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July 24, 1997

Members named to Senate committee studying tenure

Members have been named to a Fac- ulty Assembly committee that will study the status of tenure at Pitt.

"Our basic mission," said committee chairperson Mark Ginsburg, "will be to examine the status of tenure within various parts of the University and to report back on whether the current proportions of tenured and tenure-stream faculty here are appropriate for the kind of institution we have. In connection with that, we will look at a number of academic freedom issues related to tenure." The committee will hold at least one public forum, possibly including the Oct. 15 meeting of the full University Senate, Ginsburg said.

University Senate President Gordon MacLeod said he hopes to receive at least a preliminary report from the committee by the end of 1997, with a final report going out to the University community before the end of the 1997-98 academic year. That report should provide a framework for a University-wide discussion of tenure, MacLeod said.

In addition to Ginsburg, who is a professor in the education school, committee members include: Thomas Anderson, chairperson of geology and planetary science; law professor Martha Chamallas; Valire Carr Cope-land, assistant professor of social work; Mark McColloch, chairperson of the Greensburg campus's behavioral sciences division; dental medicine professor Robert Mundell; linguistics professor Christina Paulston; political science professor Alberta Sbragia; Mark Sperling, chairperson of the medical school's pediatrics department; and Richard Steinman, assistant professor of medicine.

All of the committee members either have tenure or are on track to earn tenure except Steinman, who has temporarily withdrawn from the tenure stream.

At the July 8 Faculty Assembly meeting, professors said that while tenure is not under attack at Pitt in a University-wide sense, the new committee's work will be timely and vital.

English professor Phil Wion, who serves on the University Planning and Budgeting Committee as well as the Senate's budget policies committee, said both groups are examining the fiscal impact of tenure-stream appointments.

"I believe the provost [James Maher] and chancellor [Mark Nordenberg] understand the nature and importance of tenure," Wion said. "I don't anticipate a quote, major attack, on tenure at Pitt. But there are parts of the University that apparently don't understand the role of tenure as well as others." By raising awareness of tenure and questions about its future here, Pitt faculty will lessen the likelihood here of "the kinds of assaults on tenure that we have seen at other universities," Wion said.

In a draft statement of his committee's mission, Ginsburg wrote that the group will examine the following questions, among others:

* How have the proportions of tenured, tenure-stream, non-tenure-stream full-time, and non-tenure-stream part-time faculty in various Pitt units changed over the last 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years?

* How do the past and present proportions compare with those of other U.S. public and private institutions of higher education, including Pitt's peers in the American Association of Universities?

* In what ways, and how well, does the existing tenure system protect the academic freedom of faculty members in their teaching, research and extramural activities?

* What role should teaching play in qualifying for tenure?

* How has the elimination of mandatory retirement ages changed tenure?

* What advantages and disadvantages do faculty, administrators, staff and students in different units perceive in Pitt's tenure system?

* What changes would members of those constituencies recommend in the tenure system?

— Bruce Steele


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