Letter from Jim Grodon to BYU AAUP 5 March 1997
March 5, 1997
Your letter of February 27 has been referred to me for response.
The practice of review committees to request aditional information when they have questions is well established. Because the English Department and College of Humanities review committees have asked to see any documents that the University Faculty Council will use as it considers the files, the candidates have been requested to include the documents in their files so that they can be reviewed by the committees at all levels.
I disagree that requesting additional information violates the candidates’ academic freedom. The Faculty Council is charged with conducting careful reviews, and it is entitled to review the entire body of a candidate’s work if it chooses to do so. The rank and status policy does not require the Faculty Council to provide the candidates with a list of concerns. Rather, the Faculty Council will review the files in light of the expectations that are set forth in the rank and status policy and that apply to all faculty.
I hope that the above information is helpful.
Sincerely,
James D. Gordon III
cc Randall Jones, Jay Fox, Thomas Plummer, Douglas Thayer