Only those professors who receive consistently low ratings on their biennial merit reviews must undergo a more intense evaluation at Kentucky. Kentucky expects that only five of its 350 faculty members will undergo post-tenure reviews this academic year. But the policy has already had some effect on faculty performance, according to Mr. Edwards. We've had people who have retired because of the expectation that they would be subject to a post-tenure review. We've had people who have voluntarily increased their teaching load, again as a consequence that they would be subject to an involuntary review of their research work.
Most institutions seem to be leaning toward requiring all tenured professors to be reviewed.
The point is not just to reform bad professors, it's also to recognize and assist good ones, says Raymond Nelson, dean of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia, where faculty members are debating post-tenure reviews. Some advocates of post-tenure review worry that too much emphasis will be placed on patting faculty members on the back. The danger is that the reviews will be so much window-dressing, they say. It includes a study of the effectiveness of post-tenure reviews. So far, institutions with post-tenure reviews have reported mixed results.