Clarification: In a previous version of this article, Sam Gorovitz’s comment on the motion was unclear. Gorovitz commented on the amendment to the motion.

The University Senate on Wednesday took a step to ensure that faculty will continue to have influence on tenure and promotion decisions.

After more than 30 minutes of discussion in Maxwell Auditorium, senators passed a motion to move toward creating a committee of tenured faculty members that would hear appeals from Syracuse University administration and individual schools and colleges on promotion decisions.

If created, the Committee for Faculty Status Resolution would review appeals, vote on them and make recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

“It’s a mechanism to appeal a promotion decision to a faculty body,” said James Watts, chair of the religion department, who presented the motion on behalf of the Academic Affairs Committee and the Committee on Appointment and Promotions.

The motion was planned hastily, within the last week, to record USen’s opinion before the university Board of Trustees meets in May, Watts said.

The Academic Affairs Committee had heard that the Board of Trustees intended to adopt recommendations presented to the senate by the ad hoc committee on promotions last November, Watts said. Some faculty disagreed with the ad hoc committee’s suggestion that the provost should make the final decision on promotions, he said.

The Academic Affairs Committee and Committee on Appointment and Promotions came up with alternatives. Watts presented the motion on behalf of both committees.

“There needed to be a faculty or senate voice on this, so we did this quickly,” Watts said.

As the motion passed in the last meeting of the semester, the Agenda Committee will come up with the language to change senate bylaws and bring it to the senate for approval in the fall semester, Watts said.

Most of the senators present on Wednesday agreed with the overall goals of the committee. However, tense debate surrounded the resolution’s specific language.

Senators proposed amendments to align the motion with senate procedures, like committee creation and appointment. Watts said that some of the processes needed to be refined because they were put together so quickly. Sam Gorovitz, a professor of philosophy, was among those who questioned the procedures for creating the committee, calling the amendment to the motion “superfluous.”

Deborah Pellow, a professor of anthropology, expressed concerns that the Board of Trustees was attempting to shake up an “established” process for faculty decisions.

Other senators voiced concerns about the diversity of the proposed five-person committee. They brought up diversity issues from the schools members represented to their race and gender.

While senators debated, Chancellor Kent Syverud, who spoke toward the beginning of the meeting, meticulously scribbled notes sitting in the second row of the auditorium. After nearly 40 minutes, and another failed amendment, the amended motion carried.

Watts stood at the front of the auditorium, answering questions throughout the discussion. After the meeting, senators congratulated him as they walked out of the Maxwell School of Citizenship of Public Affairs.

The motion’s passage addressed an essential problem with promotions, Watts said.

Watts said that promotion and tenure votes happen at different levels in the university. Faculty in specific departments and individual schools and colleges evaluate tenure and promotion cases, but the vice chancellor and provost has reversed some negative decisions in recent years, he said.

In some cases in the last 10 years, the vice chancellor and provost has recommended that the trustees grant faculty members tenure despite the fact that committees within individual schools have declined to promote them, he said. Faculty, in these cases, gets tenured and not promoted.

Watts said that many faculty and administration feel tenure without promotion to associate professor is “generally a bad idea.” Senate debate surrounded the question of how to keep that from happening without giving up the faculty’s right to decide on promotion.

“This motion doesn’t solve the problem, but it generally moves us toward it happening less often,” Watts said.

For now, senators will have to wait to see what happens. Watts said he thinks the Board of Trustees could come up with its own plan or allow the senate to move forward with the plan that it approved.

But he said the senate clearly established its stance on its involvement with promotions.

Said Watts: “I don’t know what’s going to happen next. But what happened here is the senate affirmed that it wanted faculty to remain in control of the faculty promotions process.”

Published on April 17, 2014 at 2:11 am

Contact Jacob: jspramuk@syr.edu