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MTSU committee approves 28 tenures and 58 promotions effective Aug. 1
Summary
The Academic Affairs Committee approved faculty tenure and promotion recommendations that the university says will take effect Aug. 1, following multi-stage review that began the previous September.
The Middle Tennessee State University Academic Affairs Committee on May 20 approved the president's recommendations to award tenure to 28 faculty members and promotions to 58, with the actions scheduled to take effect Aug. 1.
The recommendations, presented by Mark Barnes of the provost's office, represent the conclusion of a multi-stage review that begins each September and ends with the president’s submission to the board. "This is the annual event in which we present to you a list of faculty who have gone through the tenure promotion process over the past year," Barnes said during the meeting. He described the promotions as merit-based and accompanied by salary increases tied to clearly stated metrics.
The committee discussed faculty-tenure proportions and comparative metrics with peer institutions. Barnes told trustees MTSU’s percentage of tenured faculty is 55%, which he said places the university in the middle among its local government institutions (LGIs). "It’s always a balance between having tenured faculty play a key role in shared governance with having the flexibility that non-tenured faculty give us," Barnes said.
Trustees asked for additional benchmarking data comparing MTSU to peer institutions; Barnes and other provost office staff agreed to provide those figures after the meeting. Chair Wright called the question after discussion and the motion carried unanimously.
The committee packet and Barnes’ remarks note that the tenure and promotion process at MTSU is separate in policy from rank advancement, but that in practice tenure carries with it promotion to associate professor when applicable. Barnes said occasional exceptions are theoretically possible but rare.
The committee approved the recommendations by voice vote; no individual roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript. The university will implement the promotions and tenure on Aug. 1 pending any final board-level confirmations required by the institution’s governance schedule.
