Personnel Policies & Tenure Modifications

reviews University personnel policies and practices, including inclusion, equity & diversity, which affect the faculty; considers any proposals affecting tenure; examines problems experienced under tenure rules and considers alternative solutions

Co-Chairs: Warren Jelinek & Wen Ling
Members: Mark Adelman, Hasia Diner, Jo Labanyi (spring), David Pearce (fall), Herb Samuels, Dan Zwanziger

Agenda Items

Review of Tisch School of the Arts Teacher Policy

 

Background
The purpose of the Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA) Teacher Policy is to outline the policies and
procedures governing the appointment, review and reappointment of full-time, non-tenure track contract faculty holding the rank of “Teacher”.

At the December 9, 2014 faculty meeting of the Tisch School of the Arts, the Faculty Welfare and Governance Committee, a standing committee of the school, presented to the faculty for a vote the Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA) Teacher Policy. The Teacher Policy was approved unanimously, with three abstentions.

The TSOA Teacher Policy applies to all (i) full-time, non-tenure track contract faculty appointed
to the ranks of Associate Teacher and Teacher before the effective date of the Teacher Policy and (ii) full– time non-tenure track/contract faculty appointed to the rank of Teacher after the
effective date of the Teacher Policy. Henceforth, the two-tiered appointment structure for
Associate Teachers and Teachers will no longer apply. All TSOA Teachers will hereafter hold the rank of “Teacher.”

Tenure Faculty Senators Council approval of the Tisch School of the Arts Teacher Policy
The Tenure Faculty Senators Council approves of the proposed Tisch School of the Arts Teacher Policy premised on the understanding that the Tisch Faculty and Administration have agreed that it represents the beginning of further deliberations aimed at developing a policy for the consideration of Tisch Teachers for appointment as either Arts Professors or Tenure Track Faculty, as indicated in Appendix A, a summary of the significant issues of discussion between representatives of the Tisch Faculty and the Tisch Dean.
 

Recommendations regarding the Tisch Teacher Policy (June 22, 2015)

Review of NYU Shanghai Promotion & Tenure Guidelines


Background

Dr. Joanna Waley-Cohen, Provost, NYU Shanghai, having consulted with NYU Shanghai governing faculty and after an iterative review with the Offices of the Provost and General Counsel, has developed the NYU Shanghai Promotion and Tenure Guidelines (the Guidelines).

The Guidelines are designed to support high academic standards in awarding promotion and tenure and aim to provide a comprehensive and fair review of the candidates.

The successful implementation of the Guidelines depends on the leadership of the Vice Chancellor and Provost of NYU Shanghai and the Provost of NYU.

During the initial period of operation, NYU Shanghai will not have a sufficient number of tenured faculty to complete the review process without the participation of qualified tenured faculty at other NYU degree-granting campuses. The Guidelines recognize that in the initial years, NYU Shanghai will therefore require procedures for promotion and tenure that are transitional to permanent procedures. When NYU Shanghai gains sufficient permanent faculty strength across many or most of its programs, the Guidelines will be revised.

The Guidelines outline the promotion and tenure process and describe the roles of the Faculty Review Committee (FRC), the relevant Dean at NYU Shanghai (the NYU Shanghai Dean), the relevant academic department or unit at NYU NY, the NYU Shanghai Promotion and Tenure Committee (P&TC), and the Provost of NYU Shanghai; and the Vice Chancellor of NYU Shanghai and the Provost of NYU, who together make the final decision of promotion and tenure.

The T-Faculty Senators Council approves of the NYU SHANGHAI PROMOTION AND TENURE GUIDELINES with the stipulation that the recommendations indicated below are addressed.

Recommendation regarding Shanghai Promotion & Tenure Guidelines (May 7, 2015)

T-Faculty Senators Council approval of the proposal for realignment of health at NYU and recommendations regarding Tenured and Tenure Eligible Faculty who may join the College of Global Public Health/Faculty of Health.

The Tenure Faculty Senators Council approves of the proposed plan for the creation of the Faculty of Health with the following stipulations that:

  • as specified by Executive Vice President for health Robert Berne at the January 20, 2015 meeting of the T-FSC, the Faculty of Health will follow the Washington Square model in which faculty have nine month appointments and fund their summers with outside funding or extra teaching, and that the Faculty of Health will not follow the School of Medicine model in which research faculty are on 12 month contracts with an expectation to raise roughly 60% of their salary, even though there will be strong encouragement for faculty in the Faculty of Health to raise research funding, and
  • the recommendations of the T-FSC indicated below regarding current Tenured and Tenure Eligible Faculty who may join the College of Global Public Health/Faculty of Health are addressed.

Recommendations

At this point in time the proposal for the creation of a College of Global Public Health and a Faculty of Health is sufficiently lacking in detail so as to preclude a robust review and comment on the specifics of their definition. Additionally, the relative prospect for success and sustainability versus the risk of failure and termination are unknown quantities. However, acting in its role as Faculty Personnel Committee of the Senate with respect to the Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty and with the expectation that at the appropriate time the Tenure Faculty Senators Council will have the opportunity to review and comment on the appointment, promotion and tenure policies of the School of Global Public Health and the Faculty of Health, as well as those of the Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing should they be amended to accommodate the inclusion of those Colleges in the Faculty of Health, the Tenure Faculty Senators Council, at this time, makes the following recommendations regarding Tenured and Tenure-Eligible Faculty who may join the College of Global Public Health, which, as specified in the proposal, shall reside within the Faculty of Health, as will the College of Dentistry and the College of Nursing:

  • Current faculty members must not be pressured to move their primary appointment from their current schools to the College of Global Public Health or to accept joint appointments.
  • If a faculty member is asked to move his or her primary appointment from his or her current school and declines to move, he or she must not experience repurcussions by the administration in his or her current school for declining to move nor must his or her status in his or her current school be diminished or restricted in any manner.
  • If a tenured faculty member moves his or her primary appointment from his or her current school to the College of Global Public Health there must be, prior to the faculty member’s agreement to move, a mutual understanding between the faculty member and the administration of the administration’s expectations/requirements of the faculty member in the College of Global Public Health and the expectations of the faculty member of his/her status and rights in the College of Global Public Health, and the responsibilities of the University toward him/her in the College of Global Public Health.
  • As the College of Global Public Health will become a new entity whose sustainability will remain untested and unknown for several years, there must be established, prior to any tenured faculty member moving his or her primary appointment from his or her current school to the College of Global Public Health, a policy that specifies the University’s responsibilities toward tenured faculty who complete such a move if the College of Global Public Health were to fail or to be terminated or reorganized such that a tenured faculty member’s position were to be eliminated. An example of such a policy is exemplified by Section C of the resolution on Termination and Reorganization of Programs adopted by the New York University Senate at its meeting of May 10, 1979, the text of which is attached below as Appendix C.
  • If a tenure-eligible faculty member moves his or her primary appointment from his or her current school to the College of Global Public Health there must be, prior to the faculty member’s agreement to move, a mutual understanding between the faculty member and the administration of the administration’s expectations/requirements of the faculty member in the College of Global Public Health and the expectations of the faculty member of his/her status and rights, and the responsibilities of the University toward him/her in the College of Global Public Health. Such a mutual understanding must include any new requirements of a tenure-eligible faculty member by the administration for the attainment of tenure. If the pre-tenure probationary period is different in the College of Global Public Health than that currently in effect in a tenure-eligible faculty member’s current school, the tenure-eligible faculty member must be given a choice, prior to moving his or her primary appointment from his or her current school to the College of Global Public Health, to either remain in the pre-tenure probationary timeframe of his or her current school or change to the pre-tenure probationary timeframe of the College of Global Public Health.

Recommendation regarding Health Realignment at NYU (March 12, 2015)


Review of and Comment On the College of Dentistry/College of Nursing Appointments, Promotion and Tenure Policy

 

The Personnel Policies & Tenure Modifications Committee (PPTM Committee) received on September 16, 2014 documents regarding a revised version of, NYU College of Dentistry NYU College of Nursing Policies and Procedures for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Full Time Faculty and Appointment and Promotion of Faculty Who Serve on a Full-Time Basis (AP & T) for review and comment, which were circulated by email to members of the Committee on September 19, 2014.

A draft of recommendations was circulated by email for review by PPTM Committee Members on October 7, 2014 with an invitation to amend and comment on the draft.

Amendments and comments from PPTM Committee Members were collated and circulated to the Members before an October 6, 2014 meeting of the PPTM Committee at which the draft recommendations were finalized.

The final version of the recommendations was presented and approved at the October 16, 2014 meeting of the Tenure Faculty Senators Council and transmitted to the Provost and Executive Vice President for Health on October 21, 2014.

The Provost and Executive Vice President for Health responded on December 19, 2014 with an appended letter from the Dean of the College of Dentistry indicating that all proposed recommendations except one had been accepted by the Deans of the Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing and their colleagues. The one exception was in regard to wording in the AP & T document that appeared to indicate the appointment of previous non-clinical (tenure-track) faculty to clinical faculty positions.  It was unclear to the PPTM Committee, because of the context, whether this was a clerical error or was, indeed, meant to signify that a previously tenure-track faculty member could be switched from the tenure-track to a non-tenure track position. Apprehension was expressed that by this policy a faculty member could be removed prematurely from the tenure-track, possible in contradiction to his or her wishes. The PPTM Committee asked for clarification and recommended wording in the AP & T to indicate that such a switch was not the intent, but, in his reply, the Dean of the College of Dentistry indicated that such a switch was the intent, as it apparently is throughout the University, and, therefore, this PPTM recommendation would not be accepted. The benefit of such a policy is that a tenure-track faculty member who is unlikely to attain tenure but wishes to remain employed at the University may be able to do so by switching to a non-tenure position.

Review and Recommendations: NYU College of Dentistry NYU College of Nursing Policies and Procedures for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Full Time Faculty and Appointment and Promotion of Faculty Who Serve on a Full-Time Basis (October 21, 2014)

Review Of and Comment On the Proposed Creation of a College of Global Public Health and a Faculty of Health

Ad Hoc Members included for review of the proposed College of Global Public Health and Faculty of Health: Nancy Van Devanter, Dentistry/Nursing Ananda Dasanayake, Dentistry/Nursing Daniel Smith, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service Carol Reiss, FAS

The Personnel Policies & Tenure Modifications Committee received for review and comment on
September 16, 2014 documents regarding the proposed creation of a new College of Global Public Health and the associated realignment of health professional schools at NYU within a structure named the “Faculty of Health”. It was indicated that Executive Vice President for Health Robert Berne would attend the September 29, 2015 meeting of the Tenure Faculty Senators Council to discuss the realignment and the creation of the new College.

For its review, the PPTM Committee expanded its membership to include a T-FSC Senator and Alternate Senator who represent the College of Dentistry and the College of Nursing, the T-FSC Senator from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, as those Colleges would be impacted by the realignment and the Wagner School could be impacted as well, although the impact on the WagnerSchool was estimated to be minor as its Masters of Health Administration program would have minimal overlap with the goals of the proposed College of Global Public Health and the Faculty of Health, and a T-FSC Alternate Senator from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences who served on the Working Group on Health Realignment.

At this point in time, few details other than a generalized structure are available regarding the
proposed realigned extent health entities and the proposed College of Global Public Health within the Faculty of Health. Therefore, the PPTM proposed that it develop a set of questions regarding the issue to be submitted to Executive Vice President for Health Robert Berne before the T-FSC meeting of January 29, 2015. Accordingly, questions were solicited from members of the PPTM by email and discussed at a meeting on January 20, 2015, at which time a list of questions was established and subsequently finalization by email communication. The list of questions was sent to the Chair of the T-FSC for transmittal to the Executive Vice President for Health on January 23, 2015.

The PPTM will attempt to complete a review of and comment on the proposed realignment of
health at the University for presentation at the February 19, 2015 meeting of the T-FSC.