Welford, Mark

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Georgia Southern University: Digital Commons@Georgia Southern

Georgia Southern UniversityDigital Commons@Georgia SouthernFaculty Senate Index Faculty Senate Documents11-17-2004A Resolution to Reduce Bias Tenure andPromotion Decisions within the Unit and CollegeMark WelfordGeorgia Southern UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/faculty-senate-indexPart of the Higher Education Administration CommonsThis motion request is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Senate Documents at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Faculty Senate Index by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, pleasecontact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern.edu.Recommended CitationWelford, Mark, "A Resolution to Reduce Bias Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College" (2004). Faculty SenateIndex. 526.https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/faculty-senate-index/526Approved by the Senate: 11/17/2004 (Sent to ad hoc committee) Not Approved by the Senate:  Approved by the President: Not Approved by the President:  A Resolution to Reduce Bias Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College on the Georgia Southern Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College on the Georgia Southern Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College  Submitted by: Mark Welford  11/17/2004  Motion:  “Aware that administrators (e.g., chairs, unit heads, deans) have access to personal files on tenure-track faculty throughout their 6-year probationary (now 5-year probationary) term before tenure is requested.  Be it resolved that a motion is made that all administrators upon returning to full-time to the corps of instruction shall be have access to personal files on tenure-track faculty throughout their 6-year probationary (now 5-year probationary) term before tenure is requested.  Be it resolved that a motion is made that all administrators upon returning to full-time to the corps of instruction shall be prohibited from serving on their respective unit and college Tenure and Promotion committee’s for a period of 5 years.”   Rationale:   Senate Response:   Mark Welford (COST) introduced a motion entitled “A Resolution to Reduce Bias in Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College on the Georgia Southern University campus.” The motion was the following:  “Aware that administrators (e.g., chairs, unit heads, deans) have access to personal files on tenure-track faculty throughout their 6-year probationary (now 5-year probationary) term before tenure is requested. Be it resolved that a motion is made that all administrators upon returning to full-time to the corps of instruction shall be prohibited from serving on their respective unit and college Tenure and Promotion committee’s for a period of 5 years.” Mary Hazeldine (COBA) spoke in favor of the motion by saying that former administrators who are returning to a role as full-time faculty need to concentrate on teaching and scholarship in order to prepare for post-tenure review and shouldn’t be burdened by extra service. Bruce Grube (President) asked Welford what was meant by the word “bias” in this motion. Welford replied that former administrators who served on Departmental- and College-level Tenure and Promotion Committee often based their decisions on information that they were privy to during their administrative duties. This information was, many times, not in the package being judged by the committee. Other committee members had no way of knowing or independently verifying whether this information was true or not. Grube also wanted to know if the term “administrator” extended to include Department Chairs and Welford replied that it did.  Virginia Richards (CHHS) noted that this motion would place a burden on small colleges such as CHHS where every tenured associate and full professor was needed to staff the necessary committees in the College. She further stated that the possibility of bias did not exist in her College. Debra Sabia (CLASS) spoke against the motion saying that former administrators should be entitled to all of the rights and privileges of rank-and-file faculty members.  Richard Rogers (NCAA Representative) noted that there were some administrators (e.g., graduate program director) who did not make personnel decisions and who should not be disenfranchised from making them later. Mark Edwards (COST) spoke in favor of the motion and made two points. The first was that the term “administrator” should not be lower than the Dean because a Dean made decisions about personnel across an entire College while Department Chairs only made decisions about personnel in a single department. His second point was that perhaps this issue should be considered by an ad hoc committee which would carefully consider the definition of “administrator” in this motion. Rice Jenkins asked if Edwards was willing to make this motion and Edwards replied in the affirmative. That is, the motion was that this motion should be considered by an ad hoc committee. After some discussion it was determined that referral to an ad hoc committee was allowed by parliamentary procedures. David Alley (CLASS) spoke in favor of the Edwards motion to commit the Welford motion to an ad hoc committee saying that, from what he had heard, the definition of “administrator” was an important question here. Rice Jenkins thus asked for the Senate to vote on whether the Welford motion should be considered by an ad hoc committee to be appointed by the SEC. The motion to commit was passed by voice vote.       

A Resolution to Reduce Bias Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College

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A Resolution to Reduce Bias Tenure and Promotion Decisions within the Unit and College

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