Opinion ID: 439066
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Faculty Promotion and Awards of Tenure at Hire

Text: 28 The plaintiffs also submitted statistics purporting to show that women were concentrated in the lower academic ranks, received fewer second promotions than men, were rarely promoted to tenure and received a disproportionately low number of awards of tenure at hire. However, the studies relating to promotion and tenure again did not take into account the relevant pools of qualified applicants. They assumed, for example, that all faculty members were available for promotion to tenure each year, although newly-hired junior faculty, which included the preponderant number of women faculty, are not realistically eligible for promotion. In addition, defendant's statistical studies showed that, when eligibility was taken into account, Stony Brook tenured similar proportions of male and female faculty. 29 Plaintiffs' statistical evidence on the issue of tenure at hire also did not take into account prior academic rank or prior tenure. However, rank achieved elsewhere is relevant to an applicant's qualification for tenure at Stony Brook, and thus may, along with other criteria, be taken into account in determining whether to award tenure to a newly-hired faculty member. Defendants' study showed that, when prior rank is taken into account, no difference in the initial placement of men and women exists.