By Virginia I. Lohr, FSC Chair, 1999-2000
The Faculty Status Committee (FSC) <http://www.wsu.edu/~fsc> serves to conciliate and adjudicate disputes between members of the faculty and the administration and within the faculty resulting from actions and decisions (such as tenure denials) within the University. Any member of the faculty, including temporary faculty, may bring a problem to the attention of FSC. FSC is also charged to report periodically to the Senate and to the faculty concerning its operations. This report focuses on activities during the 1999-2000 academic year and summarizes cases from the past three years.FSC is responsible to the faculty. It has nine elected members, each serving for three years. FSC members whose terms expired in 2000 are: Ray Huffaker (Agricultural Economics), Virginia Lohr (Horticulture & Landscape Architecture), and Rob Rosenman (Economics). Members with continuing terms are: Gary S. Collins (Physics), KNona C. Liddell (Chemical Engineering), William C. Davis (Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology), Richard Okita (Pharmaceutical Sciences), Jeanne M. Johnson (Speech and Hearing Sciences), and Amy Wharton (Sociology). Three newly elected members who begin their terms during the 2000-2001 academic year are: Sandra C. Cooper (Mathematics), Karen Peterson (Human Development), and Lori Wiest (Music). KNona Liddell will serve as Chair of FSC for 2000-2001.
The Faculty Status Committee received six new appeals during the 1999-2000 academic year and completed one investigation begun the previous year. These appeals, from non-tenured faculty members in tenure track positions, requested the review of decisions on either non-reappointment (2) or tenure denial (5). All of the appeals included allegations of inadequate consideration, and a few also included allegations of significant procedural errors or of violation of academic freedom.
For this report, the FSC considered the six new appeals received this year along with six cases reviewed during the previous two years. Generalizations may not always hold up under close scrutiny, yet themes or trends from these twelve cases may point to areas of concern to the institution. The number of appeals to FSC has been growing during the past three years, but it is still lower than the typical number received six years ago. The most common decision being appealed to the FSC from Fall 1997 through Spring 2000 involved the non-reappointment of faculty on the tenure-track (80%); appeal of the final tenure decision was the most common appeal in this group. About half of the cases investigated by FSC in the past three years involved faculty located somewhere other than Pullman, and 75% of the appellants were women or minorities: neither percentage is proportional to that among the faculty in general. In 75% of recent cases, the FSC has supported the position of the appellant to some degree. The President's Office has been highly responsive to concerns raised by FSC. In most cases, the President has accepted FSC's recommendations: this same trend has been mentioned in previous reports. In the few cases where this has not been the case, the President's reasons were understood by FSC members, and we felt that he had given fair and thorough consideration to the issues involved.
Another common theme among the appeals in recent years is the high turnover among immediate and upper level administrators, including chairs, directors, and deans; this was noted in more than 75% of the cases we reviewed. We do not know if this figure is proportional to the number of tenure-track faculty at WSU with new administrators within the last 3-5 years, but we suspect that it is not. The cases we have investigated clearly point to problems that can result from administrative turnover. Administrative changes often bring changes in standards and expectations, and new administrators may be unfamiliar with important WSU policies or procedures. This points to the on-going need for clearly specified tenure and promotion criteria and procedures, as well as regularly available mechanisms for new administrators to learn about WSU's policies and procedures. From our cases, it is clear that such mechanisms could be valuable for all administrators, not just new ones.
The single most prominent theme in recent years involved some form of communication problem, as a major or minor element in the case. Communication problems came in many forms: conflicting messages, changing expectations, misinterpretations, inaccurate information, alternative interpretations, and more. Among the WSU faculty, there is great diversity in terms of thought, scholarship, experiences, expertise, and styles. These differences may present unexpected obstacles for non-tenured faculty. To demonstrate that we value such diversity in our institution and that we understand that "different" is not synonymous with "inferior," tenured faculty should make special efforts to be open to those who approach situations in novel ways. Non-tenured faculty members, likewise, have a responsibility to learn and understand the history and culture of this institution, which has brought us to this point, and should make special efforts to be open to sincere assistance when it is offered. One way to foster these objectives is through effective mentoring programs. The FSC encourages efforts to increase the extent and effectiveness of mentoring at WSU as one way to enhance the effectiveness of the institution.
In conclusion, if anything can be inferred about the state of the institution by studying the small number of aberrant cases that have been reviewed by the FSC, then we might say that the relations among faculty and between faculty and administrators in most of the institution are adequate, but pockets of concern are present. We must be diligent to maintain even this status, and added efforts will be required to improve the overall condition and address the trouble spots as they become evident.