Letters to the Chronicle

Monday-Wednesday classes pose problems

I would be very interested in seeing some discussion about campus policy on scheduling of Monday-Wednesday classes. These classes obviously must last longer than a 50-minute session.

Students I advise are having increasing problems where these M-W classes overlap two MWF classes making it impossible for them to schedule the classes they need and want.

Is there a campus policy on this creep of Monday-Wednesday classes?

JULIE A. CASWELL
Professor,
Resource Economics

Deputy provost John Cunningham responds:

Professor Caswell raises an important concern. A "creep of Monday-Wednesday classes," either extending beyond 50 minutes in length or beginning at a nonstandard time, or both, would increasingly disrupt course scheduling. The Scheduling Office appreciates the challenge these classes present to students and their advisors since it is mirrored there as staff attempt to resolve by hand many severe schedule underloads prior to printing individual schedule confirmations.

Courses offered outside of the standard MWF or TuTh time blocks reflect departmental priorities as explained on the mandatory "Exception to Standard Time Scheduling" form which must be signed by the department head/chair. We do ask that departments offer courses needing a 75-minute MW format either early or late in the day recognizing the scheduling problems ahead for students (and advisors). In truth, these formats also place difficult demands on our constrained classroom inventory. To date, the Scheduling Office has accepted signed forms without question even when they contain only minimal justification. Commencing for the fall 2002 class schedule each such request will be reviewed by the registrar and deputy provost to assure that needless "creep" is minimized.

Professor wary of Lazare's stance on tenure

The Chronicle's Nov. 16 account of the report of the Faculty Senate's discussion of the attempts by Chancellor [Aaron] Lazare to weaken tenure at the Medical School missed a major point. Not only does Dr. Lazare seek the authority, without faculty review, to reduce the salaries of tenured faculty members who displease his administration, he is also taking the position that the University's legal maximum salary obligation to any faculty member is capped at $60,000. Lazare's proposals would have to be approved by the University trustees. Should he succeed what would keep them from being applied to all campuses?

Of further significance to the Amherst campus is President Bulger's public expression, at the last trustee Committee of the Whole meeting in Amherst, of his interest in Lazare as a candidate for the position of chancellor of the Amherst campus. The members of the Chancellor Search Committee need to be aware that Lazare's views on tenure do not meet the widely accepted AAUP principles of academic freedom and tenure observed by major research universities

JOSEPH S. LARSON
Professor emeritus,
Natural Resources Conservation

Chancellor Aaron Lazare replies:

I would like to correct some of the apparent misunderstandings as to the intent and design of the tenure policy under consideration at the Worcester campus. This document was intended to clarify and enhance the tenure guarantee on our campus, and the terms of this policy are in fact more favorable to faculty than the current policy on the Amherst campus. The proposed Worcester policy increases the financial guarantee for tenured faculty from a level of $60,586 to a level equal to that paid to the average tenured basic science faculty at rank at the Worcester campus. Salary reductions could only occur after four written warnings from the department chair (over a 4-6 year period) and after two levels of review by faculty committees: review by tenured faculty in the home department and by an elected campus-wide committee of tenured faculty. The maximum salary reduction, if approved, would then be implemented incrementally over a three-year period (if performance continued to be poor during that period), and would reduce salary to a level not less than 75 percent of the tenured basic science faculty at rank on the Worcester campus, a level equal to the nine-month salary for tenured full professors at Amherst.

It is unlikely that University trustees would apply the Worcester policy to other campuses. There have always been unique features of the Worcester campus that have led the trustees to keep its policies distinct from the other campuses.

As for professor Larson's last point, I am not a candidate for the position of chancellor at Amherst. I am, however, a member of the search committee, dedicated to finding an outstanding leader for the Amherst campus.