Brigham Young University faculty seeking tenure will be placed on the right track or let go, according to a change in the university's rank and status policy.
The Academic Vice President's Council decided to eliminate an intermediate category called "provisional status" because it's considered redundant. Instructors labeled as provisional in an initial review of their teaching, scholarship and citizenship had three years to correct deficiencies to qualify for continuing status.Now, non-tenured professors who receive substandard reviews, but aren't released, will be placed on the tenure track with instructions on how to improve.
BYU decided not to slap the provisional label on faculty because they're all basically on probationary status in their first six years, said Brent Harker, university spokesman.
Faculty are reviewed after three years and six years at the LDS Church-owned university before a decision on their tenure is made.
In 1993, BYU reviewed 50 nontenured instructors under the old policy. Five were denied continuing status, including controversial anthropologist David C. Knowlton and English Professor Cecilia Konchar-Farr. Five were given provisional status and the remainder were placed on the tenure track.
The 2-year-old policy affected few professors. Because the change was retroactive, approximately 10 faculty members shed the provisional tag.
BYU made the change last summer as part of its revision of the policy on rank and status.