Responsibilities & Rewards

In the winter of 1998, Provost Lee Huntsman commissioned an ad hoc Committee on Faculty Rewards and Responsibilities. This committee, comprised chiefly of faculty members, was charged to initiate a university-wide conversation on responsibilities and rewards, with special attention to tenure and post-tenure review, rewards for meritorious performance spanning an entire career at the UW, and metrics for evaluating performance individually and collectively.

The committee, which was chaired by Professor John M. Wallace, Atmospheric Sciences, met throughout the spring of 1998 and issued a report on June 12, with 20 recommendations pertaining to how UW faculty might be evaluated and rewarded. Included among the recommendations are provisions for moving toward the evaluation of teaching that is less dependent on student teaching evaluation, for a system of negotiation between chairs and faculty members regarding the individual faculty member’s responsibilities during a given period of time, and for the creation of a fourth rank, that of Distinguished Professor. If these recommendations, and others, of the ad hoc committee are implemented, they would constitute a substantial change in how UW faculty are evaluated and rewarded. (This report can be found on the Web at: http://www.washington.edu/reports/faculty)

After the ad hoc committee’s report was discussed extensively by the Senate Committee on Planning and Budgeting, a Senate special committee was formed to translate the recommendations into Faculty Code language so that appropriate Senate committees and councils and, ultimately, the Senate itself, could consider whether and how to change the Faculty Code. Other provisions that derive from the ad hoc committee’s recommendations could be implemented through administrative action and these are now being deliberated in administrative councils.

The special committee on code-writing worked over the summer and then in the fall of 1998 transmitted its report (and a draft of revisions of Chapter 24 of the Code) to the Senate Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs, which is chaired by Professor Vandra Huber of the School of Business Administration. The Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs has been engaged in reviewing the draft of Code amendments, in the hopes of submitting its recommended revisions to the Senate Executive Committee and then to the Senate as a whole beginning in the winter of 1999.

The full set of proposed new changes in the code currently are displayed on the Web site of the Faculty Home Page at http://weber.u.washington.edu/~fachome/councils/fcfa/chap24.htm. Senate Chair Theodore Kaltsounis and Vice Chair Gerry Philipsen have visited several department faculty meetings and have met separately with chairs of several departments in order to draw the attention of the faculty to the pending legislation; this in an effort to assure that all faculty have the opportunity to review and comment on these potentially important changes in faculty life at UW.

Any interested person can communicate comments and suggestions regarding the proposals to Professor Vandra Huber, chair, Faculty Council on Faculty Affairs, Box 353200, School of Business Administration or to vandra@u.washington.edu. ¶

Gerry Philipsen, Senate Vice Chair

The Faculty Senate welcomes your comments on this column. Please direct your reactions, inquiries or suggestions on this, or any other issue of faculty concern, to the Faculty Senate, 36 Administration Bldg., Box 351271; 5-2703; or senate@u.washington.edu.