UA professor blasts tenure review system

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Peter Medine UA English professor, Faculty Senate member

"They boil down to legal and clear procedures to dismissal," said Peter Medine, a University of Arizona English professor and Faculty Senate member. "(It) will be a chilling effect."

Medine was one of three panelists at a forum entitled "Universities in Crisis." About 25 people with various university affiliations attended the 4 p.m. meeting in the Modern Languages building.

The UA chapter of the American Association of University Professors sponsored the meeting. The professor's association published a response to the review process in this month's Academe magazine.

The unsigned article states: "The association believes that periodic formal institutional evaluation of each post-probationary faculty member would bring scant benefit, would incur unacceptable costs ... and would threaten academic freedom."

Six Faculty senators, including Medine, opposed the institution of post-tenure review when the group debated the issue about two years ago.

Tenured employees are guaranteed jobs unless a series of reviews finds substantial reasons for dismissal.

Medine said to ensure the legitimacy of review committees, they must be "properly developed and properly voted on."

He also said that faculty members must keep copies of their records and support each other during the review process.

"One may find that they are very much alone during this review process," he said.

Raphael Gruener, a physiology professor, took issue with Medine's anti-tenure review stance.

"Everybody in every job is subject to review," Gruener said. "It's only logical that when you're employed, you have to go through review policies in order to retain your job."

Gruener said he doesn't see problems with post-tenure review, and that the issue has been inflated to inflame people.

"I'm happy that you're so content with the situation," Medine responded.

He went on to question the frequent reviews that faculty must endure on a yearly basis, including student evaluations that the Associated Students post on their Internet site.

"I know of no other profession that is reviewed like we are, which has student reviews of us put on the World Wide Web," he said.

Medine also questioned the UA's power structure, calling it "vertical."

"The structure at the UA centralizes power and influence from the top down ... so we have to be very, very wary," he said. "For faculty, the one sure way for promotions is through administrative service."

Another panelist during the hour-long session was Kali Tal, a professor who was fired last year from the Arizona International Campus.

Tal, now a lecturer in the UA's office of academic affairs, said she came to AIC knowing that her position was not on a track toward tenure.

"I had no idea that we would be met with hostility by the UA faculty," she said. "The specific issue was not a tenure issue, it was a contractual issue."

Tal said she wants to bridge the gap between instructors.

"What concerns me is the rift between tenured faculty and all the rest of us," she said. "Unless there's some support for us, I don't think there is much hope for the profession as a whole."

David J. Cieslak can be reached via e-mail at David.J.Cieslak@wildcat.arizona.edu.