We, the members of the Executive Committee of the AAUP Advocacy Chapter, are dismayed to observe the continuing deterioration of academic due process at Columbia College. We are deeply disturbed by the way the Statement of Policy, which serves as the roadmap for our community of educators, has been disregarded.
The recent postponement of tenure and promotion decisions, reported in the Chronicle on March 20, is an example where the college administration is acting outside the norms and conventions of an institution of higher education, whose commitment to shared governance, tenure and academic freedom should be contributing to the common good. It is not in keeping with the spirit or letter of the college’s Statement of Policy, which exists as a contract to guide faculty and administration in following the policies and procedures as they fulfill their institutional roles. This decision also reinforces an existing atmosphere of demoralization and fear where the threat of dismissal weighs upon staff and faculty each day as they go about their jobs.
The impact of tenure and promotion postponement on the current and future livelihoods of our colleagues is grave and deviates from the norms within higher education. We respectfully request that the decision to postpone tenure and promotion be recalled so that our colleagues’ commitment to this institution and our students are recognized.
This postponement, as well as the hiring of an outside consultant firm to expedite program reviews, reflect actions that appear to presume the declaration of Adverse Circumstances. Only the Board of Trustees may declare Adverse Circumstances upon completion of their evaluation of both the President’s Advisory Report and the Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee’s Comments, following the provisions of Section XXI.E in the Statement of Policy. As Adverse Circumstances have not been declared, it erodes confidence in college leadership that tenure and promotion decisions have been postponed and the rationale provided is not satisfactory. The work and process undertaken by the individual faculty candidates—as well as departmental colleagues, chairs, deans, and all college committees—should be respected, and timelines established by the Statement of Policy should be followed.
The program review accelerated timeline also brings into question whether the Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee’s Comments, due on April 10, will be adequately considered and whether any proposed faculty-driven curricular design and actions will be afforded the time to take effect in ameliorating the deficit. As such, we have written to the Board, administrative leadership, and faculty leadership requesting that we be afforded reasonable time for meaningful faculty input.
Joan Giroux, Michael Caplan, Jessica Young, Diana Gorman Jamrozik, Mel Potter and Guy Villa, Jr. are members of the executive community of the AAUP Advocacy Chapter at Columbia College.
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