Three professors granted tenure

Author: Kathryn Flagg

The Board of Trustees granted three professors tenure in December, approving all candidates up for the promotion last semester. Although this year's tenure pool is uncharacteristically small - only two professors will be up for review this spring - the decisions reaffirm the College's commitment to what one of the recently tenured professors dubbed a "scrupulously fair" review process.

The religion department's James Calvin Davis, Anne Kelly Knowles of the geography department and Antonia Losano of the English and American literatures department were promoted from assistant professor to the rank of associate professor without limit of tenure. The trustees accepted the recommendations of President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz and the Educational Affairs Committee at a meeting on Dec. 7.

Last month's promotions reflected the work of a long review process - one often misunderstood by students but viewed by professors and administrators as responsible and fair.

The Ultimate Exam

Tenure-track professors generally come under review in the spring of their seventh year at the College, and the decision is orchestrated by the Promotions Committee. Professors under review are evaluated for excellence in teaching, significant scholarly accomplishments and participation in and service to the College community. The review process considers all of a professor's past course evaluation forms, letters from students and alumni, classroom visits and departmental reviews.

"It's a very thorough process," said Acting Dean of the Faculty and F.C. Dirks Professor of International Economics Sunder Ramaswamy, particularly when compared to practices at other colleges and universities.

Losano confirmed this crucial difference in the College's approach to the review. "The tenure process here is very teaching-focused," she wrote in an e-mail. "Many of my friends who teach at other schools went through the process with not a single class visit by a colleague. I had, I think, 27 visits."

But this labor-intensive process ultimately builds the foundation for the weighty decision left to the Promotions Commitee and the President of the College.

"By the end of the process, the Promotions Committee is confident that, based on the departmental recommendation and its own observations, it can make a recommendation to the President that this person has actually met the excellence of teaching," Ramaswamy said.

The thoroughness of the College's review process aside, tenure is widely recognized as a "tough, challenging moment in every faculty member's life," Ramaswamy said. The benefits of lifetime employment with an individual university - including much-valued financial and academic security - are coveted by many academics, but a failed tenure review can be devastating for a professor's career.

"A great deal rides on tenure," said Knowles. "It's very sobering." Decisions, she continued, can be "tragic" for professors denied tenure.

Tenure for the 21st Century

The tenure practice is not without its critics. Critics often argue - as President Emeritus John M. McCardell did in a 2004 New York Times op-ed - that tenure is a solution to the problems of the 1940s, when academic freedom was at serious risk. He contended in his op-ed that the system as it stands does not reflect the "realities of academic life in the 21st century."

"I think tenure is one of the great shibboleths," said McCardell in an interview. He argued that while the review process at the College is meticulous, tenure remains "one of those icons towards which academia tends to bow" without questioning or challenging the institution.

For Associate Professor of German Bettina Matthias, who was tenured last fall, the institution is also at times problematic. "I have never not said what I wanted to say," she noted, questioning the argument for academic freedom. She worried, too, about the effect that tenure has on the larger body of faculty members.

"Tenure creates two camps among the faculty," she said. "Them and us. I don't think there should be that divide."

Matthias admitted, however, that although she is not sure that the practical justification for tenure still exists, the mental reassurance is welcome. In additional to providing a certain validation of a professor's work, tenure allows for creative freedom and the time and flexibility to pursue new research.

"For the first time in my life, I'm not waiting for something," Matthias said.

New Kids on the Block

For the newest batch of tenured professors, the review process proved "arduous," in Davis's words, but ultimately worthwhile.

"The most trying thing for everyone is waiting in silence," Knowles said. "The person actually up for tenure has almost no idea at all what is going on."

Knowles, however, viewed the process as beneficial for her classes and her teaching last semester. After teaching at three universities before coming to the College, and after finishing her dissertation 13 years ago, she expressed great excitement when finally up for review.

"That excitement carried over into some of the best teaching I've ever done," she said. She described her students as supportive during classroom observations. "It felt like they were cheering me on."

For all three professors, tenure allows for new directions in their research and validates their commitments to their departments and their students.

Davis, whose review was originally scheduled for spring 2008, expressed excitement at the "clarity" that tenure can bring to a professor's position in the department - a benefit that he identified as one of the motivating factors for his early review.

"Ours is a pretty young department, so much so that I'm regarded as one of the folks who's been here for a while. I was ready for my official status to reflect that," he wrote in an e-mail.

For Knowles, tenure signals a new security in her relationship with the College community, one that she cherishes after having searched for the right university for some time.

"The longer I've been here, the more I've loved it," she said. "I like getting to know people. I like the scale here. I like the culture, too. I like the high standards."

Those high standards - applied to students and faculty alike - are at the foundation of a tenure review process that will kick into gear again next semester.