Word: hoc
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Still, to answer complaints about the lack of a $10 "living wage" for all Harvard employees, the University recently appointed an ad hoc Faculty committee which could examine the tactic of using outsourcing as a way to leverage small unions...
...proper decision--University President Neil L. Rudenstine. The process limits the influence of the most qualified judges of candidates, the senior Faculty of their departments. Although the majority of those reviewed by Rudenstine--who is advised by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and five-person ad hoc committee--receive tenure, it is not uncommon for candidates endorsed by their departments to be denied a tenured position. President Rudenstine has an unlimited authority to offer or deny tenure to candidates, regardless of how strong the department's support...
...tenure process is also unnecessarily secretive, particularly after cases leave the department. The amount of influence the ad hoc committee can be expected to wield is still unclear. While in some cases, it can sink a department's recommendation, the committee can also be avoided altogether, and occasionally professors are tenured without any ad hoc committee...
When the ad hoc committee does meet, no vote is recorded, nor is an explanation of the decision required of its anonymous members. The criteria by which the committee and Rudenstine decide are equally unknown, outside the fact that candidate should be "the leading scholar/teacher available in the field." Although we recognize the awkwardness the committee might face in publicly speaking ill of even an unqualified candidate, it is naive to think that a system which is unaccountable will always be objective...
Second, if the procedure followed in these cases was in fact improper, and a conflict of interest did occur in the ad hoc committee, greater accountability could have prevented a wrong tenure decision. Establishing specific criteria for the selection of a candidate-and requiring that the ad hoc committee justify its recommendation in terms of these criteria--would go a long way to ensure consistency in tenure decisions across departments and to reduce the mystery for junior Faculty facing a tenure decision. Such criteria would also be subject to public debate, giving students the ability to affect a process...