Post-Tenure Review
J. Perley, National President of AAUP, Wooster College, OH

One of the developments that has appeared on the academic scene in the last few years is post-tenure review. It has received attention in The Chronicle of Higher Education and proposals to adopt such reviews have appeared as components of legislative agendas for change in States across the country. In some cases, the adoption of post-tenure reviews has been made a necessary condition for continued funding of budgets for higher education in State Universities. Often these proposals have originated in the perceptions of parents and businessmen that faculty members do not work hard after the granting of tenure, and the development and implementation of such plans is frequently rooted in a desire to cut higher educational costs.

In responding to such proposals when and where they develop, it is important for faculty members to let the critics know about the annual reviews which already take place and which provide the opportunity for effective remediation where deficiencies are found. But it is of the highest importance to emphasize that these reviews should not be seen as a way around the protection provided by dues process and peer review. It must also be emphasized that the costs in time and effort that would be required for an additional layer of bureaucratic review might be better invested in the delivery of education and the provisions of new opportunities for growth for those few faculty members who need help returning to the standard of excellence which was required for the granting of tenure in the first place.

Post tenure review cannot be seen as a retenuring, and the time honored procedures and processes that have been in place for decades for the removal of tenure must be respected.

Where change is needed, it must occur in the context of the principles and practices in the Red Book (Policy and Documents and Reports) that have been developed and endorsed by organizations representing faculty, administrators, and members of Boards of Trustees and the development of new policies needs to respect collegial governance and be framed in the context of tenure and its essential link to academic freedom.