Gets Mixed Critique
ATLANTA
The rules have changed and if you don’t like it, you can go home.
That is exactly what several recently retired Georgia State
University (GSU) professors did in response to a new state mandate that
calls for rigorous faculty evaluations of even the most experienced of
instructors.
Called for by Chancellor Stephen Portch and approved by the Board of
Regents in 1995, officials say the post-tenure review requirement was
not created to weed out weak instructors. Instead, it was created to
help determine which faculty members needed additional training or
special help. With the exception of GSU, most state institutions are
just beginning to conduct the reviews, which are targeted at faculty
who haven’t had evaluations for at least five years,
The directive comes amid national controversy about tenure. Some
university systems are considering moves similar to Portch’s. At the
same time, many individual colleges have increased their requirements
for tenure or eliminated it altogether.
Experts on the issue say that many parents are dissatisfied with
what their children are – or aren’t – getting in college coursework.
Employers have weighed in as well, complaining about the quality of
recent graduates.
“Graduating a better student is the bottom line,” says Dr. Ron
Henry, the provost at GSU who introduced the idea on his campus several
months before the regents’ vote. “We are an urban research university
and not only do we want to produce better research, but we have an
outreach mission and a teaching mission as well.
