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Tenure
by Cindy Craig
Collegian Staff Writer
"It seems like professors are
no longer here for students, but
students are here for the
professors." This sentiment has
been softly echoing from the
mouths of some Behrend students
in reference to faculty both
tenured and on tenure track. Is
teaching being neglected for
research? After tenure is achieved
does it become a "free ride"? Or
are students too quick to find
fault or place blame elsewhere
rather than accept responsibility
for their failures in the
classroom?
First of all it must be
understood that tenure is a
universally accepted concept used
to regulate the relationships
between institutions of higher
learning and the faculty of those
institutions. To be competitive,
an institution has no choice but
to offer a tenure package. What
the package consists fo is decided
by the specific needs and goals of
that institution.
The general objective of
tenure at any institution is to
guarantee academic freedom and
to safeguard the right of free
expression and risk-taking
inquiry. Tenure can be compared
to a marriage between an
institution and a faculty member.
Tenure is the state of being
guaranteed a job for as long as a
faculty member wishes to stay.
Without tenure a university could
arbitrarily dismiss faculty
engaging in unpopular or
potentially embarrassing research
or writing. Without tenure
research like Alfred Kinsey's on
sexual behavior, theories like
Charles Darwin's on evolution,
and works of fiction like the
recent "The Satanic Verses"
would fall prey to the "keepers"
of "traditional values".
Like it or not, it is with
controversy and questioning of
traditional values that we move
forward. Dr. Jim Seroka, head of
the Division of Humanities and
Social Sciences, describes tenure
as "protection for faculty
members to be able to conduct
research or teaching without
political or ideological
interference from the university
or public."
While seeming one sided, in
favor of faculty, since faculty
may break a tenure contract
simply by giving notice and the
university may break it only
under extreme, circumstances,
tenure offers underlying benefits
to universities. Universities
determine the requirements of
their tenure packages and thus
design - criteria to attract the
people they want. Tenure - is a
way of rewarding and retaining
the most capable people:
As a land grant institution,
Behrend's duties are teaching,
News
research, scholarship and service.
Typical weight attached to these
at Behrend are forty percent on
teaching, thirty percent on
research, twenty percent on
scholarship and ten percent on
service. These are the criteria on
which tenure is based and granted.
Teaching. The ability to
convey subject matter to students
and stimulate their interest. The
faculty must demonstrate
competence in teaching and
capacity for growth and
improvement. Dr. - Robert Tauber,
chairman of this year's tenure
committee, says "People simply
will not get tenure at Behrend
College if they do not perform
well with teaching."
Counseling, advising and
service to students are also
included in this category.
Competence is judged on syllabi
and tests for a particular course as
well as on student and peer
evaluations. Are student
evaluations taken seriously?
According to Dr. Carl
Kallgren, who currently holds a
tenure eligible position,
"(student) evaluations are taken
extremely serious 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
or creative accomplishment. The
faculty must demonstrate
competence to carry out research
and train students in research
methods. this is demonstrated
through publication, exhibition
or performance. Research is not a
requirement of all institutions for
tenure.
"Overall it may mean we
(Behrend) may occasionally lose a
good teacher because they don't
do research, or we may lose a
good researcher because they don't
teach well, but that is the price
you pay," said Tauber. There are
faculty at other institutions all
over the nation that have never
published an article who are
tenured. At Behrend, Research
faculty work to move their
disciplines forward.
"The turn around time for
publication . can easily be two
years," Kallgren pointed out.
Grants are very often turned down
and books can take several years
to complete and still get refused.
The final criteria is service to
the university, the public and the
profession.• Defined as
participation in the university,'
college, departmental and unit
affairs. Faculty must show
competence . in extending
specialized knowledge to the
university and to the public.
Report
Arthur
Schlesinger
Pulitzer Prize winning writer
and historian Arthur Schlesinger
will unveil the future of
America's post-Reagan politics
during a speech tomorrow at 8
pm in Erie Hall.
His lecture, entitled "The
Shape of American Politics, to
Come," is the last of Behrend's
1988-89 speaker series and is free
and open to the public.
Schlesinger, the author of 23
on subjects ranging from
"Violence: America in the
Sixties" to "The Dynamics of
World Power," has won two
Pulitzer Prizes -- one for history
and one for biography. He has
also earned a Guggenheim
Fellowship, the National Book
Award and Italy's Fregene Prize
for Literature.
Schlesinger served as a
member of the Adlai Stevenson
campaign staff in 1952 and 1956.
He was a Special Assistant to
President John F. Kennedy from
1961 to 1963. Schlesinger has
New Fraternity
by Traci Fenton
Collegian Staff Writer
Sigma Tau Gamma is the
latest addition to Penn State
Behrend this spring as the
campus' newest social fraternity.
Presently there are 27 members
wearing the blue, white and gray
Greek letters around campus.
Last semester junior
Christopher Dean was interested
in starting a new fraternity. One
of the founders of the present
fraternity, freshmen Robert
Grasinger, suggested Sigma Tau
Gamma because of two close
relatives who were Sigma Tau
Gamma alumni from Edinboro.
After much work and a good
deal of organization the colony
was finally formed on January
21, 1989. A formal banquet was
held at Carmen's Restaurant in
Erie with three of the National
Representatives present.
Approval by Greek Council was
then sought and their constitution
was submitted to Student
Government Association for a
final vote. Sigma Tau Gamma
was then fully recognized on
campus Wednesday, March 29.
"Dave Shields (Assistant Dean
of Student Services) and Inter-
Greek Council were very
supportive in their efforts to
work with us and to help us
better understand the
fundamentals of a fraternity," new
President Dean said. During the
pledging period several members
of Sigma Tau Gamma attended a
Regional Conclave in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
"Leadership and organizational
skills were taught along with the
basic concepts of how to run a
fraternity" explained Social
Director Steven Alauzen. The
Conclave was attended by fifteen
Sig - Tau Chapters and over 150
active members.
The Collegian Wednesday, April 19
drawn from many of the
experiences of his Kennedy days
in several of his books, including
"Robert Kennedy and His
Times," "Kennedy or Nixon,"
"The Politics of Hope" and "The
Bitter Heritage: Vietnam and
American Democracy 1941-
1966."
Schlesinger served with the
Office fo Strategic Services
during the early 1940'5. He joined
the United States Army in 1945,
then began an educational career
as an associate professor of
history at Harvard in 1946.
Born in Columbus, Ohio,
Schlesinger received his
undergraduate degree from Harvard
in 1938. He has since received 15
honorary degrees from colleges
and universities across the nation.
He currently serves as the Albert
Schweitzer Professor of the
Humanities at the City
University of New York, a
position he has held since 1966.
Sigma Tau Gamma was
originally founded June 28, 1920
at Central Missouri State
Teachers College with eighteen
founding fathers. Currently, there
are 66 active chapters and ten
current colonies, including
Behrend. Pennsylvania has the
most chapters with Sig Tau
fraternities at University Park,
Edinboro, Carnegie Mellon,
Duquense, and more.
The 27 members were
initiated April 8 and will start
accepting pledges next semester.
Within a year Sigma Tau Gamma
hopes to get chartered and become
a chapter.
Election Results
cont. from pg. 1
Student Programming Council Inter-Club Council
Pres. - Brent Vernon Pres. - David Mahoney
Vice Pres. - Jennifer Matz Vice Pres. - Charles Gabi
Joint Residence Council Commuter Council
Pres. - Lynn Case Pres. - Ted Hacker
Vice Pres. - Beth Rogers Vice Pres. - Carolyn
Gawlinski
Resident Senators
Stephen B. Field
Rommel Taylor
Ala Stanford
Commuter Senators
Victoria M. Freund
Karen Bunting
Lorenzo J. Paul
Davis
insight of characters in "White
Rook."
"Right now, naturally,
because things have gone so well
with mystery, I think more along
those lines, but I still have a lot
of wacky ideas that I pursue,"
said Davis.
In addition to his novels,
Davis has had several short
stories and nonfiction books
published. His short stories
include one entitled "Fortress"
which is being republished in
Pearl Street Press,. Inc., a
magazine based in Denver. Davis
has published books on authors
Stanislaw Lem, Dick Francis,
Edward Albee and Robertson
Davies.
Davis is currently working on
a third novel, this one about a
Nazi war criminal. He will serve
as resident writer at Mercyhurst
College in Erie this summetand
has been invited to delivet a
reading sponsored by Brigham
Young University in Hawaii.
Lewis Nordan
to Read
Lewis Nordan, author of two
short story collections:
"Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher
Fair" (1983) and "The All-Girl
Football Team" (1986) will read
from his work at 7:30 p.m.,
April "21, in the Memorial
Room.
Nordan lectures in the creative
writing program at the University
of Pittsburgh. He was the
recipient of the John Gould
Fletcher award for fiction; his
stories have appeared in such
magazines as "Harper's",
"Southern Review", "Greensboro
Review", and "Redbook", and
have been included in such
anthologies as "New Stories from
the South" and "The New
Writers of the South."
Meggan Iverson
Scott T. Serapiglia
Dave Kravetz
Paul Banner
John Boyko
from p. 1