On Friday, January 30, 2015 the parties signed a Memorandum of Agreement that itemizes the proposals on which agreement has been reached, the proposals the parties have mutually agreed to withdraw, and those “matters still in dispute” that the parties may submit to arbitration. This is the seventh in a series of blog posts to discuss both the matters that have been agreed and those that are still in dispute.
The University proposed (UBC Proposal #6c) that the President should have the right to consult with the Provosts or Deputy Vice Chancellor regarding tenure and/or promotion decisions. (To explain, members should know that UBC has two different positions called “Provost”, one for each campus, and one position called “Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal” in the Okanagan).
The Faculty Association questioned why the President needed to consult yet more people for promotion and tenure decisions. There are already a large number of steps in the tenure and promotion processes. The department makes a recommendation, the Head makes a separate recommendation, the Dean makes a recommendation, SAC makes a recommendation, and after all that the President can request a further review by the Dean. How much can the Provosts or DVC add at this stage? The University explained that the President might need a “sounding board.”
The Association wasn’t really convinced this was necessary, but in the end we did agree to allow this, provided that these were the only other people the President would consult, and provided that if the Provosts or Deputy Vice Chancellor raise serious concerns about the candidacy or any new negative information or serious concerns were introduced during the consultation, the candidate would be informed and given an opportunity to respond in writing.
