APSCUF WCU On-line Elections

Rules for the Election

• Each department can have at most one representative on the university wide Tenure and Promotion Committee.
• Membership on the committee is restricted to the following structure: 4 faculty representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences, 1 faculty representative from each of the Schools of Health Sciences, Education, Music, and Business and Public Affairs, and 1 faculty representative from the non-classroom faculty.
• The election is decided by majority of those casting votes unless such results violate the previous rules or the number of candidates does not exceed the number of positions to fill. In the later case, each candidate will be voted on by an approve/disapprove ballot. If an insufficient number of candidates recieve a majority, a run-off election will be held between the top two elligible candidates. If there is only one elligible candidate for such a run-off, an approve/disapprove ballot will be used.
• Vacant seats will be filled one at a time with the current vacant seat filled by the candidate with the highest vote count. As each seat is filled, the candidate filling that seat and any other candidates from the same department as the candidate filling that seat will be disqualified. Votes cast for disqualified candidates, as just defined, will not be considered in filling remaining vacant seats.
• Each candidate selected counts as a cast vote.

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Steven Broitman

Department: Biology

I have decided to run for election to another term on TeP. Having previously served two terms on this committee I am particularly aware of the importance of this work. With over 20 years on the WCU faculty, I have a pretty fair understanding of how the institution functions (and sometimes doesn’t….), and I also have a fairly realistic perspective on what are appropriate standards by which to evaluate faculty. Also, having personally completed the tenure/promotion process I have an appreciation for the difficulties entailed in fulfilling these various, and sometimes competing, expectations. In addition to my principal background in biochemistry and molecular biology I also have graduate training in education and psychology, which I believe additionally broadens my appreciation for faculty accomplishments across many disciplines. Finally, my previous work on TeP confirmed my belief that this duty must be executed with an extremely rigorous commitment to consistency and fairness in order for the process to remain legitimate. Thus, I am seeking election for another term.

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Susan Johnston

Department: Anthropology & Sociology

I would like to serve on the Tenure and Promotion Committee in order to actively support this faculty-led institution in its critical role in the tenure and promotion process. I believe I am qualified by having successfully achieved tenure and full promotion, by my experience and role as department chairperson in evaluating faculty, and by having served on several college- and university-wide committees and in positions that afforded me the opportunity to gain an understanding of the cross-disciplinary variation in scholarship and pedagogical approaches on our campus. This knowledge and awareness is, I believe, important in fairly evaluating faculty achievements. Thank you for your consideration of my candidacy.

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Sandra Kerr

Department: Psychology

As a former chair of the Psychology Department, I have had considerable experience with faculty evaluation and the tenure and promotion process. As department chair, I worked hard to help facilitate faculty professional development and to support my colleagues through the T&P process. I also served as the chair of the Sabbatical and Educational Leave (SaLe) committee and in that position, I established proposal review and scoring procedures and worked closely with the provost and APSCUF to modify sabbatical policies in ways that benefited faculty in the application process. In 2007, I was elected to TeP and I sat on the committee for one year prior to stepping down to serve as interim Associate Dean, a position I held until last spring. I also served as the chair of the Council of Chairs and more recently, I was a member of the Academic Year Model Taskforce. In all of these positions, I have worked to insure that faculty concerns are heard and that faculty are treated fairly and equitably. Further, my experiences working with colleagues from other colleges have helped me to appreciate the variety of approaches to scholarship and teaching found on our campus. I hope to bring my experiences to TeP, the university body that defines academic engagement at WCU.