1. Survey on Bylaw Revision Appendices B, D A report from the Personnel Policies Council
Continuing Appointment and Promotion
Personnel Committee
Peer Review
College Panel

2. About the survey
Link went out through FA list and department chairs lists
April 2018 – September 2018
105 responses

3. Why now? Issues with B, D and requests for interpretation from PPC
Discussions with Provost Furlong
Need to gather input for any Bylaw revision
Needs 2/3 of FA membership

5. Sample comments: Agree
“From what I have witnessed in my time at Oswego, the delinking of this process has abetted several faculty's undeserving, though ultimately successful, applications for tenure. Those who support these applications argue (rationalize) that "at least these people are not getting promoted." Thus we have individuals on campus for 20 years at the assistant rank who will never be promoted and are not productive scholars or teachers”

6. Sample comments: Agree
“It is absolutely nonsensical that we do not do this already. If we are not willing to promote someone (for doing their job properly) then we should not be willing to grant them tenure/continuing appointment and thereby job security (for not doing their job)!”

7. Sample comments: Agree
“… If departments are hesitating about promotion but not tenure, something is wrong with the process….I have asked colleagues at other schools about their arrangement and our process was consistently viewed as redundant or backwards.”

8. Sample comments: Disagree
“Keeping the two separate allows for wiggle room for those faculty whose work hasn't (yet) met departmental expectations for associate (and provides lovely incentive), even as most people apply for both at the same time”

9. Sample comments: Disagree
“I have been an Oswego faculty since We never linked the two and I would like to continue this practice. Tenure for me requires having acquired core academic skills/competence such as teaching and service along-with acceptance by colleagues for an Oswego academic. Promotion requires stepping up in those skills/competencies primarily in scholarship and recognition.”

10. Sample comments: Disagree
“Continuous Appointment is achieved for satisfactory performance - Promotion should be for above-satisfactory performance and serves a powerful motivational role for better performance.”

11. Areas of confusion Continuing appt. – dept. level
Promotion – dept. and subdivision
Early promotion?

13. Sample Comments: Agree
“The main issue is to NOT have junior (untenured) faculty voting for either the promotion (let alone tenure) for senior faculty…. There is clearly a power differential and this inappropriate.”

14. Sample Comments: Agree
“I especially agree with revision (2). It is utterly inappropriate to expect a junior faculty member, whose job may be on the line, to go on the record in a difficult personnel decision involving a more senior individual.”

15. Sample Comments: Disagree
“How are assistant professors supposed to be mentored if they are not privy to committees such as these?”
“Untenured/tenure track Assistant Professors should serve on personnel and peer review committees to understand and participate in the duties required by these committees.”

16. Sample Comments: Disagree
“My main concern is that our department would not have enough faculty to meet these membership requirements, or would place unfair commitments on the faculty who meet these requirements.”

17. Sample Comments: Disagree
“I don't understand what you hope to gain by removing assistant and senior assistant professors/librarians from these committees. We, too, are members of our departments; we, too, will have to live with whatever decision is made. In addition, we have the advantage of understanding the values of our discipline in a way that is unlikely in an outsider brought in to make up the numbers.”

18. Personnel Committee Bylaw Revisions
Include a process for when a department is too small in eligible members to staff the committee

20. Sample comments: Agree
“You CANNOT rank faculty. Who is to say that someone's work is more significant than someone else's?... Every faculty member achieves the criteria on the merit of their individual, unique work.”

21. Sample comments: Agree
“Please get rid of ranking. I want to collaborate with my peers, not feel like I'm being setup in competition against them”

22. Sample comments: Disagree
“We either rank them ourselves, or if resources are limited and the college cannot afford to pay for all the salary bumps (small as they are), the administration will do the ranking. Do not give your power away.”

23. Sample comments: Disagree
“Only professionals in a given field can truly evaluate one's achievements; without ranking, upper administrators will loose a helpful data point; it's a recommendation anyway!”

25. General observation
Wow, you guys really hate this.

26. Sample comments: Agree
“We have many small departments, so this would serve this issue well.”

27. Sample comments: Mixed
“On the other hand, I had never before considered the plight of the interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary faculty under review. …would have an all-college committee actually solve [this]? Or would it just make all faculty members equally misunderstood?”

28. Sample comments: Disagree
“This change would put promotion and tenure decisions in the hands of people who are far removed from the disciplines of the faculty members they are expected to evaluate. ”

29. Sample comments: Disagree
“This strikes me as a bad idea that may well lead to great confusion over standards and expectations for promotion/tenure. Every discipline is different, … I would be very wary for faculty far outside an area to have such power over such weighty decisions. ”

31. Sample comments: Agree
“Clarification is certainly required here.” “It's very vague in the Bylaws - definitely needs some clarification”

32. Sample comments: Agree
“I had no idea that this panel was meant to exist. What exactly is it supposed to do? Assuming it continues to exist, we definitely need to know that.”

33. Sample comments: Disagree
“It is VERY important to have a meeting and clarify in cases when one is promoted against peer recommendations” “This panel is very important as it is the only one that meets with the administration. We need to know why when the administration reverses the decisions of the subdivision.”

34. College Faculty Panel Bylaw revision proposal dealing with
Who convenes
When
Objectives

36. Sample comments: Disagree
“If revisiting means shortening, it doesn't seem like a good idea, especially those steps which require group coordination.”

37. Sample comments: Disagree
“Having been on both sides of this process, through the paper and digital transitions, it is still a cumbersome process either way. I haven't seen documents turn around or move through the system any faster using digital tools.”