Throughout fall semester, President Michael F. Adams and Provost Arnett Mace met with small groups of faculty to discuss issues of concern and to offer an administrative perspective. Out of those meetings came a faculty request for more regular communication from the senior administration. This article in Columns is one of a series which will address administrative goals and priorities.
A task force of 14 faculty and three administrators has proposed revisions to the existing appointment, promotion and tenure guidelines, which have been in place since 1995. Mace appointed the task force in August 2003.
The proposed guidelines, which clarify many of the procedural matters involved in faculty employment decisions, are available on the Web at http://uc.reg.uga.edu/uc.nsf.
“The proposed guidelines are a significant improvement in clarity and process,” says Mace. “I believe that the good work of this committee will improve the process for making these critical decisions, to the benefit of individual faculty and the university as a whole.”
Michael Wells, J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law, chaired the committee. He says that his involvement in revising the guidelines extends back to 2000, when he was asked by his dean to serve on the Faculty Affairs Committee of University Council. In the spring of 2001, a subcommittee began to review the existing guidelines, and a task force was appointed in the fall of 2001. The task force circulated a draft in the fall of 2002, and the proposal which was presented as an information item at the March 18 Council meeting reflects much of the input received at that time and since the appointment of the current task force.
“These guidelines reflect a lot of work and the views of a lot of people,” says Wells. “I’m very pleased. I hope the way people will approach it is not whether it is perfect but whether it is an improvement.”
Mace says that the four major revisions are providing criteria which recognize the diversity of expertise at UGA, assuring review at the next level after a negative vote, making the University Appeals Committee a faculty-only body, and clarifying conflicting or confusing information in the existing guidelines.
Task force members are Alison F. Alexander, journalism and mass communication; William F. Barstow, arts and sciences; Jonathon D. Crystal, arts and sciences; William D. Davis, arts and sciences; Cheryl D. Dozier, UGA at Gwinnett; Robert E. Hoyt, business; Patricia L. Kalivoda, public service and outreach; Charles H. Keith, arts and sciences; Stefanie A. Lindquist, public and international affairs; James N. Moore, veterinary medicine; David H. Newman, forest resources; Susan C. Quinlan, arts and sciences; Mark E. Reinberger, environment and design; Randall L. Tackett, pharmacy; Patricia S. Wilson, education; and Bonnie L. Yegidis, academic affairs.
