"This fall, the Committee of Six, President Marx and I thoroughly reviewed these professor's records in teaching, scholarship and service to the College based on the tenure cases put forward by their departments. We agreed that each professor's record was outstanding and merited tenure. I'm delighted with the result," stated Dean of the Faculty Gregory Call in an e-mail. Anston Bosman of the English department, chemistry professor Sandra Burkett, history professor Catherine Epstein, physics professor William Loinaz, geology professor Anna Martini and psychology professor Matthew Schulkind have all been granted tenure and will continue to teach and conduct research at the College.
This year no assistant professor up for tenure was denied. "It was a very strong cohort of tenure candidates this year and I'm pleased that all six cases were successful," Call said. Earning tenure is a long, arduous process that is one of the defining moments in an academic's career.
After a professor's sixth year of service to the College, the administration makes a decision about whether a professor is worthy to continue at the institution and deserves the freedom and security tenure accommodates. Student evaluations and retrospective letters are collected. Faculty members in the assistant professor's department write teaching feedbacks and each submits a letter of recommendation for the professor up for tenure, along with a department summary letter, for the committee to evaluate. Outside experts in the professor's field rate the strength of the professor's research. The tenure candidate writes a personal statement. Service to the College on faculty committees is also taken into account in the tenure-granting process.
In the end, a large binder of material, representing the product of much time and consideration, is submitted to the Dean of Faculty, the Committee of Six and the President so they may make a decision on the candidate's status at the College. The Committee of Six, the highest-ranking faculty committee at the College, comprises Professors Stephen George, Robert Hilborn, Patricia O'Hara, Andrew Parker, David Schneider and Geoffrey Woglom. President Tony Marx then calls each candidate at home to deliver the final verdict.
The assistant professors promoted this year are thrilled with the decision-who wouldn't be? "Of course I'm delighted to have received tenure," Epstein said. "It means that I can continue to do what I enjoy so much."
Assistant professors cite Amherst's focus on undergraduate teaching, but also the way the College encourages professors to pursue serious research, among the reasons for their love of this College. "I love the fact that Amherst is undergraduate-focused, but also that I can do real research. Both of them are valued here. To me it's the best of both worlds," explained Burkett. With tenure, Burkett will continue her research on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and to teach her classes, but she also looks forward to more opportunities to serve on faculty committees. She is particularly interested in working to address disparities in quantitative preparation based on the wide range of secondary schools from which the College's students come. She wants to help explore the best ways to teach students with varying secondary school preparation in the sciences and help ensure that students with less preparation are not discouraged from pursuing science.
Professor Epstein describes her position in the history department at the College as "a dream job." "I love teaching at a small liberal arts college that very much encourages faculty research," she said.
After a professor receives tenure, he or she is granted a sabbatical. A European history specialist with a focus on Germany, Epstein will use her year to complete her second book, a biography of Nazi leader Arthur Greiser. "In the next years, I also hope to develop new courses on comparative genocide, the history of Jews in modern Europe and the history of modern Poland," she added.
Professor Loinaz also enjoys Amherst's combined focus on teaching and research. He never imagined himself at a small liberal arts college like Amherst because his specialty, the abstract theoretical particle physics, is rarely taught to undergraduates. In fact, it is usually reserved for advanced graduate students. Nevertheless, an Amherst advertisement soliciting a professor in theoretical particle physics caught Loinaz's eye. He realized that Amherst could be the place for him. And it is. He loves the way Amherst "values teaching and has full resources," but also the fact that he can collaborate with both UMass' "full-fledged research group" and Amherst Professor Kannan Jagannathan who also specializes in theoretical particle physics. "Amherst turned out to be even better than I thought it would be," Loinaz said. He calls his students "hardworking and frighteningly sharp." After his break, Loinaz will continue his research and teaching, but sees tenure as giving him more "flexibility to explore other areas of physics that might turn out to be interesting." Nevertheless, he explained that it's an exciting time to be in his field, when upcoming experiments are expected to change the face of his subject entirely.
As these professors begin the new semester, it's business as usual-all with one less thing about which to worry.