The Collegian Wednesday, March 15
Behrend Briefs
Good Friday Service An ecumenical Good Friday
worship service, with a readking of the Passion according to St.
John and slides and music, with be held on March 24 at 9 am in
"the Reed Lecture Hall. Sponsored by Campus Ministry.
Seniors Caps and gowns must be ordered at the Bookstore
by Fri., Mar. 17. The cost is $l4.
Zoo Volunteers The Erie Zoological Society will be
hosting an informative meeting about their Volunteer Program on
Tues., Mar. 21 at 6:30 pm in the Zoo's Education Room. The
meeting will be free and open to the public. Refreshments will be
served. For more information call Patty Bellucci at 864-409.1.
- Elementary Education Majors Elementary Ed.
majors are needed for student helpers at Diehl Elementar) . l . School
on Tuesdays or Thursdays for one-hour sessions from 9-10 am or
1-2 pm. For more information contact Brenda at 864-5088 or
M.C. at 898-6693. - .
UP Housing If you are looking for off-campus housing
at University Park there are packets available in the Office of
Student Services. Ask for John Downey.
Amnesty International Amnesty International
meetings are held every Tuesday in the upper Winter Green lobby
from 4-5 pm.
Theater Tickets Tickets for Behrend's Studio Theatre's
production of Christopher Durang's comedy, "The Marriage of
Betty and Boo," will be on sale Monday, Feb. 20 through Feb.
24. Tickets will also be available from Monday, March 6 until
the last performance. Tickets are $2.50 for students, S 4 for senior
citizens and non-Behrend students, and $5 for the general public.
The play will run from Tuesday, March 14 through Sunday,
March 19. For more information or reservations, call 6331.
Photography Scholarship New Photographers
Association of Greater Pittsburgh is offering a scholarship for
students from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair,
Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Crawford, Fayette, Greene, Indiana,
Jefferson, Lawrence, Mercer, Somerset, Venango, Washington,
and Westmorland counties. Students must submit a poitfolio of
ten original photographs. Applications are available in the
Financial Aid Office, 221 Glenhill. The deadline is March 31.
Learning Assistance The Learning Assistance Center
offers free tutoring in subjects including math, English, and
physics. Check the appointment board outside of the Center,
Turnbull 205, for details.
Fashion The Association of Black Collegians will hold
their annual spring fshion show at 7 pm on April 22. Persons
seeking more information should contact any club member.
Computer Seminars The Computer Center is offering
training sessions on a variety of software packages on both the
PC's and the mainframe computer. Introductory sessions are
available for CMS/XEDIT, MS-DOS, WRITING ASSISTANT,
WORDPERFECT, MACWRITE, MACPAINT, and
MACDRAW. Since enrollments are limited for each session,
those interested in attending any session should stop by or call the
Computer Center (898-6415) to make a reservation.
Freshmen The Alpha Eta Chapter of Lambda Sigma at
Behrend is beginning its selection process for membership in next
year's society. Membership is limited to the most select members
of the freshman class. Students must meet academic criteria
determined by the organization, be a full-time student, have
leadership capabilities, and must have had previous involvement
in extracurricular activities both in and out of school.lFor more
information, contact M.C. Restifo at 898-6693, Dr: Carolyn
Spies at 898-6206, or Mrs. Cathy Mester at 898-6207.
Counseling Personal counseling and support groups are
available. Stop in at 213 Glenhill Farmhouse Monday through
Friday from 9 am to 5 pm or call 898-6203. Appointments can be
made in the Financial Aid Office.
Tenure Process
Complex One... Contd. from page 1
made.
Tenure, according to Dr. Jim
Seroka, head of the division of
humanities and social sciences, is
"protection for faculty members
to be able to conduct research or
teaching without political or
idealogical interference from the
university of outside public."
Faculty members would
appear to benefit most by the
tenure system, since they are
entitled to break a tenure contract
simply by giving notice, while
the employer may break the
tenure contract only under
extreme circumstances. There are
underlying benefits for the
institution which is able to
determine criteria to attract
individuals conducive to the
charges of that particular
institution. Tenure is generally
seen as a way of rewarding and
retaining the most capable
people.
Because it is a land grant
institution, Behrend's charges are
teaching, research, scholarship,
and service. Typical weight
attached to these for research
faculty at Behrend are 40%
teaching, 30% research, 20%
scholarship and 10% service.
These are the criteria on which
tenure - os based and granted.
Dr. Robert Tauber,
chairperson of this years' tenure
committee, emphasizes the
weight Behrend gives to teaching:
"People simply will not get
tenure at Behrend college if they
do not perform well with
teaching," said Tauber.
Counseling, advising and service
to students are also included in
this category. Competence is
History of Tenure Process
by Cindy Craig
Collegian Staff Writer
The concept of tenure
originated in the 13th century at
the University of Paris when the
master scholars sucessfully
established a guild. The
motivations; political, social,
economic and religious, are so
integrated that it is impossible to
distinctly discern one from
another. Nonetheless, if the
motives are not discernable,
actual historical events are.
Around the 13th century there
was a terrific influx of previously
unknown works which were
being translated to western
languages. These include works
of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid,
Hippocrates and other Greek
thinkers. These had been
preserved and expanded upon by
the Arabs when they took over
Syria and North Africa in the 7th
and 3th centuries.
Prior to this knowledge, an
education meant studying
established texts with the Bible
being the ultimate, last word.
judged through syllabi and tests
that are used for a particular
course and also by student and
peer evaluations.
Student evaluations carry
considerable weight in evaluating
faculty. According to Dr. Carl
Kallgren who currently holds a
"tenure-eligible" position,
"(student) evaluations are taken
extrememly seriously at Penn
State." They are one of the main
inputs to judging teaching criteria
for the tenure process.
According to Tauber, "people
committed to this institution
realize that we do value teaching.
This is why you don't have
graduate assistants teaching your
classes. You have real live
faculty for better or worse."
The second criteria is research
of creative accomplishment.
Behrend faculty must
demonstrate competence to carry
out research and the ability to
train students in research
methods.
This is demonstrated through
publication, exhibition, or
performance. Research is not a
requirement at all institutions for
tenure. Many schools do not
stress research so strongly.
"Overall it may mean
occasionally we (Behrend) may
lose a good teacher because they
don't do research, or we may lose
a good researcher because they
don't teach well,' hut- that's the
price you pay," said Tauber.
There are faculty at other
institutions in Pennsylvania and
the entire cwntry for that matter,
who have never written an article
or delivered a conference, who are
tenured at their institution. At
"Learning" meant investigation,
commentary and disputation of
accepted sources of "truth".
In other words; education
entailed the rehashing of the same
bodies of knowledge over and
over again. Medieval attitude
was that knowledge was
supernatural and that discussion
and commentary could only
clarify what had already been
revealed by faith and dogma.
This sudden influx of ne-w
material inspired questioning and
with this new theories and
disciplines appeared. European
scholars prior to this studied
"pure" disciplines of law,
medicine and science, while the
Arabs had combined the pursuit
of philosophy with each
discipline to inspire new
tremendous growth. These
sudden changes were stimulating
to some and of course threatening
to others.
This new body of knowledge
actually challenged the authority
of the Bible and accepted
Christian values.
There was another obvious
Page
is a
Behrend, research faculty are
expected to work to move their
disciplines forward.
Research criteria at Behrend
is based mostly on publication in
reputable journals. According to
Kallgren, "the turn around time
for publication can easily be two
years." Though this seems long,
compared to other options to
satisfy the research criteria, such
as grants and books, publication
in journals is the much wiser
course to steer. Grants are very
often turned down and books can
take several years. If the idea is
to demonstrate competence
through successes in a short
period of time then it is
understandable why tenure
eligible faculty avoid long term
projects.
Scholarly performance and
mastery of subject matter is the
third criteria. The faculty
member must demonstrate
thorough understanding of the
field, must maintain high levels
of academic performance, must
establish a recognized reputation
in the discipline and show
evidence of continued
professional growth. Tauber, "as
another faculty member told me
`you've got to be good enough to
go (get another position) and
good,
filial-
to .
The final - criteria is' service•to
the university, the public and the
profession. Defined as
participation in the university,
college, departmental and unit
affairs must show in competence
in extending specialized
knowledge the the university and
to the public, active contribution
to professional organizations.
force at work which necessitated
the establishment of guilds.
Prior to the 13th century, the
University of Paris owned no
property. It rented space_ When
there was an unresolvable conflict
with outside powers they used the
threat or act of dispersion.
Simply put, the scholars would
leave the city and commence
working at another location.
When the University began to
acquire property, dispersion was
no longer a legitimate threat, so
they had to develop other ways to
protect themselves.
This, combined with the
atmosphere of constriction being
applied by the church and the
state, mandated a guild and hence
tenure.
While the technicalities of the
medieval tenure system and the
tenure system of the 20th century
may be different, the purpose is
still the same. To guarantee the
integrity of knowledge by
protecting the rights of scholars
to engage in research of teaching,
regardless of the social, political
or religious implications, for or
against.