Changes to the Board of Regents Policy Manual
The Board of Regents unanimously approved changes to Section 8.3 of the Board of Regents Policy Manual. These changes alter the standards and protocols for annual review and post-tenure review. The effective date of the provisions is Wednesday, Oct. 13.
Although it is my understanding that the changes will not impact the current year cycle and that the University System of Georgia (USG) will ask each institution for a timeline to implement the new policies in a manner appropriate to each institution’s mission, I want to assure you that I have already begun to reach out to our administration, to the chair of the UC Faculty Affairs Committee, to the presidents of the College of Education and Franklin Faculty Senates, and to faculty leadership across the USG system with the aspiration to facilitate revisions to the UGA guidelines for faculty annual review, tenure, promotion, and post-tenure review that:
- Include an appeals process for annual faculty review (pre-and post-tenure)
- Preserve a peer-led post-tenure review process
- Require peer evaluation at points during any review process that could trigger remediation (pre-or post-tenure)
- Fold the newly required “student success activities” into our existing review criteria
- Include due process protections into pre- and post-tenure review remedial actions
- Preserve and protect positive aspects of our faculty culture
- Honor the work of all UGA faculty
Like so many others, I am concerned about the provisions’ impact on current and future faculty and disheartened by the unwillingness of the USG and Board of Regents to table today’s action given widespread dissatisfaction with the “final” iteration of Section 8.3.
The meeting of the University Council Executive Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 20 will be the next opportunity for further discussion on this matter, and I have every intention to work with the Faculty Senate presidents as well as the chair of the Faculty Conference to facilitate full-throttled faculty engagement as we move through what is certain to be a very complex and protracted process. We will do our very best to keep you apprised of the evolving situation, and I welcome all feedback and participation in this next phase.
Barbara A. Biesecker, chair, UGA University Council Executive Committee