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Document on Publication Quotas

 May 14, 2002

A Document
Concerning the Sense of the AAUP Faculty at Marist College
Regarding Implementation of Publication Quotas
for Purposes of Annual Review

PREAMBLE: For the past year and a half, the Faculty Affairs Committee and the faculty of the various Schools at Marist College have been responding to repeated requests on the part of the Dean of Faculty and the various Deans to apply standardized quotas for publication as part of criteria for awarding merit increases in annual salary review. The initiative has been legitimized by a claim that the contract negotiations contained a parenthetical reference to "scholarship." In the Fall of 2001, the faculty of the College at a plenary session voted against a standardized plan along these lines. The following resolution attempts to provide a statement that would fairly reflect the sense of the AAUP College faculty at this time.

WHEREAS, the basic personnel policy of the College as established by the Faculty Handbook states that, "The College annually evaluates all Faculty members through the Division/School Dean, self and student evaluations to promote their professional development, to support recommendations for advancement in rank or tenure status and for salary increments. All such evaluations should be done in a regular and timely manner. Of primary importance in these evaluations are the criteria of (1) Teaching Effectiveness (Sec. 3.1) and (2) Professional Activity (Sec. 3.2). Also important are: (3) Service to the Students (Sec. 3.3); (4) Service to the College (Sec. 3.4); and (5) Service to the Community (Sec. 3.5)" (Code 8.30, Part XII, Sec. 3b, "Detailed Criteria for Evaluations").

And WHEREAS, the section of the Faculty Handbook pertaining to Professional Activity reads in full that:

Evaluation of the Faculty member's commitment to the profession and discipline will include but not be limited to:

  1. involvement in activities designed to enhance professional development such as graduate coursework, workshops, conferences, etc.;


  2. involvement in professional activities such as receipt of research grants or fellowships, or holding office or serving on committees in nationally recognized professional associations or other major contributions to one's discipline and profession;


  3. involvement in research or creative work but not limited to articles in juried publications, patents and/or inventions, performances, professional papers and speeches, books published, or work as a professional consultant.


  4. Scholarship requires the formal presentation of ideas for external peer or juried evaluation. It should be documented in some form of product (e.g., book, written paper, computer program, creative work). Scholarship includes:
  1. the scholarship of discovery (e.g., original, traditional, discipline-oriented.)


  2. the scholarship of integration (e.g., making connections among disciplines, placing one's area of study in a larger context.)


  3. the scholarship of application (e.g., discoveries and insights that result from the practical applications of theoretical knowledge in one's discipline.)


  4. the scholarship of teaching (e.g., transforming and expanding knowledge of teaching methods, strategies and content.)
In assessing the importance of the various forms of scholarship and the merit of a candidate's scholarship, the Rank and Tenure committee will consult with the Division/School Dean, and the discipline Peer Review Committee. (Code 8.30, Part XII, Sec. 3b, 3.2, "Professional Activity, Development, Research and Creative Work")

And WHEREAS, the Faculty of Marist College enjoy a right to self-governance on academic matters; and its governance is to be exercised "through its plenary Faculty meetings and its standing (both elected and appointed), joint, and ad hoc committees" as stipulated by the Faculty Handbook (Code 1.55, Part II, Sec. 5, "Introduction to Faculty Self Governance").

And WHEREAS, the purpose of contract negotiations is, "to negotiate the renewal of the Faculty-Administration agreements with respect to Faculty salaries, benefits, and working conditions" (Code 5.70, Part IX, Sec. 4, "Negotiations").

Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED THAT, The sense of the AAUP Faculty at Marist College is that

(a) the Faculty Handbook as it stands provides the appropriate personnel policy to be followed in annual evaluations; that

(b) the criteria for annual evaluations should include definitions of professional activity and scholarship as provided in the Handbook language. Furthermore, given the premises of faculty self governance as stipulated by the Faculty Handbook,

(c) any further attempts to change these policies by means other than those established under Faculty Handbook rules for self governance may be viewed as attempts to subvert the spirit of the governance process at Marist College. And finally, that

(d) use of contract negotiations is an inappropriate venue to leverage interpretations of professional activity or scholarship.

NOTE: The above document was adopted unanimously by the Marist College Chapter of the AAUP on May 14, 2002.

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