Philip Wion knows that gaining tenure is a “very significant point in a person’s career.”… Philip Wion knows that gaining tenure is a “very significant point in a person’s career.”

He also knows that the process of gaining tenure relies on many individual, human judgments.

“Things can be done wrong. No human institution is perfect,” said Wion, a tenured professor in Pitt’s English department and a member of the University Planning and Budgeting Committee. “Even leaving aside egregious violations, sometimes people make bad judgments, and it can be difficult to correct them.”

“But what counts as a bad judgment is a judgment itself,” he added.

The tenure process, though it varies between departments and universities, follows general guidelines set by the American Association of Professors.

A professor is usually considered for tenure at the beginning of his sixth year. Tenured professors in the candidate’s department, as well as the chair of the department, review the candidate on criteria that usually include teaching, services and published works. Each person makes a recommendation, which will be passed on to the next level of assessors. At this stage, a negative vote will not halt the process.

An ad hoc committee, consisting of about half a dozen professors from outside the candidates department, will then review the candidate and the previous recommendations. The committee also makes a recommendation, which is then passed on to the dean of the candidate’s school — in the case of Moya Luckett, a film studies professor who was recently denied tenure, School of Arts and Sciences Dean John Cooper.

The dean, after examining the candidate’s records and the recommendations of the previous committees, makes a decision about the candidate. An approval passes on to the provost, and then the chancellor, for their approval. If the dean, the provost or the chancellor does not approve the candidate’s application, the process is halted and the candidate is denied tenure.

In Luckett’s case, the denial of tenure came from Cooper, who said personnel decisions are kept confidential, and could not comment on anything concerning Luckett’s case.

A candidate denied tenure has several options. Choosing not to fight the denial, the candidate — who will, by the time she receives the denial or approval of her tenure application, be approaching the end of her sixth year — can serve out a seventh year, during which she is expected to look for a new place to work.

If a candidate feels that some of her qualifications were overlooked, he can request that the decision be reconsidered. At this point, he would also submit any additional information that he believed would help her case.

Cooper said that reconsideration requests “sometimes,” though not usually, result in a change in a tenure decision for a candidate.

If a candidate believes someone has failed to follow tenure procedures, she can file an appeal. An appeal, however, must be based on an actual lack of due process or inadequate consideration, Wion explained.

“It can’t just be, you know, ‘You made the wrong decision,'” Wion said.

After filing and losing an appeal, the professor has few alternatives to leaving the University.

“[There are no alternatives to a] failing [appeal], other than a lawsuit — which occasionally happens, but it’s hard to win one,” Wion said. “If something really egregious is going on, and the University is violating the 1940 Statement [of the Principles] on Academic Freedom [and Tenure], the [American Association of University Professors] sometimes gets a request [to get involved].”

But negative decisions sometimes create controversy, Wion said.

“Especially if the higher-level judgment flies in the face of lower-level judgments, there can be some questions,” he said.

Despite the controversy that tenure decisions can sometimes raise, Wion said he feels the importance of tenure outweighs any problems.

“Tenure is a very, very important institution, and it is periodically under assault, too,” Wion said. “Its [purpose is] to protect academic freedom and to allow people to do research unfettered and unconstrained.”

“A society in which there is not freedom to question and criticize is not a free society,” he added. “I think the process, on the whole, works well.”