| 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.
An open forum on the proposed guidelines will be held April 7 from
2 to 3:30 p.m. in room 350 of the Student Learning Center. After
a period of review and comment, the guidelines will be submitted
to the Executive Committee of University Council for inclusion as
an action item on the April 22 agenda. Once approved, the guidelines
will be effective spring 2005 for promotion and tenure consideration
during the 2005-2006 academic year.
“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.
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