To:  Faculty inquiring about "early" tenure and simultaneous tenure/promotion applications

From:  Jean Stonehouse, MSCA Bridgewater Chapter President

Re:  Issues related to tenure and promotion

Date:  4-4-01

  Prompted by questions from members of my own department concerning the appropriateness of "early" tenure and simultaneous tenure/promotion applications I asked Acting Vice President Larry Richards about the administration's thinking on these issues.  With his permission, I have copied our e-mail conversation below.  I've used ellipses to show the places where I removed references to departmental or individual situations.

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 4-4-01
Larry,

I've had some members of my own department indicate interest in both early tenure and simultaneous tenure/promotion applications. I expect similar questions from MSCA members campus-wide. . . . I've warned each of them about the danger of doing tenure and promotion simultaneously and suggested that they approach both Howard and yourself for assurance that this is an appropriate action for him or her.
   Could you give me a sense of the administration's thinking on this issue?  Do you think that individuals who are in their fifth year of full-time teaching, having spent some of those years on other campuses, should feel as safe applying for tenure as those who are in their fifth year at BSC and, thus, required to do so?  Do you see simultaneous tenure and promotion as similarly safe? . . .
    Jean

 Jean: Personally, I have no problem with simultaneous tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. However, I must rely on the tenure and promotion committees to be thorough and fair, and if a tenure committee was to give a positive recommendation and a promotions committee a negative one, I would have to have strong reasons before I would overturn the promotions committee recommendation. So, I tell faculty considering this that, from a mathematical perspective alone, they are putting themselves in a more risky situation than they would otherwise. . . .
    With respect to early tenure, I do not in general recommend it. The length of the probationary period has been established for a reason, namely to give the college sufficient time to evaluate new faculty and to make wise decisions on what is in the long-term best interests of the college. Even four years is not a very long time to make such an assessment. I also worry about setting a precedent where everyone with some previous teaching experience suddenly thinks they can and should apply for tenure early. This would not, in my opinion, be good for the college. I would suggest that faculty should simply wait it out. If they are doing well, there should be nothing to worry about. If there are any doubts at all about the performance of a faculty member coming up for early tenure, there is a good chance that I would make a negative recommendation. For those for whom there are no such doubts, I would encourage them, in the interests of the college, to respect the probationary period so that we don't end up with a large contingent of such early applicants. Of course, there will always be exceptions. . . .  Exceptions should be truly exceptional cases.
     I don't know how else to handle this. What are your thoughts? Larry