Johns Hopkins Magazine -- September 1997
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SEPTEMBER 1997
CONTENTS

RETURN TO TENURE UNDER SCRUTINY

HOW TENURE WORKS
THE DIVISIONS AT A GLANCE

RELATED SITES

O N    C A M P U S E S

How Tenure Works:
The Divisions at a Glance


School of Arts and Sciences
Whiting School of Engineering
School of Medicine
Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
School of Nursing
School of Public Health
School of Continuing Studies
Peabody Institute


School of Arts and Sciences

Current System
Almost all faculty within the school are in tenure-track positions (the exception: a handful of research faculty). Promotions are made under the "up or out" tenure clock, with promotion to associate professor at year six, and full professor at year 10. Tenure is awarded almost exclusively at the full professor level. The school also has a non-faculty track for research scientists, many of whom are in Biology (26), Physics and Astronomy (38), and the Center for Social Organization of Schools (24).

Faculty Composition
(as of June 1997)
Tenure track (total): 267
    Tenured: 205
    Tenure track: 62
Research scholar track (total): 111
Tenure Slots by Dept.
(filled/total)
Anthropology 4/6
Biology 18/24
Biophysics 4/5
Chemistry 15/19
Classics 2/3
Cognitive Science 3/7
Earth & Planetary Sciences 13/13
Economics 9/13
English 11/12
French 3/4
German 3/5
Hispanic & Italian Studies 5/5
History 20/23
History of Science, Med & Tech 5/9
Humanities Center 4/6
Mathematics 14/17
Near Eastern Studies 5/6
Philosophy 6/9
Physics & Astronomy 25/31
Political Science 12/16
Psychology 7/11
Sociology 7/10
The Writing Seminars 6/6

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School of Engineering

Current System

Two Tracks:
The traditional tenure track, with ranks from instructor to full professor, offers tenure at the full professor level. Promotions are made under the "tenure clock," with promotion to associate professor at year six, full professor at year 10.

The non-tenure research track has ranks from research scholar to research professor.

Faculty Composition
Tenure track (total): 98
    Tenured: 52
    Tenure track: 46
Research track: 14

Comments from the (former) Dean

Don Giddens: "Tenure provides a good quality control mechanism. If [the process is] careful and rigorous, the quality of the people who pass through the system is very high." Without being forced to make the tough decision, he says, it would be all too easy to keep promoting someone, with the idea that you can always let that person go later.

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School of Medicine

Current System
Unlike many medical schools, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has a single track. Only full professors are granted contracts to retirement (CTR's), essentially the equivalent of tenure. In the past, exceptions were made and tenure was granted to a few associate professors; this practice is not currently allowed.

History

Until the late 1950s, most departments had only one full professor--the department chairman. Many departments now have dozens. All faculty operate under the tenure clock, but time in rank can vary greatly. An assistant professor, for instance, can hold that rank for anywhere from one to seven years (and in approved cases, 10 years). Promotion to full professor takes from seven to 13 years, but in some cases longer.

Faculty Composition
(as of July 15, 1997)
Professors 289
(all have CTR's)
Assoc. professors 389
(27 have CTR's)
Asst. professors 532
Instructors 201

Comments from the Dean
Edward Miller on tenure's future in higher education: "There will be a reaffirmation of tenure as academic freedom, with a small portion of salary guaranteed, or a reaffirmation of tenure without guaranteed salary," he predicts.

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Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Current System
SAIS has tenure--but no tenure track, as such. The international studies institute hires faculty at two levels. Senior faculty are hired as full professors with tenure. Junior faculty are hired to contracts that cannot exceed six years. Though it makes the rare exception for an extraordinary junior faculty member, SAIS generally does not promote from within to full professor. Associate dean for academic affairs Stephen F. Szabo says, "We just reaffirmed our policy on that, after a lot of discussion. It keeps us from becoming more over-tenured than we are anyway. It provides for circulation of younger people who are closer to the newer developments in the field. We've been able to attract very good people without [promoting to tenure]."

Faculty Composition
Full-time: 37
Tenured senior faculty: 22

Comments from the Dean
Paul Wolfowitz: "We're not a big department with a number of somewhat fungible positions. We are a school that is the size of a large department. Within that school, each unit is, for the most part, a senior faculty member and a junior faculty member. That system has worked very well for a long time, but it means the junior people have to come here without any expectation of a senior position opening up, or we would quickly become totally constipated [with tenured faculty]."

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School of Nursing

Current System
Two Tracks: The research/education track, with ranks from instructor to full professor, offers tenure at the full professor level. Promotions and tenure decisions are made separately, however. Promotions are made under the "tenure clock," with promotion to associate professor at year six, and full professor at year 10.

The practice/education track, with ranks from instructor to full professor, does not offer tenure and has no mandatory time for progression through the ranks. This track is aimed at faculty whose focus is primarily clinical. Those in this track can shift to the research track should their focus change.

The school also hires a number of clinical instructors under one-year term contracts.

History
There was no tenure track system in place when the school was re-established in 1983. The dual track system was established in 1994-95.

Faculty Composition
Research/education track 26
Tenured 3
Practice/education track 21

Comments from the Dean
Sue Donaldson: "This system is a model for professions in the academy that need venues for practice as well as scholarship and research. Tenure in the School of Nursing means you have the right to a long-term affiliation with the institution, but it doesn't guarantee full salary, or any salary at all, without revenue-generating activity."

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School of Public Health

Current System
Two Tracks: The traditional tenure track has ranks of assistant through full professor. Appointments/promotions and tenure are decided separately. To earn tenure, faculty must have demonstrated that, in addition to conducting outstanding scholarship, they generate substantial funding. Outstanding researchers with a weaker funding history can be promoted to professor without tenure, although this occurs rarely.

The non-tenure track has ranks of senior research associate through senior scientist. (There are also instructors and research associates, vestiges of pre-1995; see "History" below.) Faculty in the non-tenure track often have duties similar to those of their tenure-track colleagues. Many have open-ended contracts.

History
Some form of tenure has always existed at the school. The non-tenure track was unofficially in place for many years (with ranks of instructor and research associate) and officially implemented in 1995 to allow hiring on a project-by-project basis and avoid the long-term financial obligations of tenure. Since 1990, the tenure-track faculty has shrunk from 220 to 202; the non-tenure track has grown from 99 to 172.

Faculty Composition (as of May 1997)
Tenure track (total) 202
Professors 93
Asst. and Assoc. 109
Research scientist track (total) 172

Comments from the Dean
Al Sommer: "Tenure is constrained by how much money is available. I don't think it's realistic for tenure to be the awarding of a guaranteed salary for life."

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School of Continuing Studies

Current System
There is no provision for tenure, though there is a promotions track for full-time faculty (ranging from instructor to professor).

History
Tenure has never been offered within the School of Continuing Studies.

Faculty Composition
Full-time: 38
Part-time: 518

Comments from the Dean
Stanley Gabor: "Historically there has not been tenure in continuing education because there have been very few full-time faculty." Though the full-time ranks in Continuing Studies continue to grow, Gabor says there remains no place for tenure within a division that is so market-driven and susceptible to changing interests on the part of its students. "Our programs and teaching have to be responsive to change."

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Peabody Institute

One place where tenure is not much of an issue is the Peabody Institute: There's no tenure, no rank (everyone is simply a "faculty member"), no long-term faculty contracts (each has a one-year renewable deal)--and comparatively little discontent. The majority of those on the Peabody faculty are performers, not scholars; the standard criteria for tenure are thus not applicable, notes faculty member Roger Brunyate, who says that most of his colleagues are happy with the egalitarian nature of the system.

There was a time when Peabody faculty could earn tenure--back before the conservatory affiliated with Hopkins in 1977. In the agreement that governed the affiliation, the university recognized the tenure already held by 13 faculty. But a moratorium on new appointments to tenure began in 1979 and remains in effect today.

Peabody director Robert Sirota, who gave up a tenured position at NYU to come to Peabody, says that while he sees no need for tenure, he would favor instituting rank. Such a system would help recognize superior performance, through promotion and pay increases, and provide a better mechanism for evaluating faculty, he believes. "I think Peabody needs a system of peer review. And I stress peer review," Sirota says.

Music historian Susan Weiss, who says it's professionally embarrassing for music scholars like herself to hold neither rank nor tenure, is one person who would like to see tenure adopted at Peabody. "I'm hoping we may be able to institute some better conditions for those of us who feel it's important to have them," she says.

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