The Board of Regents has requested that a post tenure review policy be in place at Iowa State University by December, 1999. It seems clear that if we do not come up with a reasonable policy, some policy will be imposed on us from above. The policy currently up for a vote of the General Faculty is based on the policy which has been in effect at the Universiy of Iowa for 10 years. They have had no problems with their policy, and our proposed policy has more guarantees built in and is more faculty-friendly than theirs. The proposed policy is deliberately short and simple, and has been written to be as flexible as possible. Individual departments put together post tenure review plans which are then reviewed at the college level in the same way that departmental promotion and tenure governance documents are reviewed. This is a bottom up approach which allows the departments broad latitude to put together plans which best fit their individual cultural milieus. It also gives the departments some control over how much time and effort will be put into these reviews. This approach is different from the one at the University of Iowa which is more a top down approach.

The second paragraph of the proposed policy is a strong statement of the continued commitment of the university to academic freedom. It also states that these reviews do not change the circumstances under which tenured faculty can be dismissed from the university. This statement should help allay the fears of some faculty that the implementation of this policy will end or even modify tenure at Iowa State University. That has not happened at the University of Iowa, and their policy does not include this second paragraph. The purpose of these reviews is to enhance faculty performance, not to change the concept of tenure. I strongly urge you to vote for the proposed policy. It is something that we can easily live with and is almost certain to be more faculty- friendly than an imposed policy. Defying the Board of Regents over this, as suggested by a few faculty, strikes me as extremely counterproductive.

Dennis Ross