Department Vote

Today's department vote was unanimously positive! This puts us on track for an Oct. 13 divisional committee vote. I am very happy that the vote was unanimous; I was somewhat worried that it might not be. Mentor presented my case and there was no discussion at all of anything that needed to be changed or fixed; this is the first time he's observed that. I'm pretty sure this speaks to his ability and care in crafting my case, and not to me per se.

To clarify how the tenure process works, it goes through several stages: a) department, b) divisional committee, c) dean, d) provost, e) board of regents. I just passed through stage (a).

The real decision gets made at stage (b). It is technically possible for the dean to go against the divisional committee's vote, but this is exceptionally rare and it requires the provost's approval. It is said that a dean's decision to grant tenure after a divisional committee denial is a once-in-a-career move. It is politically very risky. A dean overturning a positive divisional committee decision is unheard of. This is because our institution takes the notion of faculty governance very, very seriously. So we want the people who decide tenure to be our fellow faculty members, not administrators such as deans or provosts.

Once a person makes it through all of those stages, the board of regents officially grants tenure to everybody in our statewide system at the same time, in June of each year. At that time, tenure and promotion is then official. So for me, even if the decision really gets made on October 13, the change in status will not officially occur until the summer.

I feel a little weird about people at work making a big deal about today's vote because we all know that today wasn't the real hurdle. The divisional committee is the real hurdle. So I don't want to get too cocky or overconfident. After all, the memory of my colleague's unanimous tenure approval at the department level and the unanimous denial at the divisional level is still fresh in my mind.

At the same time, I should celebrate that this was a real milestone.