Stopping the tenture clock : university support on scorn?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe university Academic Administrators, Tenured Faculty, and Tenure-track Faculty at “RU/VH: Research Universities (very high research activity)” universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation in the southeastern region of the United States based on demographic characteristics, as well as determine the knowledge and the perceptions of the three aforementioned groups regarding Stopping the Tenure Clock. Researcher-designed surveys were used to collect data. There were 49 participants identified as Academic Administrators, defined as employees who have administrative decision making authority over an academic unit at the level of department chair, director, or dean. Additionally, there were 346 Tenured Faculty who participated in the study while 180 Tenure-track Faculty participated. An important finding was that 78.3% of the Tenure-track Faculty participants were not aware of the Stopping the Tenure Clock process. It was based on this finding that the researcher recommended future research be conducted to determine the preferred and most effective method(s) of communication to the university community. Lack of awareness of Stopping the Tenure Clock may be a result of inadequate publicity of the policy or procedures. Administrators should consider a variety of communication methods such as website postings (on all related stakeholders’ websites), periodic announcements at faculty meetings or orientation, inclusion in applicable policies, employee handbooks, or print publications. Another important finding is that Tenure-track faculty had more positive perceptions than the Tenured Faculty of Stopping the Tenure Clock. This finding was based on the comparison of perception of Stopping the Tenure Clock by employee groups, whereby a significant difference was revealed between two or more groups. The post-hoc analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between the Tenured Faculty and Tenure-track Faculty groups. University administrators should acknowledge the reasons behind any negative perceptions and address them directly by opening up the dialogue and the appropriate medium of how they can be addressed.