Following recent uncertainty for professors regarding the future of tenure at UW-Madison, the executive committee of the Faculty Senate discussed potential changes to the school’s post-tenure review policy in a meeting Tuesday.
The University Committee, made up of six faculty members, was joined by Provost Sarah Mangelsdorf to propose and consider aspects of a potential new policy.
Amy Wendt, the chair of the University Committee, detailed the benefits of passing a modified policy specific to UW-Madison but based on the existing policy at UW-Milwaukee. That policy would then be subject to approval by the Faculty Senate and the Board of Regents.
If the committee takes no action, the university would accept the Board of Regents’ “default” policy, according to UW-Madison’s Secretary of the Faculty Steven Smith.
Among other issues, the committee discussed whether, under the new policy, professors should be subject to post-tenure review by a general review committee or by a group made up of members of their own academic field.
Mangelsdorf expressed support for the former, saying even hearings for professors in difficult fields should be accessible “to a soybean farmer,” which is what she was told when she was undergoing tenure review as a professor at the University of Illinois.
The committee also debated aspects of the post-tenure review process, including the role of the provost in resolving disputes and the merits of ad hoc committees specific to individual cases.
The University Committee will meet twice more to continue their discussion, after which debate will move to the Faculty Senate and finally to the Board of Regents.
Nina Bertelsen contributed to this report.
