On State College of Florida controversy: Continuing contracts valuable

What is so important about continuing contracts?

In response to the State College of Florida board of trustees' decision to eliminate continuing contract, we faculty feel compelled to respond. Our current system of offering continuing contracts has been a no-cost, effective method of retaining good professors and getting rid of bad ones. There is not one example to the contrary.

A continuing contract is not a guaranteed job for life, as some opponents claim, and it is very difficult to achieve and maintain. To earn a continuing contract, a professor must apply after five years of service to the college. This application includes a "notebook," a three-ring binder filled inches thick with documentation of the faculty member's engagement in the field.

It covers subjects such as reviews and evaluations provided by students, peers and supervisors; professional contributions to the college and to our community through committee work or volunteerism related to the professor's field; professional growth in the form of research and presentations made at professional conferences; and other verifiable measures of one's commitment to the profession. Applications are reviewed carefully by a committee of both faculty members and college administrators.

A continuing contract means that the contract "continues" or rolls over to the next academic year without the necessity to actively renew it (department chairs do not have to manually indicate something like "I hereby extend another year's contract to this professor").

The greatest protection afforded by this process is that while, yes, we can be fired, our supervisor must first show cause, and so we are not distracted by the fear that if we teach something unpopular or controversial, our contracts may be simply permitted to lapse. This small comfort encourages teachers to reach for greatness in their students by challenging them.

Faculty face the unique difficulty of challenging students to critically examine controversial topics, and without continuing contracts, the potential of frivolous complaints escalating into unrestrained firings is a real threat. To mitigate this danger, professors will be inclined to stick to the safe subjects in order to minimize negative "customer service" marks, and students will graduate without truly examining themselves or the world around them, falling far below their potential.

And even after a faculty member has been awarded a continuing contract, he or she must continue to not only successfully teach classes, but also engage in college and community activities, demonstrate continued scholarship by publishing or presenting research and many other duties, all while earning high benchmark scores on student evaluations and annual evaluations provided by our supervisors.

Faculty members who fail to meet these expectations do not get to keep their jobs. In fact, in recent history five faculty members have been demoted to annual contracts or dismissed for cause. We can be demoted or severed for violations of ethics, gross insubordination, etc.

Despite the board's arguments to the contrary, the system of continuing contracts works.

By destroying continuing contracts, the State College of Florida Board of Trustees has made a direct attack on the quality of education provided for SCF students. Both experience and research show that colleges with only annual contracts revocable at the whim of management are not able to attract a group of applicants as large as or as high quality as one with greater job security.

Educational quality drops. Students, parents and the entire local community are harmed by this action, not simply the faculty. Degrading our local institution of higher education to further a political ideological aim devoid of a factual basis is no way to run a college.

Jeff Grieneisen, is vice president of American Association of University Professors, SCF Chapter, and an associate professor in the Department of Language and Literature at State College of Florida.

This story was originally published February 7, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "On State College of Florida controversy: Continuing contracts valuable ."