Senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert gave his annual review of faculty advancement data at the Faculty Senate meeting on May 2. The state Board of Regents approved promotion recommendations last month.
Seventy-five faculty members were approved for promotions including tenure. The group included 43 cases of promotion to associate professor with tenure, tenure-only awards for three associate professors and 29 promotions to full professor for tenured faculty. Five cases were denied.
Of the 89 tenure-eligible faculty hired in fiscal year 2017, 38 received tenure this spring, nearly 43%. Another 21 faculty took advantage of tenure clock extension options, including adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another 26% left the university, a departure rate similar to past averages.
Created in March 2020, the COVID-19 tenure clock extension was available through April 1, with 122 extension requests approved to date.
Thirty-seven term faculty successfully advanced with no unsuccessful cases. More than 70% of these promotions were in the teaching track.
"The work really happens in the departments and colleges through the faculty committees and for those who served on them this year thank you for your hard work," Wickert said. "Successful promotion and tenure cases really depend on successful mentoring happening throughout the faculty members' careers."
In other discussion, Wickert said the full list of courses available to satisfy the revised U.S. diversity requirement is posted online along with approved transfer courses.
New leader
Past-president Andrea Wheeler (architecture), who represented an ill president Jon Perkins (accounting), passed the gavel to 2023-24 senate president Sarah Bennett-George (apparel, events and hospitality management). Rahul Parsa (finance) assumed the role of president-elect.
Other business
Senators approved the 2023 spring graduation list. More than 4,700 students are expected to earn degrees this semester.
The senate will vote in September on:
- A change to scholastic recognition for undergraduates by discontinuing the Top 2 Percent and creating a President's List honor. The list will recognize students with at least 24 credit hours or satisfactory-fail courses and a 4.0 GPA for their two most recent semesters at the university (excluding summer sessions). Pass-not pass classes do not count toward the 24-credit hour requirement.
- Adding a standard course wait-list policy to the university catalog beginning in 2024-25 to coincide with the implementation of Workday Student. Students are added to the wait list on a first-come, first-served basis. If a seat becomes open, the first student on the list will be notified and has 24 hours to take action. Students can join a waitlist and accept or decline a seat through the fifth business day of the fall and spring semesters. Senators raised questions about students who need a course to graduate, and the possibility of large wait-list courses that could take days or weeks to finalize.
