NIC trustees talk tenure

COEUR d'ALENE - The tenure process at North Idaho College underwent intense scrutiny Tuesday during a special meeting of the college's board of trustees.

During the nearly two-hour workshop, the trustees heard from speakers they invited, including members of the community, the faculty and the college's administration.

"I know this workshop that we planned has created a great deal of concern amongst the faculty, and that's quite understandable, quite frankly," said board chair Ken Howard, before the meeting's conclusion.

"This was an opportunity for this institution to tell the world what tenure is at NIC, not what they think it is someplace else or what they were told it was or what they imagined it might be, but what it is here at NIC," Howard said.

Howard said they learned that tenure at NIC is not guaranteed job protection, and that with tenure a faculty member can be terminated "for cause."

"Cause is defined as any conduct that may damage or be detrimental to the college, its students, faculty or employees... that is not employment for life. That is a very high standard that everybody has to live up to," Howard said.

The purpose of tenure, according to North Idaho College policy, is to protect academic freedom and recognize faculty members who teach effectively and meet other criteria established by the board of trustees. The college's official tenure procedure details the timing and mechanics for review and evaluation of tenure candidates.

Tenure is not awarded automatically. It is granted by a tenure committee after an extensive evaluation process that takes place over a four-year period, and continues every three years thereafter. NIC's tenure policy is not connected with compensation.

Jim Tippett, general manager of Bayshore Systems, a drilling equipment manufacturer in Rathdrum, was one of the community members invited to address the trustees. He was unable to attend, but submitted some written comments that Howard read.

Tippett asked the trustees to study the percentage of tenure applications accepted and denied, to determine if it is too easily granted and too hard to dismiss when a faculty member underperforms.

He admitted he has not reviewed NIC's tenure policy, but said he has studied the subject in general.

"I do not believe tenure is the best solution to maintain and grow academic excellence," Tippett wrote.

During the meeting, Lita Burns, NIC's vice president for instruction, told the trustees that since 2003, the college has hired 105 instructors into "tenure track," which means they are full-time instructors who have the potential to be tenured. Burns said 60 of the 105 achieved tenure, and 27 are still in the pipeline. Over a 10-year period, 18 instructors left before achieving tenure and 13 of them exited as the result of an unacceptable tenure process.

"That 13 out of 105 is 12.3 percent of the total hired," Burns said.

Jeffrey Smith, a local Edward Jones employee, told the trustees that he spoke with many people about tenure, including many educators and found that the perception of tenure is "very negative."

He said he could not support tenure, but neither could he say it should be scrapped. He suggested the trustees create an ad hoc committee to review it further so they can change the perception of tenure locally, and possibly "hone it down" so it's easier to understand.

Norm Gissel, a former NIC trustee and one of the founders of Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy also spoke to the trustees.

"You can look at this question of tenure as a thing, or you can look at the college and whether it's meeting its mission," Gissel said.

NIC President Joe Dunlap told the board that his knowledge of tenure stems from a lengthy career in higher education that includes employment at two universities and three community colleges.

"At some of the other institutions that I have served at, tenure was a rubber stamp process, at other institutions there was a lack of integrity in the process," Dunlap said.

He said NIC's tenure process is the best-operating of any he has experienced.

Dunlap said faculty members who are not performing to standards should be held accountable by administrators and students through evaluations, but that isn't what always happens. He said he has seen instances in which administrators don't follow through because they either don't understand the tenure criteria or the requirements of due process, or they're simply "too lazy." "While tenure requires that due process be followed before faculty be removed, it also protects exceptionally good faculty from being undermined and removed by ineffectual administrators and blustering politicians," Dunlap said.

Tenure provides a mechanism that holds administrators responsible for "sound educational judgment," Dunlap said.

The college president told the trustees to hold him accountable at NIC if they believe the proper goals are not being met at the college.

"Don't blame faculty based on perceptions, myths and rumors," Dunlap said. He said the President's Cabinet, a nine-member panel of the college's highest-level administrators, recently and unanimously endorsed NIC's existing tenure process, and submitted a letter to that effect to the board.

"I would encourage our trustees to support our processes that have a high level of accountability and a high level of integrity as well," Dunlap said, earning several seconds of applause from the audience of mainly faculty and staff members.

Trustee Ron Nilson said the reason the board requested the workshop was to help them better understand tenure and how it works at NIC. He said it's something they've been talking about for several months, and noted that the concept of tenure is confusing to many people in the community.

"We wanted to have a debate. We wanted to have a discussion... I don't think there was ever blaming the faculty," Nilson said.

He said he felt that the workshop was worth the effort.

"Now we can go to the community and share with them the value of tenure and how it fits with North Idaho College," Nilson said.