Twelve professors earn tenure
Tenure can be defined as guaranteeing faculty members teaching at a university with a job. Tenure at GCSU is considered for any professor after five years. It is based on their teaching skills, academic scholarship and service to both the school and community.
Jason Stover, a Mathematics Professor who was also promoted to Associate Professor, earned tenure, but doesn’t foresee himself changing what he does in the near future.
“The tenure system is a system designed to protect teachers from being fired for unpopular decisions that they may have,” Stover said.
Since this is a liberal arts school, the focus is more on how each professor teaches, rather than the research that they have done as it is at other schools such as Georgia Tech.
At each college and university, the exact process to receive tenure varies in different ways. Once a professor applies for tenure at GCSU, it is run through a number of committees first, starting with the professor’s respective school or college. It then goes to the dean of that school or college, followed by the dean of faculty.
The dean of faculty then makes a recommendation to the president of the university, in our case Dr. Dorothy Leland, who then sends a recommendation to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, which approves a professor for tenure.
There is no pay raise with tenure. It is meant to preserve academic freedom to be used as a motivational tool and a job guarantee. It is expensive to hire new professors at any school, so tenure is used to keep experienced and qualified teachers around for a while.
Douglas O’Grady, a professor focusing on Music Therapy, also believes that receiving tenure provides some comfort for the professors.
“To get tenure is very important, especially now with this economic climate,” O’Grady said.
The tenure system can be abused as well; however, Stover mentioned, as teachers with tenure need extenuating circumstances to be fired.
“There is a risk if someone decides to stop teaching or doing research; it’s hard to get rid of them,” Stover said.
The possibility of a professor not fulfilling their duties after receiving tenure is a risk that accompanies it. However, the job security and responsibility that comes with it continues to make professors such as Stover and O’Grady strive to receive tenure as well as continue to take pride in their profession.
“I always try to make things better,” O’Grady said. “Now they’ve got me as a committed professor. It’s a commitment both ways.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 10 2009. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
