Rank and Tenure Committee

Membership: Five tenured members, consisting of one member from each of the four Colleges, and one member from the faculty at large, elected for three-year overlapping terms.

Advisory Membership: Provost, one student selected by the Associated Students of PLU. Consistent with Article IV, Section 4, Subsection 4b, g and h of the Faculty Bylaws, advisory members shall have the same rights and privileges as any other member of the committee except the right to make motions and to vote.

General Purpose: To consider and recommend policies relative to recruitment, rank, promotion, and tenure of the faculty and to act in an advisory capacity to the administration relative to application of these policies to individual members of the faculty.

Specific Duties:

  1. To review all cases for non-retention, promotion, and tenure of individual members of the faculty, and to make specific recommendations to the president.
  2. To review all recommendations for sabbatical leaves and to make specific recommendations to the president prior to approval by the Board of Regents.
  3. To recommend to the faculty ideas or techniques that make it possible to obtain objective information or data whereby the effectiveness of teaching may more adequately be determined, thereby enabling the committee to fulfill its advisory function as fully as possible.
  4. To recommend to the faculty matters related to tenure or promotion that the faculty may decide to recommend to the president for presentation to the Board of Regents.
  5. To conduct inquiries into misconduct in science at the request of the Provost.
  6. To make recommendations to the faculty regarding the designation of professor emeritus status for retiring non-tenured faculty.
  7. The chair of Rank and Tenure Committee shall serve on and convene the initial meeting of the Conciliation Committee.
  8. The chair of the Rank and Tenure Committee shall receive a teaching load reduction of one (1) course or the equivalent per academic year.
  9. To make a written report to the faculty at least once a year.  The chair of the committee shall file a record of the committee’s activities in duplicate reports–one with the faculty secretary and one with the president of the university at the close of the school year.

Membership for 2024-25:

Name:  Zachary Lyman (lymanzt@plu.edu)
Department: Music, Theatre & Dance
Committee Seat: Expires 2025
Contact: 253-535-7612

Name:  Paul Manfredi (manfrepr@plu.edu) – Chair
Department: Global and Cultural Studies
Committee Seat: Expires 2025
Contact: 253-535-7216

Name: Shannon Seidel (seidelsb@plu.edu) – Secretary, Fall 2025
Department: Biology
Committee Seat: Expires 2026
Contact: 253-535-7791

Name: Corey Cook (clcook@plu.edu) – Member, Spring 2025
Department: Psychology
Committee Seat: Expires 2026
Contact: 253-535-7471

Name:  Terri Farrar (farrartd@plu.edu)
Department: Kinesiology
Committee Seat: Expires 2027
Contact: 253-535-7360

Name:  Peter Davis (davispb@plu.edu)
Department: Earth Sciences
Committee Seat: Expires 2027
Contact: 253-535-5770