TENURE POLICY AT UWSP
BACKGROUND AND NEXT STEPS
MARCH 30, 2016
HISTORY
• Wisconsin statute 36.13 “Faculty tenure and probationary appointments” was deleted and
became Regent policy RPD 20-23 “Faculty Tenure”, without any substantive changes, on
March 10, 2016.
• Wisconsin statute 36.17 “Limited appointments” was edited to say neither tenured faculty
nor academic staff lose their appointment by accepting an administrative post like dean or
provost
• Wisconsin statute 36.21 was edited: “Lapse of appointments Termination due to certain
budget or program changes”
“Notwithstanding ss 36.13 (f) and s. 36.15, the board may, with appropriate notice,
terminate any faculty or academic staff appointment when a financial emergency exists
such an action is deemed necessary due to a budget or program decision requiring
program discontinuance, curtailment, modification, or redirection.”
• Wisconsin statute 36.22 “Layoff or termination of faculty member due to certain budget or
program changes” was imported into statute from administrative code UWS Ch. 5.
TENURE POLICY TASK FORCE
• The Tenure Policy Task Force (TPTF) was formed in March 2015 and charged with creating
procedures to accommodate the revised statute 36.21. The goal was to write procedures
that protect academic freedom while allowing for the layoff of tenured faculty members.
On March 10, 2016 the Board of Regents adopted RPD 20-XX, “Procedures relating to
Financial Emergency or Program Discontinuance Requiring Faculty Layoff and Termination”
• The TPTF was also charged with modifying Regent policy RPD 20-9 (old) “Guidelines for
Tenured Faculty Review and Development”
a. Craft an overarching tenured faculty review process for adaptation by individual institutions within the UW System;
b. Create a common process for rewarding high-performing tenured faculty (though not a common reward); and
c.
Create a common process for effectively addressing tenured faculty performance which does not meet expectations
for teaching, research and public service.
• The new policy RPD 20-9 “Periodic Post-Tenure Review in Support of Tenured Faculty
Development” was adopted March 10, 2016.
CHANGES PROPOSED BY FACULTY
• The Faculty Representatives discussed a number of possible improvements to the new
policies and ended up proposing three of them to the Board of Regents on March 10, 2016.
1.
Change “considered” to “pursued” in the second paragraph of the policy statement.
2.
Form a separate committee for closing programs than the one identified for handling financial
exigency
3.
Make educational considerations primary over financial when deciding to close a program
• All three amendments failed, but Regent Mueller proposed a more modest change that
encourages administrators to consider more than finances. Her amendment to RPD 20-XX,
part II, paragraph B, reads “Such long range judgments generally will involve the analysis of
financial resources and the needs, value and quality of the program and any related college or
school.” The amendment passed 14-2.
CAMPUS POLICIES MUST BE APPROVED
• Each Campus must accommodate the Board of Regents policies in their own local
administrative code.
• For UWSP, that means modifying our Handbook
BoR policy
UWSP Handbook
Needed change
Tenure
UWSP 4B, pp.13-16
UWSP Ch. 3, pp.63-64
Check compatibility
Faculty layoff
UWSP Ch. 5, pp.74-82
Handbook 4C, pp.74-87
Handbook 9, pp.58-60
Handbook 3,pp.46-47
Add new language for program discontinuance,
consistent with BoR policy
Check compatibility with new WI ss36.22 (was UWS 5)
Delete the section on the 1974 law?
Connect retraining policy with layoff policy?
UWSP 4B, pp.20-22
Add appeals language, check compatibility
Post-tenure review
• The Handbook changes must be approved by Common Council and the Chancellor and
submitted to the Board of Regents by the December 2016 meeting.
• The comprehensive universities will pattern their local policies after Madison’s policies once
they are approved, perhaps at the April 8, 2016 Board of Regents meeting in Green Bay.
UW-MADISON’S PROPOSED POLICIES
• They will be modifying their FPP:
• 5.02 Departmental Restructuring - Guidelines and Criteria
• 10.02 Layoff and Termination Due to Program Discontinuance for
Reasons of Financial Emergency or Educational Considerations
• 7.17 Review of Tenured Faculty
• I have copies of Madison’s proposed policies, but I haven’t posted them
because they are likely to be modified on April 8. Here is a wish list from
UW-Madison faculty rep Tom Broman:
TOM BROMAN’S WISH LIST
1. A provision in our chapter 10.5 describing how a discontinued program is to be taught out to graduate
those students currently enrolled in it. In some case this might involve postponing the termination of
faculty positions.
2. A specification in our 10.7 of a time frame in in the academic year which notifications can be given.
This would be added to avoid giving unusually short or untimely notices designed to circumvent the
one-year severance provision in 10.11.
3. A possible splitting of our 5.2 C, which describes the process to be followed in program discontinuation,
into two sections. The first would describe program termination without faculty layoff and remain as in
the original. The new one would describe program discontinuation WITH faculty termination, and
would change the language to where the votes at each level are only advisory. We already knew the
Regents would demand that this be changed (Indeed, this already clear to me last November - the
current version so obviously violates the intent of Act 55 that I considered it madness even to propose
it in this form).
4. A provision to be inserted somewhere that authorizes our UAPC to submit a report to the Regents on
its decision concerning cases of program discontinuation & faculty termination where the UAPC does
not agree with the Chancellor's proposal to discontinue.
MORE ABOUT MADISON
This just in (3/30/16 2:35 PM) from Tom Broman: “Chancellor Blank
decided to go along with the University Committee's
recommendation and NOT submit chapter 5.02 of our FP&P for
Regent review and amendment. This limits the scope of their review
to our chapter 10, as passed last November.”