The Dean of Faculty's role is to oversee the tenure process. He also accepts and reads the votes and reports of the Promotion and Tenure committee, then making a recommendation to the President.
The Dean of Faculty also has a role in providing feedback on "progress so far" during a tenure candidate's sixth-semester review. For my sixth-semester review, the Dean of Faculty gave me every indication that I was on track for tenure, including the opinion that my teaching was "off to a very good start". Since then, however, the Dean has done what he could to abdicate responsibility for the things he wrote and the things that have happened to me since. He has claimed that I should not have taken the sixth-semester review as a barometer for my progress toward tenure…that it is “just a review”. This is laughable. To my view, the Dean has clearly adopted a position of “protecting the institution” (from me) at all costs, even if it leads him to make statements that are paradoxical, contradictory, and absurd. I would have hoped that, instead, the Dean would have chosen to protect the ideals and values of the institution, by ensuring that I and all other tenure candidates are treated openly, consistently and fairly. But this is apparently not the case (or I am mistaken about Colby’s true ideals and values). Through the veil of bureaucracy, I have been unable to get a sense of whether, on a personal level, the Dean actually feels I was treated badly, or even whether he actually feels I was qualified for tenure.
The Dean of Faculty agreed to meet with me after my initial denial of tenure, but I did not think that was a good idea in the middle of my request for reconsideration. However, he faithfully answered my emails for any questions I had, although often after a bit of delay and prodding. After my reconsideration request was denied, I asked to meet with him personally. He agreed to meet with me only in the presence of Colby's legal counsel, but he was kind enough to give three hours of his time to listen to my complaints and questions. He was also one of the people who I expected would be able to tell me in some detail about the requirements for tenure at Colby, but he was unfortunately unwilling or unable to go into any detail. The stock response to any question of detail was something along the lines of "there is no formula...you just have to look at the whole case". I wonder if that is the limit of the instructions given to new P&T committee members, as well. In any event, it was at this meeting that I really decided something strange is going on at Colby, because even the Dean of Faculty cannot clarify what the standards actually are for tenure.
As mentioned above, at this meeting the Dean of Faculty also presented an argument that I find somewhat curious; that the sixth-semester review is not, in fact, a tenure review, and I should not have interpreted it as saying anything meaningful about my chances at receiving tenure. Frankly, I do not buy that. It continues to mystify me that, if my case were really as bad as the P&T members have claimed, there was absolutely no hint of that in the sixth-semester review summary that the Dean of Faculty wrote for me. Of all people, he should have been aware of how awful the P&T committee would view my teaching record to be at that point. Could it be that he disagreed with the P&T assessment? Of course he would not answer that question in the presence of a lawyer.
This section is much briefer than the section for the Dean, for the primary reason that the President of Colby refuses to talk to me. The President's role is to accept and read the votes and reports of the Promotion and Tenure committee, together with the recommendation of the Dean of Faculty, and then present a recommendation to the Board of Trustees, who make the final decision. The President is free to make whatever recommendation he wants. Subsequent to my negative decision, I asked the President if we could meet to discuss my case as well as Colby tenure procedures in general. He has refused to meet or discuss things with me. I do not believe that decision reflects well on the College administration.
Randolph M. Jones
People involved in my tenure case
How (not) to get tenure at Colby College