Email from CWRU AAUP to all faculty. May 2007.

Dear CWRU Faculty Member:

As officers of the CWRU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), we are sending this message to inform all members of the faculty as to recent developments regarding the status of tenure at the University.¹

Tenure, as defined by AAUP and as practiced at CWRU for decades, is linked to a substantial financial guarantee.  The rationale for this link is articulated in the AAUP statement below:

“Tenure is a means to certain ends; specifically, (1) freedom of teaching and research and of extramural activities, and (2) a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability.  Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.” (http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/1940statement.htm).
(Notably, this statement has been approved by the Association of American Colleges and Universities of which CWRU is a member.)

The spirit of the CWRU Faculty Handbook conforms to this principle.  For example, it delineates wide-ranging faculty responsibilities which, in turn, imply salary.  The handbook notes that the salary of a faculty member cannot be reduced as a means of discipline (Chapter 3, Part One, I., C2b).  The handbook also states that the by-laws of each constituent faculty shall specify “the commitment of resources that accompany an award of tenure” (Chapter 3, Part One, I., F4.), a phrase which, again, implies salary.  Nonetheless, the handbook does lack an explicit statement linking salary and tenure.²

Recognizing the importance of clarifying the CWRU Faculty Handbook so that it conforms to widespread practice at the University, the CWRU Faculty Senate Executive Committee charged, in February 2007, a university-wide committee to develop “recommendations regarding the implementation across the University of the principle noted in Motion 1 (the motion that “reaffirms the principle…that tenure comes with a financial guarantee.”).

The work of this committee is especially important in light of complaints the CWRU chapter of AAUP has received, over the past six months, indicating the contracts associated with the affiliation agreement between the School of Medicine, one of the schools included in the CWRU Faculty Handbook, and the University Hospitals Medical Practice Plan had eroded the link between tenure and a substantial financial guarantee.

This past week, the CWRU Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) met to discuss this issue.  It is our understanding that the FSEC officers, on behalf of the CWRU Faculty Senate, are continuing to work to support the AAUP definition of tenure at CWRU.

The chapter is available to respond to inquiries from faculty on this matter (aaup@case.edu).  Please feel free to consult our website (http://www.case.edu/affil/aaup), as well as the site of the national AAUP office (http://www.aaup.org).

Mark Smith, Ph.D., President, CWRU AAUP Chapter, Professor, School of Medicine

Kathleen Wells, Ph.D., Vice President,  CWRU AAUP Chapter, Professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences


¹The CWRU Chapter of AAUP sends out messages from time to time that may be of interest to CWRU faculty. If you believe you have received this message in error or you simply wish to be removed from the mailing list, please click here or send a message to aaup@case.edu with the subject line “unsubscribe”.

²The handbook also contains the phrase that “faculty appointments may be made without obligation for compensation by the university” (Chapter 3, Part One, I C2a).  When read in context, however, the phrase is clearly intended to refer to exceptional cases rather than to large classes of faculty such as tenure-track or tenured faculty.