[Corebotanyfaculty] Follow up on faculty meeting - vote needed

[Bpschair]

Hi everyone,  we had a vigorous discussion today regarding the new campus policies on faculty retention (attached again for your information).  One major change is the requirement of a faculty vote on whether or not an individual who has a job offer or has been short-listed for an interview should be retained.

Concerns about requiring a faculty vote were raised.  These included:
loss of confidentiality
the inability to move quickly on a time-sensitive issue
the potential for negative consequences if the department is not supportive of retention but the faculty member ultimately stays at UCR
the potential that a vote could jeopardize the security of pre-tenure faculty

Support for requiring a faculty vote was also voiced.  These included:
increased transparency
a strong vote in support might strengthen the ability to retain the faculty member (helping to make the case with the Dean and beyond)

Several people voiced the opinion that they could not imagine a situation where we would not want to retain one of our faculty. T

We discussed some options to having a full faculty vote, including delegating the vote to a committee and using the vote from the most recent merit or promotion (concerns about this were raised, including the possibility that the department may not have been supportive or a merit advance, but would likely still want to retain a faculty member).

We came to agreement that we will vote on a blanket retention policy that we want to attempt to retain any BPSC faculty member who requests retention.

There are some potential problems with this, including the possibility that the VPAP won’t accept this as our procedure.  But we decided to move ahead and take a vote.  Please cast your vote here:  https://forms.gle/9CYRDSJBckzFWFXq7

FYI, the statement you are voting on is:  The BPSC department should attempt to retain any BPSC faculty member who has a job offer (non-preemptive retention) or who is short listed for an interview (preemptive retention) in the next year (through September 2024).

Please vote by 5 pm on Wed Sept 27.

Thanks, patty

Patricia Springer
Patricia Springer
Professor and Chair, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
University of California
Riverside, CA  92521

pspringer at ucr.edu<mailto:pspringer at ucr.edu>
bpschair at ucr.edu
951-827-4413 (Chair's office)
951-827-5785 (Faculty office)
http://plantbiology.ucr.edu


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