Virginia Wesleyan Revises Its Tenure Policy

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By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE

Nearly a year ago, a committee of 12 professors and trustees from Virginia Wesleyan College began to discuss revisions to the institution's advancement and tenure policy. Now the policy, which was dubbed "confusing and unusual" by Timothy G. O'Rourke, the college's vice president for academic affairs, is on the verge of extinction.

The policy, crafted in the 1970s, includes a cap on the percentage of faculty members institutionwide and in each department who could be tenured at no more than 50 percent. The cap spawned de facto tenure of sorts for some faculty members who earned tenure but couldn't actually get it because of the ceiling. Instead, they were given extended contracts that were renewed until openings came about, says Mr. O'Rourke, who is also dean of the college.

Another quirk in the policy is that it allows faculty members to bid for tenure multiple times rather than just once, which is typical at most colleges. "This policy has always been problematic," says J. Michael Hall, co-coordinator of the English department and president of the college's chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

The new policy proposal followed a series of conversations among faculty members, the faculty assembly, and trustees. "Remarkably the trustees and the faculty were in wholesale agreement," says Mr. O'Rourke, who arrived at the institution in July 2007. "It didn't cost us any money, and we really needed to bring the system up to date."

Mr. Hall, a member of the committee, attributes the smooth outcome largely to the agreement by the trustees to use guidelines from the AAUP's so-called Redbook — a primer of various policies related to academic freedom — as the framework for Virginia Wesleyan's new policy. The committee was split into two groups, which created a transition program to cover faculty members not tenured under the old policy and a new advancement and tenure policy.

"All things considered, it really was a smooth process," says Mr. Hall, one of 85 full-time faculty members at the college. "There's very little opposition over language that our professional organization endorses."

Mr. O'Rourke agrees: "What might have been a contentious discussion benefited from candor and full airing of views that occurred over the course of this whole process."

The cap on the number of tenured faculty members has been eliminated, and a system of post-tenure review has been added, says Mr. O'Rourke. Meanwhile, professors who came in under the old policy will have two chances for tenure, and new faculty members will be "under a conventional up-or-out system," he says.

This summer the committee will fine-tune the standards under which teaching, research, and service will be evaluated. In the fall, the faculty assembly will discuss those standards before the policy, already approved by the Board of Trustees, becomes effective by the end of the fall.