Common use of Xxxxxxx and Principles Clause in Contracts

Xxxxxxx and Principles. The primary purpose of the post-tenure review process is to assist faculty members with identifying opportunities that will enable them to reach their full potential for contribution to the university. Such review is intended to provide a longer-term perspective than is usually provided by the annual review process. Each individual faculty member will be assessed seven years after the award of tenure, and reviews will continue at intervals of seven years unless interrupted by further review for promotion. The post-tenure review is in addition to, not in lieu of, annual evaluations. The faculty and the administration of Pittsburg State University recognize the importance of encouraging a culture of continuous improvement in teaching, scholarship and creative activity, and service. Accordingly, evaluation of the performance of the faculty does not cease with the granting of tenure, but continues with formal annual assessments of all components of a professor’s assignment. Tenure is the academic community’s chief guarantee of academic freedom – both the freedom of the teacher to teach and the freedom of the researcher to research without undue or inappropriate external pressures. Thus, it is ultimately a guarantee of the student’s freedom to learn. Nothing in this procedure should be construed as an attempt to alter the contractual relationship between the professor and the university or to alter the nature of tenure as traditionally conceived and legally defined in the American academic community. Nor is this procedure intended as a mechanism for reevaluating or revalidating tenure. Thus, a tenured professor cannot be required to remake his or her case for tenure or otherwise to reassume the burden of proof that he or she bore in the original tenure proceedings. This procedure is not disciplinary.