The Iowa State American Association of University Professors (AAUP) met Wednesday to discuss guidelines for the development of departmental post-tenure review.

“This can turn into something that can be constructive if not used in a punitive manner,” said Herman Quirmbach, associate professor of economics. “You must take the punishments off the table,” he said.

There are 11 different issues and areas where concerns need to be addressed, Quirmbach said.

“We realize that the standards are going to differ in different departments,” he said, but the new guidelines would be an effort to make various departments’ policies uniform.

The new AAUP guidelines would eliminate actions such as reduction of salary, denial of faculty raises, reduction of rank, denial of promotion, removal of tenure, increase in teaching load and/or administrative duties without compensation.

It also would prevent denial of leave and reduction in office, laboratory, research space, computer access and teaching assistant and secretarial support, according to a report by Robert Hollinger, president of the ISU chapter of AAUP.

The group conducting the review would be jointly selected by the advisory panel and the faculty member being reviewed. The criteria for membership would be based on knowledge and input from trusted colleagues who know the person being evaluated, Quirmbach said.

Besides the 11 areas discussed, problems with the previous referendum also were brought to the attention of the faculty present at the AAUP meeting.

“[The previous referendum] fails to adequately protect faculty,” Quirmbach said. “There is also very little protection for academic freedom.”

One issue discussed in detail was the wording of the time period for the review. The referendum stated, “Such a review should be done periodically, at least once every seven years.”

This statement can be interpreted and used in different ways, Quirmbach said. Because a department head might have negative feelings about a faculty member, he or she could be reviewed as often as the department head wished, as long as the minimum was met. The new guidelines would change the review to read “at most once every seven years.”

“If we want to protect academic freedom, let’s put it down in black and white,” Quirmbach said.