Oklahoma State professors worried about possible review process

Thursday, April 20th 2006, 6:12 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A proposed post-tenure review process could threaten the careers of Oklahoma State University faculty members. That's according to opponents of a proposal now under consideration.

But OSU President David Schmidly and at least one member of the Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents say the idea of post-tenure peer review promotes accountability and could be implemented fairly.

Of the Stillwater university's 978 faculty members, 699 have received tenure. Under OSU's current system supervisors evaulate tenured professors every three years. OSU has fired three tenured faculty members during the past five years.

But regents asked the OSU Faculty Council to develop a proposal under which individual faculty members would also be reviewed by a committee of their peers once every five years.

The reviews could result in raises or promotions but current disciplinary measures for faculty won't be replaced, says faculty council vice chairman Tom Phillips.