The University of Tennessee system is doing something that has some faculty on edge: examining how it reviews tenured professors.
When UT president JoeDiPietrowas going over the budget this spring, he announced he wanted to look at how professors are evaluated after they get tenure. But some worried that really meant he wanted to downsize departments.
But DiPietro says any change would only affect a small number of professors who aren’t doing well.
“The real truth of this, the majority of faculty members do really, really well and perform at a really high level. It’s only a few that don’t perform as adequately as you’d like, so it’s not a huge issue," he says. "But we’ve not looked at this policy in decades, and it’s time to look at it.”
DiPietro, whose own career started in the classroom at the University of Illinois, says it’s important for him to maintain a good relationship with the faculty.
“I came through every rank at Illinois, instructor through full professor. I understand what it is to be a faculty member; I understand the pressures on their time; I understand the pressure to publish. So I think I can identify with them pretty well. And I hope most of them trust me.”
The university has just put together a group of faculty and administrators to analyze its current tenure policy. It will start working in September with a national education policy organization to review what other universities are doing in terms of tenure, and make recommendations for a new policy at UT.
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