In the wake of the closing of the tenure appeals cases of Eleanor Branch and Shelini Harris, the Guilford faculty held a forum in the Moon Room on April 11 to discuss issues of faculty evaluations, tenure review and the tenure appeals process. Much of the discussion concerned a presentation given the previous week by Kat Warren, a member of North Carolina State University’s English department. Warren was asked by the faculty to come to Guilford and present her observations of Guilford’s tenure process. Her appraisal of the evaluation and tenure review processes was critical, particularly since so much emphasis is placed on confidentiality.

“I want to raise the issue of confidentiality and transparency and the tension between them,” said Jane Redmont, associate professor of religious studies. “Confidentiality is present to protect people. I have seen confidentiality used to mask, at worst, injustice, and, at best, subjectivity.”

Concerns about confidentiality were split between the need to protect what people say and the right for faculty to know what is being said of them.

“It’s been part of our ethos that confidentiality has been needed for integrity,” said Bob Williams, professor of economics. Tim Lindeman, professor of music, also said that confidentiality had to be protected on a certain level.

“The same goes for transparency,” Redmont said. “It is a good thing; the more things that are transparent the better. We are erring on the side of confidentiality, making things anonymous that ought to be said to people’s face.”

Many of the faculty present called for the entire tenure process to be more transparent and open, especially to those involved.

“I would rather have someone tell me face-to-face rather than write it in secret and have it be on my file,” said Nancy Daukas, associate professor of philosophy. “I was struck by Kat’s comment that if someone has something important enough to say that it could ruin someone’s career and livelihood, they ought to be willing to stand up and explain it.”

“I think that one of the things that is most concerning is to hear people say that they were shocked by the (Branch) outcome,” said Anore Horton, assistant professor of history. “Kat (Warren) said, ‘By the time you come up for tenure review at NCSU, it’s no surprise.'”

Garland Granger, associate professor of accounting, compared expectations of faculty at Guilford to that of employees in industry, saying that Guilford was not very clear at communicating expectations. He suggested that evaluations be conducted on a yearly basis in order to remedy this.

“By the time you get to the tenure review, it should not be a surprise what people have to say,” said Granger.

Jim Hood, associate professor of English, raised the issue of the potential increase in work associated with switching to yearly evaluations.

“We’re a bunch of hamsters running on a wheel,” said Hood. “We’ve got so much stuff, and we invest so much time recruiting faculty, and we ought to focus more time and effort into keeping them and nurturing them.”

Vernie Davis, director and professor of peace and conflict studies, stood up to express concern about his role in Harris’s termination. She was appointed to positions in both the religious studies department and the peace and conflict studies department.

“We have got to stop appointing people to untenable positions,” said Davis. “Asking people to do two jobs, asking them to be scholarly in two areas is simply too much. We double that person’s workload when we appoint them to untenable positions. I feel a lot of burden on that.”

Many junior faculty expressed concerns that they felt uncomfortable making known their opinions on the matter.

Others were worried that they were being laden with too many responsibilities such as teaching, scholarly work, directing programs and staying abreast of their own tenure cases.

“I would like to point out that there are a number of junior faculty who are directing programs,” said Maria Bobroff, assistant professor of French. “Perhaps something needs to be done to prevent our disasters in a few years.