At its June meeting, the College's Board of Trustees approved the decision to grant tenure to 14 professors, including controversial English Professor Tom Luxon.
To receive tenure, faculty members need to be able to teach and do quality research, Associate Dean of the Faculty George Wolford said.
"A brilliant scholar may get by with average teaching ability and a great teacher may not pass the tear in scholarship," Wolford said. "We want good teaching and good scholarship."
Luxon said tenure will allow him to experiment more with his research.
"One can undertake research projects of a larger or more experimental nature without fear of losing one's job if it takes too long or doesn't pan out as expected or is controversial," Luxon said. "You can afford to take more time with your work and take a few more intellectual risks."
Luxon was one of three English professors granted tenure this year. The Trustees also approved tenure forErnest Hebert and Matthew Rowlinson.
"I am a writer with a family to support," Hebert said. "Without tenure, the pressure on me would be to write stuff to please the market. With tenure, I can write what I want."
English Professor Melissa Zeiger's tenure decision was postponed, English Department Chair Bill Cook said.
Music Professor Sally Pinkas said she will now have more freedom to pursue areas that interest her now that she has tenure.
"As a junior professor, you pay more attention to quantity," she said. "By receiving tenure, my best work is yet to come, because I can now start to do what I want."
Because having tenure means a professor has an almost-guaranteed job at the College until they decide to retire, several professors said tenure makes them feel more secure.
"My chance of being fired are considerably lower than they were before receiving tenure," said Michael Knetter, an economics professor who received tenure this year.
The other economics professor who was up for review this year, Carsten Kowalczyk, did not get tenure, Economics Chair Jack Menge said.
"Both the inside and outside review of his scholarly work were such that they did not meet the standard we have for tenure in the department," he said. "I will say personally ... I think he has an excellent teaching record."
Dennis Healy was the only member of the math department to receive tenure this year. He said tenure represents somewhat of a "validation of my work."
"One does not know exactly how one's work is judged, what the referees wrote and whether there were any considerations beyond the work and teaching," he said.
There is no limit to the number of professors who get tenure, Wolford said.
But if a teacher is denied tenure, it is unlikely that the professor would choose to stay at the College, Psychology Department Chair Robert Kleck said.
"If one is denied tenure, they are usually give a one- to two-year contract, and it is unlikely that at the end of that time that a faculty member will remain at Dartmouth," he said.
Kleck added that most candidates are usually denied tenure for lack of research productivity or poor student evaluations.
According to Wolford, about half of the junior faculty members are ultimately awarded tenure.
Math Department Chair Kenneth Bogart said tenure is not a divisive issue among the faculty and said if a person deserves to get tenure, then he or she usually will.
"We seek to hire the strongest candidates, and we aren't surprised when someone we hire continues doing well," Bogart said.
New faculty members usually start with two- or three-year contracts. At the end of their contract, they are re-evaluated to decide whether to extend them.
After their sixth year, faculty members are considered for tenured positions.
The candidates' scholarly work and publications are evaluated by outside scholars in the candidates' field and their teaching ability is evaluated by former students.
Wolford said the candidate's department and the associate dean's office sends letters to about 75 former students, who are asked to rate the professors on a nine-point scale.
Chemistry Department Chair Russell Hughes said only about 20 students responded to surveys for his department's candidates.
After all the information is gathered, the department votes whether to recommend the candidate for tenure. The associate dean also writes an evaluation of the candidate's qualifications for tenure.
The recommendations are forwarded to the Committee Advisory to the President, composed of Dean of the Faculty James Wright and six senior faculty members.
The committee recommends a decision on a candidate's tenure to College President James Freedman. The Trustees then must approve the final decision.
Also receiving tenure this year: Earth Science Professors Joel Blum and Leslie Sonder, Film Studies Professor Amy Lawrence, Chemistry Professor Jane Lipson, Biology Professor Robert McClung, Sociology Professor Misagh Parsa, Engineering Professor Keith Paulsen and French and Italian Professor David Rollo.
