Rank and Tenure Committee

Membership: Seven members (at least five tenured), consisting of four tenured members, one from each College, and three members from the faculty at large, elected for three-year overlapping terms, with the provision that no more than two members from each College shall serve simultaneously.  The term of any untenured faculty member will end at the close of the academic year preceding the one in which his/her own tenure shall come under consideration.

Advisory Membership: Provost, one student selected by the Associated Students of PLU. Consistent with Article IV, Section 4, Subsection 4b, g and h of the Faculty Bylaws, advisory members shall have the same rights and privileges as any other member of the committee except the right to make motions and to vote.

General Purpose: To consider and recommend policies relative to recruitment, rank, promotion, and tenure of the faculty and to act in an advisory capacity to the administration relative to application of these policies to individual members of the faculty.

Specific Duties:

  1. To review all cases for non-retention, promotion, and tenure of individual members of the faculty, and to make specific recommendations to the president.
  2. To review all recommendations for sabbatical leaves and to make specific recommendations to the president prior to approval by the Board of Regents.
  3. To recommend to the faculty ideas or techniques that make it possible to obtain objective information or data whereby the effectiveness of teaching may more adequately be determined, thereby enabling the committee to fulfill its advisory function as fully as possible.
  4. To recommend to the faculty matters related to tenure or promotion that the faculty may decide to recommend to the president for presentation to the Board of Regents.
  5. To conduct inquiries into misconduct in science at the request of the Provost.
  6. To make recommendations to the faculty regarding the designation of professor emeritus status for retiring non-tenured faculty.
  7. The chair of Rank and Tenure Committee shall serve on and convene the initial meeting of the Conciliation Committee.
  8. The chair of the Rank and Tenure Committee shall receive a teaching load reduction of one (1) course or the equivalent per academic year.
  9. To make a written report to the faculty at least once a year.  The chair of the committee shall file a record of the committee’s activities in duplicate reports–one with the faculty secretary and one with the president of the university at the close of the school year.

Membership for 2022-23:

Name: Ed Powell (powellec@plu.edu)
Department: Music
Committee Seat: Expires 2023
Contact: 253-535-7907

Name: Michael Behrens (behrenmd@plu.edu) – Chair
Department: Biology
Committee Seat: Expires 2023
Contact: 253-535-7565

Name: James Albrecht (albrecjm@plu.edu)
Department: English
Committee Seat: Expires 2023
Contact: 253-535-7698

Name: Genevieve Williams (williagr@plu.edu)
Department: Library
Committee Seat: Expires 2024
Contact: 253-535-7443

Name:  Charles Katica (katicacp@plu.edu)
Department:  Kinesiology
Committee Seat: Expires 2024
Contact:  253-535-7636

Name:  Vanessa Tucker (tuckerve@plu.edu) – Secretary
Department: Education
Committee Seat: Expires 2025
Contact: 253-535-7112

Name:  Paul Manfredi (manfrepr@plu.edu)
Department: Languages & Literatures
Committee Seat: Expires 2025
Contact: 253-535-7216