Who is the Lamberto Cesari Collegiate Professor of Mathematics? What sets him apart from a recently hired assistant professor in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature?

While such distinctions may seem meaningless to University students, they denote a complex process of faculty standing at the University.

Tenure is a concept most often associated with academia, allowing a professor a lifelong appointment within the University and a guaranteed salary in many schools and colleges.

According to Mathematics Prof. Daniel Burns, president of the University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, tenure is about being able to hold unpopular or controversial views without the fear of losing your job.

During the McCarthy era in the 1950s, professors around the country were fired for the views they held, both public and private. According to Gina Poe, an associate professor in the Medical School, tenure is meant to prevent similar events from happening.

“Tenure is a wonderful thing,” Poe said. “In an academic environment, we need to be free to express our opinions.”

A former Vice Chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, the leading faculty governing body, Poe is familiar with the University's tenure process. SACUA has the power to recommend dismissal of a faculty member to the Board of Regents.

Poe said it's incredibly difficult to fire a tenured professor. Only grave breaches of ethical conduct, like sexual harassment or stealing money from the University, are offenses warranting dismissal.

But the process of actually landing tenure is no walk in the park either.

Starting the race

The tenure process consists of three stages: assistant professorship, associate professorship and full professorship. A professor only becomes tenured when he or she gets promoted to associate professor.

Faculty start the tenure track as an assistant professor, a position that almost always requires a Ph.D.

According to information compiled by The Michigan Daily, assistant professors currently constitute 19 percent of faculty in LSA.

Many individuals teach classes for the first time after they become assistant professors, though many others have had prior experience working as graduate student instructors.

During the tenure probationary period, a time when faculty have not yet obtained permanent employment, assistant professors teach, research and complete other administrative duties — all the while proving they're qualified to obtain tenure. Poe calls the tenure probationary period a time of uncertainty when tenure hopefuls “stew in hot water.”

Tenure expectations differ between schools, colleges and even departments.

Poe said an assistant professor in the Medical School, for example, would be expected to teach classes, start a research lab, obtain at least one major grant from a federal research institute to fund the research and publish articles in accredited journals. An assistant professor in the LSA English department might be expected to teach one to two classes, conduct research, publish articles and write a book.

Assistant professors start with a three-year contract. At the end of the third year, they undergo a review to assess if the work they’ve done is up to departmental standards.

“It sort of gives them three years to fish or cut bait,” Poe said. “If they’re totally failing after three years, they get a poor third year review, and they see the writing on the wall."

What happens then?

“Their contract is not renewed, and they’re out.”

But Poe said most assistant professors at the University pass the review and have their contracts renewed.

Each school in the University currently sets its tenure probationary period at a maximum of eight years. The Medical School uses eight years, so an assistant professor would undergo a tenure review his or her seventh year. LSA has its tenure clock window set at seven years, so he or she would be reviewed in the sixth year.

The University’s Board of Regents approved a revision to their bylaws last April, which allows schools and colleges to extend the upper limit of their tenure probationary periods to 10 years. The regents left the decision up to schools as to whether they wanted to change their clock periods, and as of now, none of them have chosen to implement the extension.

Christina Whitman, the University’s vice provost for academic and faculty affairs, said someone rarely goes through the whole five to seven year process without obtaining tenure.

“It doesn’t mean that every assistant professor gets tenure by any means,” Whitman said. “But we get very few people who go all the way through the process and don’t get tenure at the end.”

A hierarchy of evaluations

When an assistant professor aims for tenure, he or she will have to go through a final stage of review before becoming an associate.