Yale approves changes to tenure policy
NEW HAVEN, Conn. --Yale University faculty has approved major changes to the process for granting tenure to professors in an effort to attract more talented junior professors.
The changes, the first in more than a decade, include reducing the tenure process by one year from the current 10-year limit, removing from the tenure decision the question of whether money is available to pay a higher salary, and abandoning a practice in which untenured faculty were required to participate in an open search with external candidates for tenured positions.
The reforms do not lower standards for winning tenure, which gives a professor a permanent position rather than one renewed by contract, Yale officials said.
"I think it's a momentous day for Yale," said Howard Bloch, a French professor who served on a committee of deans, professors and directors of academic divisions that recommended the reforms. "Yale now becomes the most attractive place I know of for junior faculty to begin and imagine a career."
The changes, unanimously approved by faculty Wednesday, are designed to address a perception that few faculty win tenure at Yale. That perception has been used by other universities competing against Yale for faculty and may have prompted some professors to leave before applying for tenure, Bloch said.
"Many departments find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in hiring non-tenured faculty because other high-ranking departments can promise tenure decisions earlier and without reference to resource constraints," the committee's report stated.
According to the report, 62 percent of Yale arts and science faculty last year had tenure, compared with an average of 74 percent at six other unidentified universities.
The changes affect arts and science faculty, who teach about 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students. They do not apply to law, medical and other professional schools, Yale officials said. 