Sheldon Gen Co-authors an Article on Social Justice in Tenure and Promotion in Higher Education

Six faculty members from the College of Health & Social Sciences (CHSS) published a co-authored peer-reviewed article, “Transforming Tenure and Promotion: A Grassroots Initiative” in ADVANCE Journal in January. Authors are: Criminal Justices Studies Associate Professor Cesar Ché Rodriguez, Child and Adolescent Development Associate Professor Sherria D. Taylor, Public Health Associate Professor R. David Rebanal, CHSS Assistant Dean of Restorative and Transformative Racial Justice Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, Public Administration Professor Sheldon Gen and Public Health Professor Emerita Mickey Eliason. 

The article focuses on the initial steps of the CHSS to shift the culture of tenure and promotion processes, acknowledging that tenure and promotion processes can be vague, based on a faulty premise of meritocracy, individual values, color-blindness and full of implicit bias and unwritten assumptions. It includes a brief introduction on research about the challenges faced in the tenure and promotion process, then describe the development of a set of dialogical questions to guide revisions for tenure and promotion criteria departments and programs.