Minutes of a Regular Meeting, June 22-23, 2004 - Digital Collections

REGENTS’ POLICY MANUALSECTION 2—ACADEMICSbasis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, political beliefs, or status as a veteran,the faculty member may file a written appeal with the University Equal Opportunity Officer. Suchappeals must be made within 180 calendar days after discovery of the alleged violation, and the reviewprocess will be suspended until a resolution is effected. Such an appeal shall not have the effect ofextending the faculty member’s terminal year, should tenure be denied.(r) The President will notify each faculty member by May 31 whether tenure has been granted, exceptwhen appeals make this impossible.(The text below is in the Health Sciences Center Campus Faculty Handbook.)FACULTY TENURETenure implies a mutual responsibility on the part of the University and the tenured faculty member.In granting tenure to a faculty member, the University makes a commitment to his or her continuedemployment subject to certain qualifications (Section 3.12). The University expects that tenured facultymembers will maintain the level of performance by which they initially earned tenure. Unless otherwiseagreed to in writing by the chair of the academic unit, the dean of the college, the Senior Vice Presidentand Provost, the President, and the Board of Regents, only the portion of annual base salary paid by TheUniversity of Oklahoma is committed in the award of tenure.DefinitionsThe term tenure means continuous reappointment to an achieved academic rank in accordance with the1947 action of the Regents of The University of Oklahoma. Tenure must be granted or denied by specificaction of the Board of Regents.Tenure is designed as a means to protect the academic freedom of faculty members and to assure freedomof scholarship and teaching by professional scholars and teachers. The right to academic freedom doesnot diminish the faculty member's responsibilities under Section 3.5 Faculty Accountability.(a) The term pretenure period refers to the period of employment at The University of Oklahoma in atenure-track appointment prior to the time the faculty member is evaluated for the granting of tenure.Tenure-track faculty have a pretenure period of six (6) years. In rare circumstances, the chair of theacademic unit, and dean may request that a faculty member receive an extension of the pretenureperiod, not to exceed three (3) years. Notwithstanding different uses of the term elsewhere (as insome statements of the American Association of University Professors), the pretenure period doesnot include any period of employment following the awarding of tenure.(b) The term prior service means academic employment at an institution of higher education (includingThe University of Oklahoma) before the first appointment in the effective pretenure period at TheUniversity of Oklahoma.Eligibility for TenureFaculty of the University who hold a regular tenure-track appointment and who devote full-time effort toUniversity activities (Section 3.6) are eligible for tenure consideration provided they are assigned todevote at least 50 percent of their time to teaching and/or research for The University of Oklahoma andmaintain this requirement during the entire pretenure period.(a) At the request of the faculty member and with the approval of the chair of the academic unit, thedean, and the Senior Vice President and Provost, faculty members receiving consecutive termTHE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 42