The aim of the meeting was to introduce the role of tenure truck and pre-tenure faculty to PFMF students. In addition, it also introduced how often and on what basis faculty are evaluated, especially those with pre-tenure contracts.
Participants were: Dr. Rosie Renaut, Dr. Dieter Armbrestur, Dr. Dennis Young, Dr. Matthias Kawski, Dr. Don Jones, and PFMF students. Discussion started after a brief introduction made by Dr. Renaut.
A typical workload of a tenure faculty is 40% instruction, 40% research and 20% service. This distribution may not apply to some faculty members especially when they have administrative responsibilities.
A tenure-truck employment starts with a probationary contract known as ‘pre-tenure contract’, which lasts for six years. A usual employment year starts from the fall semester of a year and ends on the spring semester of the following year. A per-tenure faculty undergoes through three performance evaluations, one during their second year, one during their fourth year and one during their sixth year of services. These are additional to the yearly evaluations that are done by tenure-truck faculties.
The second year review is done in the beginning of the second year service, based on the first year’s performance. This evaluation purposes to see if the person has settled as a department member. It also serves to see what extra help they need to overcome their difficulties, if they have. The fourth year review is to closely evaluate the person’s work and indicate the weaknesses the person may have. This is a good opportunity for pointing out what they should improve for the contract to extend. The result of this evaluation is back by December of the fourth year of service. The sixth year review, which is done at the beginning of the fall semester of the sixth year of service, is to decide whether or not the person should get a tenure-truck position. The evaluation is done based on the five years of work and is back by the end of March.
Every tenure-truck faculty is evaluated on three years worth of material. The performance evaluation is on instruction, research and services.