ERIC Number: ED272999
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1986
Pages: 17
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A New Generation of Tenure Problems: Legal Issues and Institutional Responses.
Lee, Barbara A.
This chapter addresses developments concerning faculty tenure, examines institutional responses to new pressures and the litigation by faculty over those reponses, and explores faculty and administration rights and responsibilities. Academic administrators have realized that the reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes are an opportunity to assess faculty performance. The depressed faculty job market has resulted in a pool of talented applicants with whom a department can replace a nontenured faculty member whose performance proved unsatisfactory. Pressures for educational quality have caused institutions to demand more and higher quality publications, terminal degrees, and other measures of faculty performance. Application of higher standards has generally been upheld by courts. Plaintiffs have usually argued that either the new requirements deny contractual or due process rights or that they constitute employment discrimination. Courts have ruled that both academic departments and administrators can unilaterally raise publications standards and apply them to faculty hired under old rules. Post-tenure review is opposed by the American Association of University Professors, though no direct litigation has resulted. Its legality may be challenged as enrollments decline and demands for accountability increase. Tenured faculty have perceived regulation of their time to influence position autonomy. While procedural protections of tenure persist, the institutional right to determine and to enforce performance expectations from faculty is unrelated to tenure. (CJH)
Descriptors: College Administration, College Faculty, Contracts, Court Litigation, Departments, Due Process, Educational Quality, Employment Practices, Evaluation Problems, Faculty College Relationship, Higher Education, Labor Market, Performance Factors, Promotion (Occupational), Teacher Rights, Tenure
Publication Type: Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Policymakers; Administrators; Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A