President Jacobs' Article in The Chronicle

by Don Wedding, UT-AAUP

"I cannot, in good faith, make a $2.5-million decision that will affect the institution for decades to come without doing all the due diligence such a decision requires."

­ Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, President, The University of Toledo

The above is a quote from an article by President Lloyd Jacobs  published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on November 1, 2010. A link is provided below. The article is titled "Why I Meet With Our Tenure Candidates." A version of  the Chronicle article also appears in the November 14, 2010 (Sunday edition) of  the Toledo Blade. The Blade included a photo of President Jacobs. A link to The Blade article is also provided below.

In his Chronicle article, President Jacobs defends his decision to personally interview all tenure candidates before granting tenure. At first glance, this would appear reasonable - the head of the institution personally meeting all of the tenure candidates.  However, President Jacobs focuses only on his 30 minute interview with each candidate. He does not mention the volumes of materials submitted by each candidate in support of his/her teaching, service, and professional activities as set forth in Articles 9 & 10 of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the tenure elaborations of the departments and colleges.

I have served on the University Committee on Academic Personnel (UCAP) for over 10 years and have participated in hundreds of tenure reviews. Tenure candidates submit as many as seven binders of materials for evaluation. These tenure materials are extensively reviewed by the department personnel committee, department chair, college personnel committee, Dean, UCAP, and the Provost before being sent to President Jacobs. Each level of review from the department personnel committee to the Provost is based on these volumes of materials. Interviews are not conducted.  Last year's 18 tenure candidates had over 90 thick binders.  In addition, there are over 100 binders for the other candidates up for renewal or promotion, and for faculty denied tenure. All of these materials are reviewed at each level up to the President. It is not known how much time President Jacobs actually spends reading these materials.

Based on his 30 minute interviews the President says he learned "that there is wide variation across the university in the volume of published material that departments have decided qualifies a candidate for tenure." This is surprising. Apparently the President has not been reading the faculty dossiers that have reached him or he would have discovered this long ago. He seems to be unaware that there are college and departmental elaborations that speak to tenure. These elaborations are authorized by the CBA and approved  by the Jacobs Administration.

He also learned that the tenure decision is important for the future job security of the successful candidates. He notes what is "particularly fearful to candidates is the six-year, up-or-out anachronism to which our university still subscribes." The President wrote, " I was nonplussed to think that people as accomplished as these candidates would be intimidated by an aging person who knows nothing about their specific fields."  He does not seem to understand why a tenure candidate should be concerned about a 30 minute tenure interview with a President who admittedly knows nothing about the candidate's academic area and who will be making a decision directly impacting the candidate's future at UT.

The President notes that he had reservations about two of the 18 candidates. However, he played softball and granted tenure to all 18 candidates despite some misgivings about the publication record of some. But he will be playing hardball next year. "So I'm planning to interview tenure candidates again this academic year, and I am resolved to raise the bar. I am prepared to make a negative recommendation if I encounter a marginal candidate." This attitude will certainly calm the fears of those up for tenure.

What President Jacobs does not mention in his article is that the faculty is working under a CBA that spells out the process of evaluation for tenure, a contract that he and the Board of Trustees agreed to. In addition, there are elaborations approved by his administration. He has apparently decided to violate the CBA and elaborations because of all the wonderful things he has learned from his 30 minute interviews.

Publications are his sole focus for tenure evaluation. Teaching and service are not mentioned. Because his focus is publications, he ignores teaching and service. He also ignores professional activities other than publications.

President Jacobs' use of a 30 minute interview introduces a risk if an interview is held before the decision to grant tenure or not.  For example, what if the tenure candidate is a minority? If a minority candidate is approved through all lower levels and is turned-down by President Jacobs after a 30 minute interview, the President will open himself and The University of Toledo to a charge of discrimination. It would be more prudent for President Jacobs to make a decision based on the volumes of materials before him and meet with each tenure candidate after tenure is granted.

Tenure is not automatic. Many candidates are turned down. The AAUP Collective Bargaining Agreement provides for meetings if a candidate is turned down at any level. During the last three years President Jacobs has met with a number of candidates after tenure has been denied.

President Jacobs' article gives the impression that he alone is weeding-out unqualified tenure candidates with a 30 minute interview. Somehow all others below him in the system have failed the institution. One gets the impression that he wrote his article for the UT Board of Trustees and for administrators at other universities. Perhaps we should consider abandoning Articles 9 & 10 of the CBA, the elaborations, and all of the lower level renewal, promotion, and tenure reviews starting with the chair and the department personnel committees. Let President Jacobs go solo with his 30 minute interview. This would really be impressive and might get him another bonus from the Board of Trustees.

Link to The Chronicle