The provost responded to the Latino Leadership Council's claim that the University's tenure process is unfair to minority faculty by meeting with members of the council Tuesday afternoon.
The purpose of the meeting was to increase the council's understanding of how the tenure process works, said Rosalinda Ruiz, co-director of www.UTLatinos.com and an ethnic studies senior.
The meeting will also help the council decide its next course of action in protesting the University's Jan. 1 decision to deny tenure to one of the UT Latino community's favorite professors. Assistant professor of public affairs Barbara Robles is an incredibly influential professor, Ruiz said, who has pioneered programs to benefit Latino students.
The University denied Robles tenure despite approval by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
"We just don't ever want this to happen again," said Mary Gonzalez, LLC co-director and ethnic studies senior.
Gonzalez said the LLC's next step may be to submit a report of Robles' case to the UT Board of Regents, asking them to overturn the administration's decision.
Although this has never been done at the University, the University of North Texas' Board of Regents overturned a tenure decision made by UNT's administration March 23, giving the LLC hope for its possible request.
However, Robles has one year to re-apply for tenure, and the LLC does not want its action to affect her negatively should she decide to reapply, Gonzalez said.
"Maintaining a diverse faculty and a diverse student body is a primary objective at this university," said Sheldon Ekland-Olson, executive vice president and provost, after meeting with the four LLC members.
Ruiz said the University's actions, especially in its tenure process, do not support its claim that it values diversity. She said more weight should be given to student input when the University reviews a professor's tenure application, not solely student evaluations.
The tenure criteria is ambiguous and subjective, said Bobby de la Rosa, LLC member and ethnic studies senior.
"Each individual comes in with their own matrix and decision calculus, which is subjective," de la Rosa said. "It needs to be standardized."
Ruiz said the tenure review process is also unfair to minority faculty, because it does not take into consideration other factors that could throw off Tenure Review Committee members. For example, the committee favors professors who are published in well-known academic journals, but certain fields of study, such as public affairs, do not have as many prominent publications or are not as valued by prominent publications as other fields, she said.
The meeting with Eckland-Olson came after the LLC's 100-letter protest of the University's denial of Robles' tenure. The council launched the protest March 1 by giving hundreds of letters to four members of the final review committee that denied Robles' tenure: Ekland-Olson, UT President Larry Faulkner, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Victoria Rodriguez and Vice President for Research Juan Sanchez.
Gonzalez said the information gathered at the meeting with the provost, along with other research, will be presented to the other LLC members to decide if and when they will take further action regarding Robles' tenure.
"It's pretty safe to say there'll be another step," Ruiz said.
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