UT Regents Could Heighten Professor Scrutiny
When the University of Texas System regents meet in San Antonio this week, they'll have accountability on the agenda — everything from professor performance reviews to criminal record checks.
At the board's two-day meeting starting today, regents are likely to further implement Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa’s framework for the system’s future, which they unanimously approved last August. Cigarroa’s plan, borne out of months of controversy about the productivity of the state’s public university, calls for revamping professors' post-tenure review process and strengthening faculty evaluations — changes the regents could approve Thursday.
The proposed rules clarify that evaluations ...
Comments (8)
JC DemocratofTejas
Oh most certainly. The regents are so concerned with accountability. That's why they spend fortunes trying to catch anyone that is not bending over to the Republican Legislature/Perry, all in the name of concern. Yeah right. That's why the best professors are leaving UT Austin. And coming up with a way to fire tenured professors is their dreams come true. There is no such thing as honoring those who have served for years. The few obvious problem professors are not hidden from plain sight, so let's spend a bunch of money conforming to our corporate run state education, making it too a Texas laughing stock.
JC DemocratofTejas
BTW...what do Texas Research Incentive Fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund have in common. Think about it. And why is UT Austin left out of the research grants?
Hook 'em.
T D
For those of you wondering what the big deal is:
The regents will force departments to ask colleagues across the country to provide, for free, additional hours of their time reading and evaluating Texas paperwork.
People already do this for tenure and promotion decisions--it's part of the profession, and is usually taken on as a necessary chore. But this would be a new thing. And if it spreads as a model, it would mean that before too long Texas professors will be spending half their time compiling annual reports, and the other half of their time reading and evaluating annual reports of tenured professors in other states.
Those annual reports would have categories such as: (a) Annual Reports Submitted; and (b) Annual Reports Evaluated. All of which would then be read and evaluated by someone in another state, who would record that labor on his or her annual report for evaluation by someone in another state, with an endless cycle of paperwork about productivity.
In short, it's a way to diminish (rather than enhance) faculty research and to turn outsiders off on the very idea of Texas. All in the name of more bureaucracy. Brought to you, as always, by small government conservatism.
russ huebel
How about real scrutiny of the regents?
A B
How can we get rid of deadwood faculty members and their useless/stupid trailing spouses? The taxpayers can't afford to pay for their laziness and fat asses anymore. It's over!
Any solution?
T D
@A B
If they're fat, lazy, and useless, perhaps you could straighten them out with some real discipline?
A B
The deadwood faculty members at Texas A&M deserve MORE for their incompetence and fat asses!!! Read here:
http://www.theeagle.com/local/Loftin-says-merit-raises-a-priority--6955916
What is going on with out capitalist country??
Texas Longhorns
The regents deserve more scrutiny. And AB offers no proof about deadwood faculty.
A&M salaries have been low or frozen for a while, and it is time they are raised. Period.