Jim Cheesman believes the agreement will help the U of S’s reputation.

On Sept. 3, members of the University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association ratified a three-year contract which will remove the university president’s ability to veto tenure.

The tentative deal, announced this summer, has been in dispute since 2010, when the university president denied a sociology professor’s tenure despite a recommendation from the Tenure and Renewals Appeal Committee.

“What has always happened to these cases in the past is that they have been transmitted by the president to the board and the board confirms tenure,” said USFA Senior Professional Officer Jim Cheesman. “In this situation the president decided not to send the recommendation to the board and as a consequence there were some grievances filed through the collective agreement with the Faculty Association. Since then there have been two arbitrations and a further court case on that very issue.”

Cheesman, along with the majority of the USFA, does not believe that one person has the knowledge, expertise or authority to overrule the numerous committees which are responsible for awarding tenure.

“The argument from the faculty was that if the board is going to turn down tenure they have to do it as a board and can’t delegate their authority to one person,” Cheesman said.

This process was recently put under the microscope because of the controversy surrounding the dismissal of Robert Buckingham, which raised questions about academic freedom at the U of S.

“Of course the issue of academic freedom is embedded in whether or not there’s a completely open, fair and transparent process for awarding tenure, and when you put it in the hands of one person to make the final decision, that really destroys the natural justice process of awarding tenure,” Cheesman said.

A faculty member’s tenure application must go through a number of collegial committees before it reaches the Board of Governors. After tenure is approved by the tenured members of the applicant’s department, it is forwarded to a college-level committee who then sends their decision to the University Review Committee. If this body approves the tenure application, the case is heard by the Renewals and Tenure Appeal Committee. Finally, the case goes in front of the Board of Governors.

“It’s a very substantial and quite grueling process for somebody to go through the tenure process,” Cheesman said. “Once you’ve gone through all of these bodies consisting of a large number of faculty who are experienced and understand the standards for tenure and promotion, putting it in the hands of a single person and to second-guess that decision is not only very bad process but it can lead to important biases when it comes to academic freedom.”

Cheesman says that the president has a limited knowledge of academia, whereas those applying for tenure come from different colleges and therefore it should be left to those colleges to make judgements about who is awarded tenure and who is not.

“The president is only one person,” Cheesman said. “Why should one person be able to second-guess all of the bodies that have examined the case before them?”

According to Cheesman, the USFA’s vote was almost unanimously in favour of the agreement.

“In general, the members [of the faculty association] were very satisfied with the resolution,” Cheesman said. “We’ve gone through some tough times over the last few months with the Buckingham case and the resignation of three major senior administrators… it’s all been surrounded by issues of academic freedom and the appropriate process for determining that academic freedom is protected.”

A year and a half before the contract ends, the university will look at the current collective agreement and solicit opinions from the faculty based on their experience with it. Six months before the agreement is about to expire, the USFA will start negotiating a new collective agreement or changes to the current collective agreement.

The deal must also be approved by the university’s Board of Governors, which is expected to happen in October. Cheesman is confident that the board will vote in favour of the contract.

“I feel that this is an important agreement. It signals a change in atmosphere at the U of S,” Cheesman said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do in order to improve our reputation because of the recent events that have made international headlines, and I think it’s important for us to move on and restore that reputation.

“I think we’ve reached an agreement between the Board of Governors and the faculty that people are satisfied with and I really hope we can move on and become the very strong university that we were before all of this controversy started.”

—

Photo: supplied / University of Saskatchewan Faculty association