"A fixed, uniform policy across the university might not be the best possible practice for all."
--Rebecca Chopp, Provost
The Academic Exchange: Are you in favor of a policy that would allow for extensions of the probationary period before tenure review (the "tenure clock") in situations such as childbirth/adoption, personal illness, etc.? Is the administration in general supportive of such a policy?
Provost Rebecca Chopp At Emory, the answer is generally yes, we are supportive of extensions, for matters that are routine and that interrupt a probationary faculty member's ability to demonstrate his or her readiness for tenure, but the particular nature of those matters, what warrants such an extension, needs to be those established by the deans and faculties of each school as appropriate for that discipline.
Assuming that the tenure clock is appropriate to begin with-that is, that seven years is the "right" period--the issue is whether the interruption would warrant an extension, or whether the interruption is of the sort that one would expect to be absorbed by the faculty member. For example, a difficult pregnancy and birth that take a faculty member totally away from work for a year is different from a "normal" pregnancy and birth, which might result in reduced teaching responsibility for a part of the year.
One of the other issues that universities such as ours struggle with is what to do for faculty who have numerous children during the probationary period. Some universities cap the amount of time off, allowing, for example, no more than two years (a policy that seems to me to engage the university in family planning as to size!); others set a maximum amount of time you have to get tenure, leaves included.AE What do you think has prevented Emory from adopting such a policy?
RC Our practice has been to encourage deans to deal with individual cases. We need to be sure that a policy, especially a "one-size-fits-all" policy, would be an improvement, and we need to be sure that we have a culture in which any such university-wide policy does not result in discrimination.
AE How do you (and others in the administration) plan to respond to the recommendations of the Faculty Council and the President's Commission on the Status of Women regarding the tenure clock?
RC The president is consulting with the deans and others as to the recommendations of the PCSW. The Faculty Council has asked the deans to describe the practices of their schools and to make a recommendation to the provost and president on extending the clock. We will continue those discussions this spring. Any change in policy would need to be discussed within groups of faculty, such as the Faculty Council and the University Priorities Committee. I would also like to see such changes discussed at university-wide meetings such as town halls and university faculty meetings.
AE What are the major barriers to adopting and implementing the policy? How might the university remove them?
RC At Emory and other universities the major barriers tend to relate to issues of equity--how to be fair to all--and issues of particularity--how to recognize, for instance, that each birth is not the same. Moving to a fixed, uniform policy across the university might not be the best possible practice for all. Another issue is that we must protect the junior faculty from departmental pressure to delay going up for tenure even when they are in fact ready. The other issue that we face (as do other universities) is a kind of unspoken assumption by many that the longer you "delay" the review, the higher you can set the bar.
AE How do you respond to the concern that this kind of policy might undermine tenure and create a double standard, or that it might earmark someone as not "serious" or "uncompetitive" in his or her work?
RC This is precisely the kind of response that worries me! The presence of a policy could be used to undermine the serious character of someone's work. This is why we must address the culture as well as any policy.
Let me also say that if the system is followed and not abused, the faculty work that is produced will soon prove this sort of accusation false. But only cultural change will cause people to believe that one can be both a serious scholar and a parent. I think many see and experience the attainment of tenure as a game of politics as much as it is a quality issue. That raises a serious issue for faculty governance we need to address: how to create the assurance among junior faculty members that their work will be judged on the basis of quality, not on politics. This is difficult, but it's not impossible. Cultures change because new people join the community, information gets communicated, new spaces for interaction are provided, leaders support change-not just deans and the provost, but chaired faculty, heads of departments, senior faculty, and so on.AE How do you respond to the concern that this sort of policy is a kind of nod to the "male" model of the academy, because it says that in the competition for tenure, this person is disadvantaged?
RC The proposals allow males to extend the clock as well as females! Additionally, I think we all recognize that the "male" model of the academy, like the male model of other professions, is changing rapidly due to all sorts of factors: the presence of women; the presence of faculty, students, and staff from diverse cultural backgrounds; changing socio-economic conditions. I think it is more productive to accept the fact that the academy, Emory, is changing and ask how faculty and administrators can work to develop the best possible environment for excellence in scholarship: research, teaching, and service.