A draft Post-Tenure Review (PTR) policy has been created and is accepting comments since April 6. This policy marks the end of tenure!
The policy represents a hurried administrative priority rather than a demonstrated institutional need. It was developed with limited to no faculty input, in a process that lacked transparency and meaningful shared governance. In fact, no faculty members had access to the policy until March 30th, except a Faculty Affairs ad hoc committee whose members were not allowed to share the policy and had 5 days to comment on a policy draft that was developed with no faculty input.
The result is a policy that is internally inconsistent, misaligned with existing university policies, and unsupported by clear evidence of benefit. The proposal is largely silent on protections for academic freedom and introduces an accelerated pathway from a negative review on less than 50% of your workload leading to dismissal proceedings with the Provost being the main decision-maker, raising serious due process issues. Moreover, cited peer comparisons are misleading; for example, policies at institutions such as those in Florida were implemented under state mandate and are not directly comparable to VCU’s context. There is also no evidence that PTR achieves its stated goals, while substantial research indicates it may reduce research innovation, harm faculty recruitment and retention, decrease student graduation rates, and undermine institutional mission.
We need to act now. What can you do?
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Comment on the policy before the deadline of April 24: We need every one of our voices to be heard. This is important, so please take the time to comment on the policy here.
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The Provost’s office claims that they will address all the comments during one week between April 24 and May 4, when the policy will be presented to the University Council Faculty Affairs committee, then voted on by the University on May 7 and the BOV on June 4. The policy will be implemented starting Fall 2026.
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The more comments they have, the less likely they can claim that they have addressed them in one week.
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To make it easy to comment, the suggested comments page provides points about the policy that you can adopt and/or edit as you see fit.
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Contact your representatives on the University Council, specifically the faculty caucus members and request that they unanimously vote NO and stop the new Post-Tenure Review policy.