FSU, FAMU post-tenure reviews lead to bonuses and increases. But faculty remain concerned

Florida State and Florida A&M universities’ 2024 post-tenure review evaluations have opened a door to one-time bonuses and increases for faculty members who performed well, but the review process is still a concern for many.

As FAMU recognizes its high-performing faculty with bonuses up to $5,000, FSU’s monetary recognitions are pending approval.

The rewards come after Florida’s new post-tenure review law was pushed and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. It requires tenured faculty in Florida’s public universities to undergo a comprehensive post-tenure review procedure every five years.

Changes to the post-tenure review process created four levels of performance ratings – exceeds expectations, meets expectations, does not meet expectations and unsatisfactory.

But if a university administration decides to rate a faculty member as unsatisfactory, the tenured individual could be terminated with no way of fighting the decision. Also, independent arbitration by a neutral third party is banned under the law, which critics say deprives faculty of a review designed to protect academic freedom and employment rights.

“That’s the major concern everybody has, because if you don’t do well on your post-tenure review, you can be terminated without just cause,” said FAMU Professor James Muchovej , who teaches in the College of Agriculture and Food Science.

Related news: Florida faculty unions sue higher education leaders over new employment arbitration ban

Faculty ‘still trying to negotiate’

The push for changes to be made to post-tenure review – which simultaneously occurred alongside a controversial diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ban through legislation ( HB 999) – initially gave rise to campus protests and several comments of discontent from faculty during university Board of Trustees and Florida Board of Governors meetings. And a Florida Board of Governors regulation (10.003) requires university boards of trustees to adopt the new policy.

At FAMU, nearly 40 tenured faculty went through this year’s review process, where 14 of them exceeded expectations and will receive a $5,000 one-time bonus while 21 met expectations and will receive a $2,500 one-time bonus.

Muchovej – who is in his 33rd year of teaching and also is a spokesperson for the United Faculty of Florida’s FAMU chapter – was reviewed and received an “exceeds expectations” rating.

But he still has some concerns.

“For me, a $5,000 bonus is 6% of my salary, but that really just covers the past five years, which comes out to less than 1.5% a year,” Muchovej said.

“This post-tenure review can be used to correct part of that, but in order to do so, the university would have to give out base salary increases rather than bonuses. That’s one of the things we’ve been trying to negotiate with them, but it’s not quite working the way we want.”

Although no FAMU faculty members were rated unsatisfactory, three individuals received “does not meet expectations” ratings and will be assigned a performance improvement plan. The plan must be completed within 12 months, in which the faculty member’s department chair or unit director will conduct a reassessment in the third, sixth and ninth months of the plan, according to FAMU’s 2023-24 post-tenure review audit.

FAMU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Allyson Watson – who consulted with former President Larry Robinson to determine the appropriate recognitions – was not immediately available for comment regarding post-tenure review.

“We’re still trying to negotiate to come up with a few things that would work a little bit better,” Muchovej said.

‘Everything is unpredictable’

Although controversy continues to revolve around post-tenure review, FSU faculty fared well in the university’s report.

FSU had 88 faculty members exceed expectations while 46 met expectations, according to a report that was approved by FSU’s Board of Trustees in June. None of the tenured individuals received "does not meet expectations" or "unsatisfactory" ratings.

At the University of Florida , trustees approved new, one-time $10,000 bonuses for its high-performing faculty who exceeded expectations, according to a UF release.

FSU has not yet announced how much its high-performing tenured faculty will receive after the review process, but an increase is on the way as bargaining sessions ended about a week ago.

“The university negotiated post-tenure review increases for those who met or exceeded expectations in its most recent collective bargaining agreement with FSU's chapter of the United Faculty of Florida,” an FSU spokesperson said. “These increases will be awarded pending ratification of the agreement.”

FSU Associate Professor of Mathematics and UFF-FSU bargaining team member Arash Fahim says the tentative agreement is that tenured full professors who exceeded expectations will get a 5% raise while those who met expectations will get a 3% raise.

In addition, FSU’s tenured associate professors who exceeded expectations are expected to get a $6,000 one-time bonus while those who met expectations would get a $4,000 one-time bonus.

Fahim received a “meets expectations” rating nearly eight months after he submitted a three-page overview of his last five years as a tenured professor. The evaluation materials were sent to his department’s chair to be assessed before going up the chain of command to his college’s dean and FSU Provost James Clark.

But in spite of the faculty receiving good ratings this year, Fahim said “it doesn’t mean anything” to him since “everything is unpredictable.”

He recalls telling some of his colleagues “this is not good” when he first saw the vague language of the Florida law about post-tenure review. “You just need to have the wrong president and provost who don’t care about the university to start firing faculty,” Fahim said.

“We’re a little more fortunate than some other schools in Florida. We have a president who has been in academia for a long time, and most of the people in the FSU administration have been university professors, so they have a good understanding of what’s going on and how important the role of tenure is.”

Another FSU professor and UFF-FSU bargaining team member Michael Buchler – who teaches music theory and has had tenure for about 16 years – agrees that the underlying issue is the post-tenure review law’s vagueness and the overarching power it gives university administrations.

“The problem with post-tenure review as it exists right now is that one can lose one’s job without due process and with a lack of guidance about what counts as unsatisfactory,” said Buchler, a member of UFF-FSU's bargaining team. “Basically, it’s like tenure has been turned into five-year contracts. We just have to hope we keep an administration that’s not vindictive and that’s not going to use this as a way to get rid of faculty.”

The university’s faculty union chapter is trying to put more clarity in FSU’s post-tenure review policies to explain what it means to be unsatisfactory and to make the process less arbitrary.

Early in the fall semester, FSU will conduct open forums to address any questions from faculty regarding post-tenure review and will also offer support for faculty as they prepare their evaluation materials, according to FSU Vice President for Faculty Development and Advancement Janet Kistner.

“We take the post-tenure review very seriously, and we are committed to providing a fair and comprehensive evaluation of our tenured faculty,” Kistner said. “We are working closely with faculty, chairs and deans to ensure they are informed and fully understand the process.”

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on X: @tarahjean_ .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU, FAMU post-tenure reviews lead to bonuses and increases. But faculty remain concerned