Dear Provost Fleming:
 
The NYU chapter of the AAUP has recently learned of four tenure cases
that were denied by the Dean or Provost’s office after unanimous
departmental and/or School support. The awarding of tenure is a decision
that is subject to the principles of shared governance; thus it is worrisome
that so many recent recommendations by faculty have not been followed.
Furthermore, it appears that an intermediary committee, procedurally
located between the School’s and the provost’s office, may have played a
substantive role in these decisions.  We recognize that you cannot discuss
individual cases of tenure and promotion, hence we have limited our
questions to the procedural concerns raised by the constitution of such a
committee:

1.   Has such a committee been formed?  If so, when, and what is
its specific charge?
2.   How is the composition of the committee determined?
3.   Where can NYU faculty find information about the composition
of the committee?
4.   How does it operate in relation to the university’s mandate to
improve diversity and inclusion?
5.   As this is a new step in the tenure and promotion process, has
the grievance procedure been revised to reflect this change?
6.   Are the reasons for denial of tenure at the administrative level
communicated to the applicant?

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible given the time
constraints of the current grievance procedure. We would also like to meet
with you in person to go over these questions with some involvement from
the Tenured/Tenure Track Faculty Senators Council.
 
Sincerely,
Marie Monaco, president, NYU-AAUP
Jim Uleman, vice-president, NYU-AAUP
Molly Nolan, secretary, NYU-AAUP
Anna McCarthy, treasurer, NYU-AAUP
Paula Chakravartty, member-at-large, NYU-AAUP
Rebecca Karl, member-at-large, NYU-AAUP
Vincent Renzi, member-at-large, NYU-AAUP
Andrew Ross, immediate past president, NYU-AAUP