Content about Tenure
The topic of the productivity of University professors is often a contentious one in the higher education community. Recently, the UT System Board of Regents approved a proposal to tighten evaluations of tenured professors, effective immediately, to provide an incentive for continued productivity.
The UT System Board of Regents voted to alter the post-tenure review process for faculty members, despite strong opposition from some faculty.
The Regents approved the provisions at their Thursday meeting, and the UT System administration pressured faculty who disagreed to accept the changes. The change applies to the post-tenure review process at all 15 UT institutions.
On average, University faculty members generate more money than they make with their research and teaching, according to a UT professor who authored a study on faculty instructional and grant-based productivity.
Monday’s Faculty Council meeting featured concern regarding an article by the Austin American-Statesman titled “Do college ratings of professors make the grade?” published two weeks ago. The article explores the post-tenure review process at UT and illustrates inadequacies by highlighting faculty members who received poor reviews but were not fired by the University.
The University released a report Thursday evaluating efficiency and graduation rates, its first campus-wide, research-based rebuttal to criticisms of its productivity.
School of Architecture
After losing three prominent professors in the past year, the School of Architecture’s answer to balancing a difficult budget has been to replace two positions with entry level professors and leave one vacant.
Kent Butler, the school’s associate dean of research, passed away in mid-May and administrators said his loss will affect research moving forward this upcoming year.
Rick O'Donnell, former special advisor to the UT System Board of Regents, released an analysis report that divides the University's professors into categories of teaching loads versus the research revenue they bring.
O'Donnell, who reached a $70,000 settlement in exchange for agreeing to not sue the System last month, wrote in the report that most of the professors at the University fall under "dodgers" and "coasters", who have low teaching loads and generate little research revenue.
Is your professor a sherpa? Or is she a pioneer, a coaster, a dodger or a star? Rick O’Donnell could tell you. Yesterday morning, O’Donnell — of “seven breakthrough solutions” fame — released a report based on data recently released by the UT and Texas A&M University Systems. In it, he placed each faculty member into one of five categories based on their teaching loads and the amount of research funding brought to their universities.
Editor’s note: Among the many proposed reforms to Texas higher education are some that would modify or eliminate the current tenure system employed by colleges and universities. We asked UT philosophy lecturer Jeffrey C. Leon and former Wall Street Journal editor Naomi Riley for their views on the tenure system and asked, “Should Texas universities continue to employ the tenure system? Why or why not?”
Editor’s note: Among the many proposed reforms to Texas higher education are some that would modify or eliminate the current tenure system employed by colleges and universities. We asked UT philosophy lecturer Jeffrey C. Leon and former Wall Street Journal editor Naomi Riley for their views on the tenure system and asked, “Should Texas universities continue to employ the tenure system? Why or why not?”
Editor’s note: One in a continuing series about the controversy concerning research at UT.
State budget cuts will cost the University $92 million for the 2012-13 biennium, President William Powers Jr. said in an email last week.
Data on UT System faculty spending, earning, research production and course enrollment could mislead the public about the so-called productivity of professors and researchers in the system, a UT faculty chair said.
The UT System Board of Regents created the task force on excellence and productivity in February. Upon their request, the UT System created the 820-page document containing faculty names, their tenure status and course enrollment numbers and released it to the task force on May 5.
After hiring a $200,000-per-year adviser, the University of Texas System Board of Regents reassigned him last week and released a letter Friday addressing concerns about the Board’s commitment to academic research.
Certain faculty members currently weigh in twice on University personnel decisions, said a faculty council member.
The council unanimously passed a resolution Monday to eliminate the practice,
English professor and council chair-elect Alan Friedman presented the resolution during the council’s meeting Monday on behalf of the eight-member executive committee.
The University has made little progress to correct the gender inequities identified by the 2008 Gender Equity Report.
The report made by a provost’s task force found inequities for female faculty in overall representation, pay and promotion and retention rates.
UT’s Faculty Council created a new committee at its Monday meeting to determine the best way to conduct annual evaluations, hoping to ensure the faculty has a say in how professors and staff are reviewed.
As shrinking financial resources force college deans to cut back on personnel and other expenses, UT’s Faculty Council is pressing for greater faculty involvement in budgetary decision-making.
