From gphil@u.washington.edu Sun Apr 13 21:52:32 2008 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:52:51 -0700 From: Gerry Philipsen To: Josh Tenenberg Cc: Beth Rushing , O. Baiocchi Subject: Re: Urgent email concerning Monday's vote Dear Josh (and, by copy, Vice Chancellor Rushing and Professor Baiocchi): Let me begin by saying, to Vice Chancellor Rushing and Professor/Director Baiocchi, that I am here writing in my capacity as Secretary of the Faculty, the Officer of the Faculty commissioned to advise faculty and administrators on the Faculty Code, Volume II of the University Handbook. My interpretation of the Code does not have legal force; that power is reserved to the Senate Executive Committee, upon the advice of the Advisory Committee on Faculty Code and Regulations. But frequently I am asked, ex officio, to make such advisory interpretations. Here I have been so asked, by a member of the faculty, and I am copying the two administrators, now that the faculty member has written to them and copied me. I will weigh in here, as best as I can. By tomorrow I hope to be able to offer a strengthened interpretation of the Code, after myself receiving further advice from a consultant, but I think the one I offer now will hold up, and I am sending this along now, speedily, because of the urgency of the situation. The difficulty that we face here is that the Code does not say directly that the Director's vote may not be included in with that of the voting faculty. Nonetheless, given that the Director has a separate channel to the Vice Chancellor, it seems most likely that the Code does not envision the Director voting twice. And I think that in matters where the vote is close, it is strongly advised not to mix the Director's vote in with that of the rest of the voting faculty. Where there is a tie vote among the faculty, this constitutes a failure to obtain a majority faculty vote in favor of hiring (or tenuring) the candidate. Ordinarily, that would end the consideration of that particular candidate and the program would continue to try to find a candidate in the pool who could secure majority support. With a failed vote (that is, a tie), the Director could argue, to the VC, for hiring the candidate in question. However, if the VC then concurred with the Director, the VC is obligated, by Code, to write to the faculty explaining her decision to act in such a way. This is an extraordinary circumstance at best, manifesting a disagreement between the faculty and the administration, with the administration pushing ahead nonetheless to impose the hire (or tenure) in the face of faculty opposition. If the extraordinary, but permitted, action of hiring someone, or tenuring them, without support of the majority of the voting faculty were taken, this puts the VC in a difficult, but certainly not untenable position, vis a vis the faculty. And given that, it seems to me that the Program owes it to the VC to present the cleanest report that can be made of the faculty vote, so that the VC knows just what is being asked of her if the Director asks for approval to hire or to tenure someone who does not enjoy the support of the majority of the voting faculty. Of course, if the majority of the faculty, without the vote of the Director, recommend hiring and/or tenure, that is a very different matter, even if it is a close vote. Best wishes, Gerry Philipsen Secretary of the Faculty ----- Original Message ----- From: "Josh Tenenberg" To: "Beth Rushing" ; "O. Baiocchi" Cc: "Gerry Philipsen" Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 6:59 PM Subject: Urgent email concerning Monday's vote > Dear Beth and Orlando, > > After seeing the sections of the code related to voting that Beth > provided to us, I requested that Gerry Philipsen (Secretary of the > Faculty) provide input as to whether the Director gets to vote. Gerry > provided quick feedback indicating that the Director might not have a > vote, since he already has an independent recommendation, but that > Gerry would need to seek additional counsel to render a decision. He > has indicated that he will endeavor to do so by mid-day on Monday. > > In the meanwhile, I think that we will be best served if the absentee > vote (see attached) that Orlando indicated would be starting on Monday > is delayed until after Gerry can get back to us. Otherwise, we might > face an invalid vote that will need to be repeated, which will delay a > decision to the candidate even further. The 1/2 day delay will > hopefully save us collective grief. > > I am cc'ing Gerry so that all of us are in the loop on this. > > Sincerely, > > Josh > > -------------------------------------- > > Josh Tenenberg, Ph.D., Professor > Computing and Software Systems > Institute of Technology > University of Washington, Tacoma > Campus Box 358426 > 1900 Commerce St > Tacoma WA 98402-3100 > voice: 253.692.4521 > fax: 253.692.5862 > http://faculty.washington.edu/jtenenbg > jtenenbg@u.washington.edu > From gphil@u.washington.edu Mon Apr 14 12:55:58 2008 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:55:48 -0700 From: Gerry Philipsen To: Beth Rushing Cc: Josh Tenenberg , O. Baiocchi Subject: Re: Urgent email concerning Monday's vote Vice-Chancellor Beth Rushing Dear Beth: First of all, thanks for your openness to consideration of faculty views on this matter. I have now consulted with two former Secretaries of the Faculty and what I say below reflects agreement among us, I think. 1. As to who may vote in a matter of awarding tenure to an outside candidate: The entire voting faculty, regardless of rank, is eligible to vote. 2. As to including the vote of the Chair or Director in the vote of the faculty as to a hiring and/or tenure recommendation: The vote of the Chair or Director should not be included in the tally sent forth to the Vice Chancellor, in that this would constitute the Director's voting twice. With regard to 2., it is certainly the case that in many units the separation of the director's or chair's vote is not maintained, but our reading of the Code, supplemented by consideration of Robert's Rules of Order, strongly advises against the practice in a final vote by a program faculty on such matters. This should not, we believe, preclude the Director participating in an earlier straw vote. I hope this is helpful. If you would like any further commentary, I would be happy to provide it, either on email or by telephone. (206-685-2702). Best wishes, --Gerry Gerry Philipsen