Council hears APT report

Provost Peter Lange took center stage for much of the Academic Council’s first meeting of the year Thursday, fielding a spirited question about the iPods distributed to freshmen and delivering the annual report of the Appointments, Promotions and Tenure Committee. Recipients of the Faculty Scholar Award were also in the limelight.

Candidates for tenure, whether potential hires or within the current ranks of the University’s faculty, must face the scrutiny of APT in addition to the reviews conducted by the provost and their respective departments. Over the past year APT considered 14 candidates from among the University’s current faculty and rejected only three. Following reassessment by Lange, 13 ultimately received tenure.

“That will seem like an extremely high number,” Lange said, but he explained that a “selection bias” was operating. A smaller than usual number of candidacies were under review, in part because of the withdrawal or rejection of several candidates earlier in the tenure process.

Tenure-track faculty must come under review within seven years of beginning their work at the University, and they must attain a high standard of achievement in research and scholarship to merit the recognition and job security that tenure provides. APT, individual departments and Lange share the responsibility for maintaining this standard.

Lange expressed his approval of the more active role that departments took last year. “There were five negative department decisions,” he said, adding that the number of departmental rejections was higher than it has been in about a decade. He supported the willingness of faculty colleagues, who have the greatest expertise in the specialties of those aspiring to tenure, to take on more responsibility in the decision-making process.

Overall, just 65 percent of internal eligible candidates for tenure last year received the honor, a rate that Lange described as “a relatively low percentage by our historical standards.”

The arrival of four of the University’s most outstanding undergraduates enlivened the meeting. Faculty members unanimously approved the Faculty Scholar Award Committee’s recommendations that seniors Emily Heikamp, Courtney Kraus, Francesca Pignataro and Sarah Zaman receive the prestigious honor for their impressive academic work and scholarly potential.

“These four young women were absolutely the top in every respect,” said Benjamin Ward, associate professor of philosophy and chair of the committee, as he noted the gender imbalance among recipients. “This is the first time that all of our winners have been women. The best just rose to the top.”