Meeting with students and faculty regarding tenure and non-retention, 1st session

[00:00:03] KCPR test [00:02:03] Audience member says Kennedy should step in to prevent the shutting out of a qualified instructor [00:02:53] Kennedy says he has not always accepted the recommendations for tenure made by tenured faculty [00:06:44] Kennedy reads a document that states that faculty status such as reappointment and tenure is primarily a faculty responsibility [00:07:45] Kennedy says the document says the president must at times by required to interfere in these decisions for the benefit of the department [00:09:26] Kennedy talks about the "typical" political climate of the San Luis Obispo community compared to the rest of the country [00:13:04] Kennedy talks about the ROTC and dissent on campus [00:14:12] Kennedy explains the process of assessing an instructor for tenure [00:19:15] Kennedy says that after he receives the recommendations from the Dean, the tenured members of the department, the department head, and the faculty personnel review committee, that he has the final say on granting tenure [00:20:07] Dean Fisher talks about how different departments decided their own procedure for evaluating instructors for tenure [00:21:45] Kennedy reads from the College Administration Manual that has rules and regulations about personnel evaluation [00:24:20] Kennedy highlights that the Academic Senate and faculty representatives have read through and agreed with these regulations [00:25:15] Speaker clarifies what the Academic Senate is for the audience [00:26:43] Kennedy says the faculty member being evaluated signs the evaluation indicating that he has been told what is in the evaluation [00:28:00] Kennedy says that he told Vrana to file a grievance if he did not agree with the final decision for tenure [00:29:20] Kennedy says that he is surprised by the committee's decision to uphold the Vrana decision [00:30:22] Kennedy rereads the categories for evaluation accepted by the Academic Senate [00:33:09] Kennedy talks about his push for more student involvement in evaluation and the Assist Program [00:37:25] Kennedy talks about his Doctoral Dissertation about a decision process for the State College System [00:39:15] Kennedy talks about the process of obtaining his Doctorate and teaching/working at the same time [00:44:15] Kennedy starts to talk about the college's accreditation in 5 engineering programs [00:44:54] Kennedy talks about the exit interview with the accreditation team that is not included in the official report which revealed weaknesses in the support programs for engineering such as physics and chemistry [00:46:06] Kennedy talks about receiving criticism from legislators for introducing Linus Pauling at Pomona because he was on the Un-American Activities list [00:48:17] Kennedy tells the story about how he was unable to hire Pauling as a faculty member because Kennedy was unable to provide him with enough space to continue Pauling's research [00:50:50] Kennedy explains what the 5th notice year is [00:54:56] Fisher explains the process of recruiting Mulenar as he was working on his dissertation, who never finished his work despite promising to finish it year after year [00:59:00] Fisher says the Doctorate is the degree that is required at most institutions to get a job [00:59:57] Fisher explains the importance of having a first-rate degree upon graduation [01:01:08] Kennedy explains the different types of accreditation that the university and its various areas can receive [01:02:15] small cut between side A and side B of the cassette [01:03:00] Kennedy talks about the importance of accreditation and the university's reputation among employers [01:04:16] Kennedy says his responsibility is to maintain the school as a top tier reputation [01:04:58] Kennedy says that there are a number of people that only want to see the President fall off of his supposed pedestal [01:05:30] Kennedy talks about his rise through the ranks at Cal Poly [01:06:40] Kennedy says his responsibility is not to protect one employee's right to continued employment, but to maintain the excellence of the institution [01:09:46] Fisher talks about what accreditation teams look at when evaluating an institution [01:11:46] Fisher continues to speak about Mulenar and tenure [01:14:19] Fisher explains what a Ph.D shows about a man [01:16:08] Kennedy says that the institution does not usually hire people who accept their job with conditions [01:17:54] Ericson talks about what Rizzo was told to do his particular teaching schedule [01:21:45] Kennedy says that they don't write letters as anything other than good faith [01:22:15] Kennedy talks about how presumptuous it is to not want to teach freshman courses [01:24:08] Kennedy reminds the students that it was the tenured members of the faculty who wrote the recommendation to the administration [01:24:27] Kennedy says there is no change in the position of the tenured members of the faculty [01:27:00] Kennedy says that Rizzo will cooperate only because he faced backlash from not teaching freshman classes [01:30:48] Fisher explains channels to which students can make their voices heard about instructors that may not like [01:32:55] They talk about the fairness board for venting complaints for students who feel they are being treated unfairly [01:35:35] Kennedy defines what tenure means [01:39:39] A student comments how the letter from Rizzo about freshman courses went unchallenged [01:40:53] the student says this makes this situation seem more like the result of a personality clash [01:42:46] Ericson says that the letter sent by Rizzo is not the contract that he is functioning under but the contract he signed during the past Spring [01:47:01] Kennedy says Rizzo was very uptight about having to do things that the students say he would do so willingly [01:47:40] Kennedy says Rizzo started to expound the issues with his colleagues into his classes [01:50:51] Ericson says that he heard Rizzo was too concerned with writing a book to teach freshman course and thus questions his concern for students [01:53:50] Student says he cannot understand why Rizzo is being fired over freshman classes [01:54:49] Kennedy explains that Rizzo is not being fired, but professors are to be evaluated and reappointed each year when they have not been granted tenure [01:56:24] Kennedy explains that the tenured faculty members did not recommend Rizzo for reappointment during a probationary year in order to best suit the department's needs [01:57:09] Kennedy talks about how much protection employees have in the academic environment compared to other industries [02:00:20] Kennedy warns about the problems possibly created by setting the precedent of the president the power to overrule faculty decisions for any reason