Tenure & Promotion Units

Recently a joint committee of the Library Faculty Assembly and the Smathers Libraries administration was appointed to review the 17 existing tenure and promotion units for the faculty in light of the reorganization, with the expectation that there should be fewer small tenure homes. That committee has now made its report and its recommendation has been approved by the Smathers Libraries faculty. Earlier this week, the University Library Committee accepted the plan approved by the faculty. The recommendation still needs to be accepted by the Academic Policy Council and the Faculty Senate before it can be implemented.

The committee's report is provided below. An organization chart with the recommended Tenure and Promotion Units noted is available at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/pio/Smathers_Libraries_Reorg_TenureHomes111808.pdf.

Report of the Tenure Homes Committee, November 17, 2008

The Tenure Homes Committee is pleased to present the final results of the faculty poll on tenure and promotion units. The Committee held its final meeting the morning of November 14th to address non returned ballot issues and finalize the results of the votes.

A majority of the Collection Management and Humanities and Social Sciences Services faculty voted in the affirmative to create a new tenure and promotion unit called Humanities and Social Sciences that combines current tenure and promotion units of Collection Management and Humanities and Social Sciences Services. Departmental Libraries faculty from Humanities and Social Sciences Services voted in the affirmative to create a tenure and promotion unit called Departmental Libraries. Lastly, there was a majority affirmative vote in each current tenure and promotion unit under Technology and Support Services to create a combined tenure and promotion unit called Technology and Support Services.

42 ballots were sent out. 5 ballots were not returned. One of those not returned was due to a resignation and another to an agreed assignment transfer to a non-faculty position. Therefore there were only 40 ballots to consider. One non returned ballot we believe was due to travel or leave. The remaining 2 non returns were considered by the Committee as abstaining votes since a specific vote was not recorded. We had one type written note requesting to change a vote from yes to no, but since no unit was specified in the note and no one knew who wrote the note the Committee felt it could not change any votes after submission. The results are summarized in a table on the next page.

As you may recall, tenure and promotion units for Marston Science Library, Special and Area Studies, and Government Documents did not require a vote as there was no change to those units for the purpose of tenure and promotion.

The results have been presented the Dean Russell. The next phase of the process is to report the results to the Senate's University Libraries Committee. The ULC will then transmit the results to the appropriate policy council and the Senate Steering Committee for review. After appropriate Senate policy council review the results will be presented to the Faculty Senate for their consideration as either an information item or and information and action item, depending on Senate Steering Committee recommendation. Most likely the process will be completed some time in March or April. Until the process clears Senate review in the spring it is my understanding that our tenure and promotion units remain as they are.

On behalf of the Tenure Homes Committee, Joe Aufmuth, Chair

Committee Members: Blake Landor; Brian Keith; Christopher Vallandingham - LL; Denise Bennett; Ellie Bushhousen - HCL; Jimmie Lundgren; Joe Aufmuth; LeiLani Freund; Patrick Reakes; Peter Malanchuk; Steve Carrico

The table summarizing the balloting on the tenure and promotion units is available at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/pio/Smathers_Librariestenure-homes-final.pdf.