Proposal to the Faculty Forum

Rank Tenure and Salary Committee

10-16-02

1. Statement of the Problem: Under the wording in current policy, the Director of the Library is precluded from serving on tenure committees for library faculty since the Director is on an administrative contract rather that a faculty contract, as the policy stipulates. The faculty in the library sent a request to the Forum that the wording of the policy be changed to allow the Director to serve on the tenure committees for library faculty.

2. Recommendation: The Rank Tenure and Salary Committee of the Forum recommends that the wording in Part 1 of Appendix M under the University Tenure Procedures and Guidelines be changed as follows. Add the phrase “In the case of library faculty, the Director of the Library, if a tenured member of the library faculty with voting rights as defined in the Faculty Handbook, will serve on the Library’s Tenure Committee.” to the end of paragraph in Part 1.

If the proposal is approved, the wording of Part 1 will be:

“Each Department’s Tenure Committee is comprised of all tenured members of the department who are on faculty contract and who have voting rights as defined in the Faculty Handbook. Where the size of the department dictates, subcommittees of smaller size may be formed to facilitate the workings of the full committee. In the case of the library faculty, the Director of the Library, if a tenured member of the library faculty with voting rights as defined in the Faculty Handbook, will serve on the Library’s Tenure Committee.”

3. Alternatives: An alternative is to make no change in Part 1, Appendix M, thereby leaving it as is. This alternative would leave the Director of the Library off tenure committees for library faculty and it was the sense of the RTS Committee that this was not a desirable situation.

4. Expected Outcomes: With the approval of the proposal, the membership of library tenure committees will be in step with the rest of the university departments, in that under usual circumstances, the highest academic officer in the library will be on each of the tenure committees.