Next fall, all MSU faculty members will receive written annual reviews for the first time, the Lansing State Journal reported yesterday.
But Provost Lou Anna Simon has gone a step further with a detailed plan to sift out underachieving tenured faculty. It would give them time - potentially 10 years - and support to correct their courses.
Simon's post-tenure review proposal, which could be approved in some form next fall and possibly go into effect in 1998, is just being debated on campus.
Detractors such as Henry Silverman, tenured for 26 years, said reviews are fine, but Simon's plan is the wrong approach because it does not lead to professional development.
"It's, 'If you don't shape up, we'll take your tenure away and get rid of you,'" he said.
Simon said post-tenure review is designed to help faculty and make disciplinary action more fair.
"The best defense is always, 'You never told me,'" Simon said. "Or, 'If you'd given me the opportunity, I would have fixed it.' This provides a record that we were all on the same page."
Tenure was introduced by the American Association of University Professors more than 50 years ago.
It has long assured freedom of expression and thought for faculty. And colleges have used the promise of lifetime employment to recruit faculty who might otherwise take higher-paying corporate jobs.
Though tenured professors can be dismissed for reasons such as incompetence, intellectual dishonesty and sexual impropriety, it rarely happens, the State Journal said.
Robert Banks, Michigan State's assistant provost for academic services, said about 12 professors have been dismissed in the last 20 years.
In October 1996, Michigan State had 2,022 faculty in its tenure system. They earn on average between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, although some are paid much more, the newspaper said.
Their raises and promotions are based on an annual review system, which will require department heads to produce written reviews for the first time next fall.
Under Simon's plan, if a tenured faculty member is judged unsatisfactory on three consecutive reviews, he or she would enter post-tenure review.
It includes a three-year improvement plan developed by peers.
If results were still poor, a second peer group could recommend dismissal or grant two more years to improve. After that, dismissal would be automatic.
A similar post-tenure review process has been in place at the University of Michigan for at least eight years, said J. Bernard Machen, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
Machen said if Michigan professors are not up to snuff, their salaries are immediately frozen or reduced, a list of expections is drawn up and peer reviews are done.
That usually takes care of the problem, Machen said.
"t's one of the ways we ensure quality control over our professors," he said.