The 2015 Rank and Tenure Committee has sent a broadcast announcement encouraging members of the campus community to submit letters regarding the potential promotion of seven Associate Professors to full Professor status, .

The seven Associate Professors seeking promotion are Loretta Brady (Psychology), Peter Josephson (Politics), Bindu Malieckal (English), Janet Romaine (Economics & Business), Caryn Sheehan (Nursing), Kelley Spoerl (Theology) and Robert Vallari (Biology).

Professors hired by Saint Anselm usually start as Assistant Professors, and may then apply for promotion to Associate Professor status after three years at the rank of Assistant Professor and full Professor status four years after that.

Under the discretion of the Office of the Dean, incoming professors may transfer teaching credit from previous years taught at other colleges and/or universities in order to accelerate the promotion process.

This is usually arranged in conversation between the professor and the Dean—he does not unilaterally make this decision.

Promotion (which is conducted during the spring semester) differs from the awarding of tenure that occurs during the fall semester., as promotion only concerns an increase in salary and rank, while tenure determines whether a professor remains at the College.

Whereas professors may apply for promotion at any time as long as they are qualified, all professors are automatically reviewed for tenure during their sixth year of teaching at the College.

Typically they are reviewed in their sixth year—but in some cases, they may have credit from elsewhere, as explained above, which would permit them to come up after fewer years here—or, in extenuating circumstances (e.g. pregnancy, severe illness of a child, etc.) they can, in consultation with the dean, halt the tenure clock for a year.

Achieving the rank of tenure grants a professor the “Right . . . to hold one’s professional post continuously until retirement, subject only to termination for cause.”

Professors who achieve tenure have this status take effect in their seventh year, while professors that are denied tenure have one more terminal year at the College before losing their post.

All of this is determined by the Rank and Tenure Committee, which is composed of Academic Dean of the College Mark Cronin and seven faculty members who do not work in the same department as any of the professors up for promotion or tenure.

This typically causes a shifted composition of Committee members for the fall and spring semesters due to the variance in which professors qualify for promotion and/or tenure at the time.

Of the seven faculty Committee members, five must be Faculty Senators that fit the above qualifications and are approved by the remainder of the Faculty Senate.

The remaining two faculty Committee members are selected by President Steven DiSalvo from a list of five non-Faculty Senators (who also fit the above qualifications) that is compiled by Faculty Senate President Phil Pajakowski and approved by the Faculty Senate.

The seven faculty members serving on the Rank and Tenure Committee for spring 2015 are Hugh Dubrulle (History), David George (Classics), Max Latona (Philosophy), Nicole Leapley (French), Dennis MacDonald (Sociology), George Parodi (Chemistry) and Kevin Staley (Philosophy).

As a part of this process, the Committee solicits letters from individuals on list of current students, alumni and academic colleagues provided by each potential candidate,

Additionally, the Committee accepts unsolicited letters from all members of the Saint Anselm community.

This includes the student body, which is why the Committee’s by-laws require that an official notice be sent to the President of the Student Government Association and placed in the Crier.

All letters that are earnestly written, contain a valid signature and are sent to Committee Chair Hugh Dubrulle (Box #1629) by Wednesday March 18 will receive serious consideration, regardless of whether they reflect positively or negatively on the candidate which they are discussing.

Individuals may also send an email to [email protected] with a scanned letter attached as a pdf that has a valid signature.