have never felt disadvantaged at not having tenure," Payne said. "As a consequence, it hasn't bothered me that the AAUP continues to censure us."
While there is no de facto tenure system, the Virginia Community College System does have a means of securing faculty employment - contractually.
Community college faculty are on one-year contracts for their first three years of employment. After that, they are entitled to a three-year contract. After a three-year contract, the college has the option of offering another three-year contract or a five-year contract.
A Virginia Western faculty member who serves on the college's multiyear contract committee said the committee hasn't turned anyone down in a long time for a contract to which he or she was entitled.
The faculty member, who asked not to be named, believes standard reasons for tenure do not apply at community colleges.
"The contract has worked out pretty well," the faculty member said. "There are not a lot of people standing around fussing because we don't have tenure."
by CNB