Senate resets tenure clock

Campus departments will have more flexibility to determine the length of tenure clocks under a proposal approved by the Faculty Senate.

The measure gives department executive committees and deans the ability to evaluate whether the service of untenured professors hired from other institutions is equivalent to UW–Madison service.

The change, recommended by the University Committee, is designed to help UW–Madison remain competitive in recruiting new faculty. Stephen M. Robinson, chair of the University Committee, told the Faculty Senate Monday, May 3, that the new policy would not be retroactive, although departments may seek rule waivers for probationary faculty hired under the previous policy.

“There will be some requests for adjustments of tenure clocks,” Robinson, professor of industrial engineering and computer science, told the senate. “The University Committee will evaluate such requests.”

Under the old policy, UW–Madison automatically subtracted up to three years of previous service at another institution from its seven-year tenure clock. The policy mirrored the guidelines established in 1940 by the American Association of University Professors.

But many universities routinely turn the tenure clock back to zero when they hire a new assistant professor from another institution, which puts UW–Madison at a disadvantage when recruiting new faculty.