University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: October 27, 2005

By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor

The number of persons denied tenure annually at UB has not changed dramatically since President John B. Simpson took office nearly 22 months ago, the vice provost for faculty affairs told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee yesterday.

A report on promotions and tenure at UB in the 10-year period between 1994 and 2004 showed that "outcomes have been pretty consistent" during that time, Lucinda Finley told the FSEC.

"And there is not some big, sudden, dramatic change in outcome when the presidency changed from (former president William) Greiner to Simpson," Finley said about the report her office compiled. "It varies from year to year, obviously, but there have been ranging between two and five ultimate denials. It generally holds steady at approximately 10 percent of the total caseload," which usually includes between 50 and 70 applications for tenure each year.

In fact, the President's Review Board (PRB)—the advisory body to the president and UB provost on matters of appointments, promotion and tenure—recommended denial of tenure in six instances this past year. In the end, the president denied tenure to only two of the six, which Finley said was "a much lower" number than in other years.

"I know there have been rumors around campus that John and (Provost) Satish (K. Tripathi) have been very tough on tenure decisions. This past year, if you want to brand anybody as the 'boogey man,' it's the PRB. They had many more negative votes than ultimate negative outcomes this year," Finley said, noting that the PRB gave negative votes to six tenure applications total.

"In that 10-year period, the high point I noticed of tenure denials (was when) there were five one year, and that was in a 'Greiner,' not in a 'Simpson,' year," Finley said.

Finley acknowledged that some faculty members believe a new administration automatically means a new set of standards when it comes to granting tenure.

"Whenever there's a change in administrators or decision makers, there's always some concern, well, how have the standards changed?" she said. "I think I can confidently say that 'No, the standards have not changed.' Now, as I have heard John or Satish say, obviously if different people look at the standards, they may interpret them in different ways."

She emphasized that UB always has maintained that tenure be granted in cases where there is "clear and unequivocal evidence of excellence in research, scholarship or creative activity."

Finley said that in deciding whether to promote a faculty member from assistant to associate professor, the president and provost "want to make sure they are not augmenting the class of what might be looked at as 'terminal associate professors.'

"When they look at a case, they want to see as an assistant professor evidence of sustained productivity because some of the tenure decision is about predicting the future and one of the best ways of predicting the future is to assess the past," Finley said.

The PRB is comprised of a chair, who must be a senior professor or librarian (non-voting), nine tenured faculty holding the rank of professor or librarian (voting) and two student representatives (non-voting). Board members serve staggered three-year terms that begin on Sept. 1 and end on Aug. 31.

Five new members began terms on the PRB this year because of regular turnover of terms, as well as the fact that two board members resigned, according to Finley, who serves as a non-voting member of the PRB.

"This year, I looked very carefully at schools that hadn't been represented for a while, for example, (the School of) Management had not had someone on for six or seven years," Finley said. "Also, from the College of Arts and Sciences, we added (art department professor) Adele Henderson, which hopefully might alleviate some anxieties from the arts world on campus that their perspective is not appreciated or understood. I don't agree with those concerns, but to the extent that they have them, hopefully, Adele being on the PRB will alleviate some of those concerns."

Other new members are George L. Sanders, professor of management science and systems; Susan Udin, professor of physiology; Alan H. Lockwood, professor of neurology and nuclear medicine; and Andrei M. Reinhorn, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering.

Finley asks for and reviews nominations for PRB membership each year with Tripathi.

"We look at making sure there is a good representation amongst all the schools and disciplinary balance, and making sure there is also a demographic balance that reflects the diversity of the faculty. I should say the diversity of the full professoriate, because you have to be a tenured full professor to be eligible to be on the PRB, which in and of itself creates some challenges for making sure we have diversity on the PRB because we do not have a sufficiently diverse full professoriate."

She explained the tenure process, noting that if a candidate receives a negative vote at any stage, "we then go to something called an advocacy process," which offers opportunities for candidates to review "the non-confidential portions of the dossier," while their advocates "can review the entire dossier, including the confidential evaluation letters," and submit additional information.

"Then there is a face-to-face meeting, at which myself, the chair of the PRB, the advocate for the candidate, the department chair (if different from the advocate) and the dean of the school are all entitled to attend. The candidate does not attend that meeting," Finley said.

"I can say, having gone through some of these advocacy processes this spring, that they often make a very positive difference for the faculty member," she added.

Finley blamed delays in tenure reviews in the past year on the fact that she began her job in mid-February and faced a large number of applications to be processed.

"One of the things I learned from my instant immersion in the process when I came on board in February was that what worked for Ken Levy, who had 27 years of experience, doesn't necessarily work for me, who had a few months of experience."

Among the issues discussed following Finley's remarks was one regarding the practice of keeping assistant professors who have been denied tenure on the UB payroll by creating new titles or new positions for them, something Finley called "tenure by default."

"They (the president and provost) don't like that practice because that's not sending the right message about the value of becoming a tenured faculty and the importance of it at a research university," she said.

Finley reminded FSEC members that SUNY policy does not allow for someone who has worked as an assistant professor for seven years, "the last three of which have been in continuous service at that rank," to remain employed at any SUNY institution unless they are tenured.

Finley also addressed concerns about the requirement for tenure to be granted within a seven-year period, a rule, which she noted, "was set in the '30s and '40s...at a time when virtually all professors were males who had creatures called wives with them who took care of life while the professors pretty much devoted themselves full time to research and scholarship. It was a model that never really had the clinical aspects of the health sciences in mind and I think UB, personally, is a bit behind the curve in adapting some of its policies to the changing reality of the world."

In regard to the clinical faculty, such as assistant professors in the UB medical school, Finley said she advised the SUNY medical school executive committee that "the better way to handle (tenure track) and in fact what a lot of medical schools do and I think UB does too, is to start the person off on the non-tenure track when they are getting started. And then—and this particularly pertains to the clinical faculty—when you are confident that they have achieved the level that you expect in their clinical skills, that they are now ready to start embarking on the research aspect of being a clinical medical person, that's when you move them onto the tenure track so you aren't running into the problem of the rigidity of the SUNY clock. That's the type of practice that's far from discouraging, that John and Satish are open to."

Finley also told the FSEC that there exists a "common misunderstanding" that faculty can't reapply if they are denied full professorships.

Such faculty may reapply, she said, adding "It's always stressed that resubmission is not a guarantee of a successful outcome.

"I've occasionally been asked the question 'Is somebody's case going to be looked at with a biased or skeptical eye because they were previously denied (tenure)," she said. "Given that there's a regular turnover in PRB membership, it's highly likely it's going to be an entirely different PRB that is looking at the case and they are not likely to be aware of the previous decision."

Finley provided the Reporter with statistics prepared by her office for tenure approvals and denials for the past 10 years that she referenced at yesterday's meeting. Listed by academic year, they are 1994-95: 32 requests approved, 2 denied, 3 withdrawn; 1995-96: 28 approved, 4 denied; 1996-97: 16 approved, 1 denied, 3 withdrawn; 1997-98: 35 approved, 1 denied; 1998-99: 39 approved, 2 denied, 1 withdrawn; 1999-2000: 36 approved, 2 denied; 2000-01: 19 approved, 4 denied; 2002-03: 24 approved, 1 denied, 3 withdrawn; 2003-04: 31 approved, 4 denied, 3 withdrawn; and 2004-05: 36 approved, 2 denied.