Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 17, 1995 TAG: 9508170032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Tenure, wherein professors work a rigorous several years to earn lifelong jobs and academic freedom, could be in for a change at Radford University.
Post-tenure reviews are on the agenda for discussion this year - inside the university and possibly at other schools across the state, too.
Radford's board of visitors expects this fall to discuss some means of reviewing faculty after they've won tenure.
``I think the question of post-tenure review is one that is becoming more and more of a national issue. I think it's something we need to take a look at, and see if there's some way to implement a review policy or practice that both protects the rights of faculty and academic freedom, and at the same time promotes quality within the professoriate,'' Charles Owens, vice president for academic affairs at Radford, said after a board meeting Wednesday.
Three Radford board members signaled that a change might be coming with their largely symbolic votes against routine salary requests for tenure-track faculty -which were granted. They said in interviews after the meeting that tenure costs too much and that post-tenure reviews are not unreasonable requirements.
``The question is, what is cost-effective?'' said board member Carson Quarles, who has voted similarly in the past. ``My feeling is, tenure should have a term on it.''
Quarles said about 70 percent of Radford's faculty members are tenured. The school employs about 420 full-time faculty.
Complacency among tenured faculty is a concern - and protecting academic freedom is ``a non-issue,'' he said.
``I don't know of any college professor who's been fired'' over free-speech issues, he said.
Board member Ellen Nau said she's ``against the concept of tenure; it's causing a few problems in [these] economic hard times.''
Fellow member Greg Goad cited Old Dominion University's post-tenure review system as a possible guide. ``I think it's something we need for the future at the university,'' he said.
The state's chief academic officers have discussed the matter as part of the overhaul under way to restructure universities, said Margaret Miller, associate director for academic affairs for the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.
Many schools require some review for rewards such as merit pay. Theoretically, they should be allowed ``to make hard personnel decisions'' - in other words, terminate those who aren't pulling their weight.
``Theoretically, tenure allows for that. Practically, it doesn't," she said.
The council itself cannot make decisions about tenure - that's up to the university boards. The discussion has surfaced within an advisory committee of chief academic officers, which Miller chairs and coordinates. The group has been talking about how to create faculty rewards amid restructuring.
``We at the council are not saying tenure does not have an important function, but it ought to be, as it theoretically is, combined with the capacity to evaluate faculty rigorously,'' she said.
``Provosts, I think, are seeing a need to take a look at their resources, the most important of which are faculty.''
And, Miller said, she is seeing some faculty members who seem to agree.
``Most faculty are so hard-working, they're not eager to have people in their ranks who aren't doing 150 percent of the job. Everybody has to pull very hard these days. Faculty see self-interest to them in it,'' she said.
Said Owens: ``It's not something that should be adversarial,'' given the collegial fashion in which tenure decisions already are made.
In other action at Radford's board meeting, a faculty senate, staff council and professional staff council were put into place for the first time. Each constituency gains a louder voice in deliberations of campus issues.
Also, the board unanimously dismissed allegations of verbal and physical abuse brought against Owens by a former employee, Carole Spencer, this spring. Spencer has dropped the allegations herself, according to a memo on the matter from Owens to the board.
by CNB