By Robin Pendoley
In 1997, Chancellor Albert Carnesale made the following
statement in a speech before the Legislative Assembly of the
Academic Senate: "One of the qualities that distinguishes UCLA –
indeed, one of its most valued traditions – is shared governance.
It defines the roles played by faculty, students and administration
in shaping the university’s academic enterprise. Shared governance
has been nurtured and protected here, and it has served UCLA
extremely well. This tradition of shared governance is one which I
embrace with enthusiasm."
Now that Carnesale is well into his third year as chancellor, it
is time that we, as the students of this university, hold him
accountable for these claims.
Students should ask themselves a series of questions. Do you
think we are receiving the best possible education at UCLA? Do you
feel as though your professors know their research assistants
better than their students? Do you feel like you learn more from
your teaching assistants than your professors? Are you concerned
that after four years at UCLA, countless visits to office hours,
about 50 classes in various departments and attendance at lectures
on a regular basis, that there might be only one professor on
campus who knows your first name?
Is this the education that you deserve at one of the world’s
best universities? Are you willing to accept the situation as it
is? I’m not.
There are countless examples of the exclusion of students in the
"shaping" of this university’s academic enterprise, but there is
one in particular that truly affects each of us every time we sit
down for a lecture. Students have been almost completely excluded
from the tenure review process that determines which faculty
members receive tenured professorships at UCLA.
The tenure review process is a relatively simple series of
events. There are departmental committees, dean’s recommendations,
committees formed by Vice Chancellor of Academic Personnel Norm
Abrams, and the viewpoint of Chancellor Carnesale. While this list
includes the input of every level of the academic administration at
UCLA, there is still one important group of people missing from the
picture – the students.
University regulations require that the review process rank a
candidate based on three criteria: their involvement in the UCLA
community, quality of teaching and research. As UCLA continues to
develop its research capacities, it is critical that the quality of
teaching is not overshadowed by research prowess when educators are
selected for tenure. As students, we must play an active role in
emphasizing the importance of teaching at UCLA. Where are the
students in the tenure review process?
Students have no institutional avenue for input in the
development of tenure criteria or in the actual review proceedings.
Nor are students even informed of which professors are being
reviewed. We have been shut out of a critical function of the
shaping of UCLA’s academic enterprise.
While tenure review is only one part of the academic enterprise
at UCLA, it is an important part. This process sets the fundamental
priorities of our professors – the people who direct our academic
careers – and gives job security only to those who demonstrate that
they are willing to work within that set of priorities.
So, if our esteemed chancellor values shared governance as a
means of "shaping the academic enterprise" of UCLA, why is it that
students are not involved in the development of the priorities of
the faculty? Why are we not involved in the selection of the
professors who will direct our education? Why are we not informed
of the process?
This submission is intended to do two things. The first is to
demand that Chancellor Carnesale and the administrative powers that
be of our university do three things. First, they should
demonstrate that shared governance also includes students by
including students in the the tenure review process. Second, they
should reinforce the academic integrity of the university by
re-evaluating the level of priority given to each of the three
factors that determine tenureship. Finally, they should empower
students to actively participate in this process as well as the
other institutions on campus that are so critical in the shaping of
our academic enterprise.
The second intention of this submission is directed toward my
fellow students. This university was not established as a research
university. Its primary goal should not be to do research but to
educate the next generation so that we can excel in all aspects of
society. Proclamations about the value of a UCLA education will
only have meaning when the students demand that the university live
up to its primary mission: to provide us with a world-class
education.
As Chancellor Carnesale would surely agree, students, as members
of the UCLA community, also have a responsibility to maintain the
academic integrity of the university. Write letters to the
chancellor. Talk to your professors. Talk to your friends. Talk
about this issue and see if you agree.
Shared governance, protection of the academic integrity of the
university and a review of the tenure process are the primary and
necessary steps toward truly shaping our academic enterprise so
that UCLA becomes a world-class institution of education, not just
of research. Do you agree? Are you ready to do something? Do you
know whose university this is? Stay tuned.