cßehrend Colleg VOL. XXXV NO. 17 Ceremony Awards Student Service The 1980 Nineteenth Annual Honors and Awards Convocation ceremony was held Monday night in the Reed Lecture Hall. Ben jamin Lane, Head of the Office of Student Admissions , began the event with an inspired in vocation. He was followed by Dean Thomas Fox, Director Irvin Kochel, Mr. Edward Junker president of Marine Bank, and Richard Sheasley from Behrend's Lambda Sigma Society. First in the presentation of awards were the Honor Cer tificates and special awards. For the Behrend Collegian, Dr. Michael Small honored eight staff members: Eugene Grygo, Joe Englert, Barb Bogdan, Russ Miller, Mary Miseta, Paul Elbel, Bill Anderson and Bill Hegman. Joint Residence Council advisor Arla Altman awarded David Custozzo, Torey Blackweed, and Lynn Koenig with honor cer tificates. Cathy Meste the Lambda Sigma Society's advisor honored these students for their achievements: Melinda Brandon, Laura Cipriani, Jill Conn, Wayne Glean, Nishi Gupta, William PS-23 Evokes Varied Opinions (Editor's note: The previous issue of the Behrend Collegian contained an article dealing with Penn State's present tenure policy PS-23. This article will focus upon the variety of opinions that abound at Behrend and perhaps at other campuses.) Printed in a recent issue of the Penn State Intercom were the findings of the Joint Faculty- Administration Commission to Review and Make Recom mendations on University Policy Governing Promotion and Tenure. Among other members of this commission was Behrend's Academic Dean, Dr. Thomas Fox. Altogether the eleven recommendations of the commission do not call for any major changes in PS-23 but rather modifications in the execution of the policy. In the introductory remarks of the report, the commission found that, "The primary problems with tenure and promotion at Penn State appear to be more in the implementation of PS-23 than in PS-23 itself. Briefly, the first five recom mendations range from "housekeeping, ones-how to effectively evaluate faculty members who are professionally responsible to more than one academic unit, for example, -to those clarifying the procedures of review committees. The six remaining recom mendations deal with the sub stanitive issues of the: "definition of the mission of the Pennsylvania State University"; the "process for improving the evaluation of teaching"; the "refinement of criteria" with the identification of those responsible for codifying the changes; the "development of principles and procedures for position elimination for compelling reasons"; and the final proposal specifies that for each limited term appointment, there shall be the "traditional _ qualitative evaluation," plus a separate evaluation of the future prospects of the candidate's program. The purpose of this ongoing estimation process would be to alert the University of any changes in demand. -This -proposal, is deviation Published by the Students of the Behrend College of the Pennsylvania State University Harvey, Kim Hammond, Mary Peterson, Sharon Pulte, James Sheasley, Lynn Fortorelli, and Mary Rose. Dr. Edwin Mastelle, advisor for the Outing Club, chose to recognize the following: Robert Green, Brad Palmer, Eva Smith, James Nuss, and Bill Hegman. Phil Goodwin, from the WBCR Radio Club was singled out for honors by advisor Captain Robert Schneider, Sgt. John Heritage, advisor for Behrend's Rifle Club, rewarded William Newitt, as one of the chib's outstanding mem bers. Dean of Student Affairs and advisor for the Student Senate Donn Harshbarger approved awards for its seven members: Patrick Sedlak, Leslie Dukstein, Richard Bound, Richard Stetzer, Donna Guss, Charles King, Linda Schweinitz, and Susan Sheperd. Dr. Diana George advisor for the Tempus Magazine, cited James Greenman and Charles Mostoller for their service. Dr. Steven Ward, advisor for the Student Union Board awarded with certificate honors: Pat Sedlak, Carolyn from the present practice of division review aimed . soley at academic abilities. This procedure if adopted as part of the PS-23 intends not to prevent dismissals during the fifth or sixth years or even after tenure has been granted but to "minimize" its affect. Dean of Faculty, Dr. Thomas Fox's main criticism of PS-23 is that it is a "cumbersome policy" requiring a tremendous amount of paperwork and documen tation. He also claims because ten years ago Penn State was in a period of rapid growth, tenure decisions were not given that "same careful attention." "lt's been growing more dif ficult every year for the last, probably, fifteen years", ac cording to Fox, "because the University's standards of ex cellence continue to increase," he also claims that those who are retained as tenured faculty members are considered by the University, as "outstanding in every respect." He maintains that there is a difference between satisfactory and excellent," and that "A quality institution pur sues excellence rather than satisfaction." He further stated that if there are any economic reasons for not granting tenure, it is because of a lack of a long term demand for a program. "But that's the only case- more faculty in a given field than we need." In reference as tc whether Penn State has a publist or perish policy, he defended PS -23 by claiming that some faculty members have been granted tenure who haven't published; and that those individuals keen on research but lacking in teaching skills wouldn't be granted tenure under any cir cumstances. He believed that the most important aspect of PS-23 is its attempt to focus on the "really excellent" faculty members. Dr. John Gamble, Division Head of Social and Behavioral Sciences, agreed with Dr. Fox that PS-23 is a little "cum bersome." But he felt that this "cumbersomeness" was necessary in order to- have a "fair" policy. As for the general question of the necessity of tenure he claimed that he would abolish tenure because he felt Station Road, Erie, Pa. 16563 D'Augustine, June Vaida, Holly McTaggart, Dan Huf, Judy DiFrank, Janine Callen, Dan Rys and June Presley. Leslie Dukstem received the Student Senate President's Award; June Beta, the Union Board President's award and Linda Schweinitz the Union Manager's award. Winners of the sought after Kunkel Scholarship Award for the 80-81 academic year were: in the $5OO category - Michael Buckholt z, George Flanders. Ann Holler, and Molly Heidecker; in the $350 $350 category-Kathleen Roiph; in the $337 category- Roger Peril; and in the $3OO category-Charles Beckman, Ken Crosby, Ann Karmazon, Barb Lynch, and Mike Ziegler. Other scholarships were given to: Chris DeLuca and Wilbur Walls for the Faculty Women and Wives Award; and Jeff Barlow and Billy Harvey for the Julie Masteller Scholarship. Towards the end of the program came the Outstanding Service Awards. This year's recipient of the Guy W. Wilson Award, given by the SGA, was that it was set up for reasons "no longer valid." He felt that neither the main - causes for instituting tenure, academic freedom and job security, "is as much of an issue as it was fifty or a hundred years ago." However, he did maintain that the pay "is still too low for college professors" and that there is a minimal threat but. not to warrant protection. He feels that if "the best minds in the country" were gathered together and asked to form a new system better than tenure, he felt that it could probably do it, but the problem would be getting schools to adopt it and that is politically and psychologically impossible." He later claimed that Penn States' requirements for research were-are modest. "I do not accept that someone can be excellent at teaching and have no aptitude for, or interest in research. I've heard these kind of people exist. I've never run into one in ten years of teaching at college", he stated. "We need fine tuning kinds of ad justments", to be added to an imperfect but "pretty good" policy, he said. But he feared that the tendency among institutions of higher learning may find themselves with almost their entire faculty tenured. This he felt could lead to many "state" systems. He stated "There are people at various institutions, I suspect including Penn State, who have not gotten tenure in the past two or three years who would've had an easy time get- '~~ MEE • . -,: • Students gathered outside the RUB to listen to the "Elastic Waste Band" during Spring Week 'BO. Eugene Grygo, editor of the Behrend Collegian. Kim Ham mond, president of the Lambda Sigma Society was awarded the Eric A. and Josephine Walker Award. Jeff Barlow received the Director's Award, the second honor for him that nigh'. S.U.B. President Pat Sedlak was the recipient of the major service award, the Thomas H. Turnbull Award, for his devotion to Behrend College through service on several organizations. Student Senate Re-Runs Elections Student Senate Elections were held today because of complications in the election process. Elections were run Wednesday wit holt' the use of a checklist. Student Senate President Linda Schweinitz claimed that two candidates for Lower Division president were planning to contest the legality of the election resuits because of that. Winners will be announced early next v.eek and all students must present their I.D. cant , when voting. ting tenure five or ten or fifteen years ago. There's no doubt that the standards 'are tougher today than they've ever been at Penn State and at virtually every other institution that's any good." He considered tougher standards both an economic and academic restriction because the University must provide ap proximately $900,000 for a tenured position of 20-25 years. "Ps a tougher time for young faculty members than its ever been before," but he maintained that, "Most faculty members at Behrend College who've come up for tenure still get it." Dr. Eugene Shull, Head of the Division of Natural Sciences and Engineering, does not harbor any major criticism of PS-23. He feels that PSU is better off now with a policy than_ without one. He claims that a generation ago, it was easier to be granted tenure because of the fast paced growth of institutions of higher education and the more lenient academic standards. He mentioned _ that his iivision's tenure policy, although in compliance with PS-23, has many differences "from that of the other divisions." The Division of Natural Sciences and Engineering, he said, doesn't weigh requirements in number of articles or percentages. His main criticism of the other Divisions is that they tend to be too quan titative. He is "open-minded" to con siderations about changes in PS- lan FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1980 In his closing remarks, Dean Fox spoke briefly about two freshman Donna Angotti and Melissa Brandon, who were recognized at U.P. for their outstanding academic achievements (both maintained a 4.0 during their first two terms at Behrend); and of Mark Marshall, a Behrend Senior who has sustained a G.P.A. of 3.96. He also announced that Dr. David Roth is this year's recipient of the Excellent in Teaching Award. 23 and welcomes those aimed at preventing any abuse of the policy. Assistant professor of French and Comparative Literature, Dr. Sylvie Richartls was disap pointed in the recent denial of - tenure for one of her colleagues, English professor Dr. Michel Small. "He's worked on faculty Senate and he's been active in the college. I felt very badly about it." She also has reservations about PS-23 in general. She claims that the faculty is very much aware of this Four part policy. She notes that "before. PS-23 there was not as much weight put on all four Areas." Universities nationwide are faced with the problem of too few jobs and too many professors, and she condedes that, "Those schools that still do have tenure tracks are becoming fewer and fewer." She claims that PS-23 is in existence to en sure that those individuals who are tenured are the people who are "most committed to all four areas." But, she adds that those teachers who spend a great deal Df time preparing for their classes often don't produce a sizable amount of scholarly gnat erial. She would prefer those who are more apt to do research not be required to teach. "Not everyone is a great teacher" she confirms, "and not everyone is a great 7esearcher. Some people are both, but somehow there has to be a balance struck between the two." She claimed that tenure has "grown to be a merit thing; " and continued on page :3 • •-•
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