Bryer Haywood, Contributing Writer
Roman Parham, Contributing Writer
A new faculty tenure policy is now in effect at VCU after being approved by the Board of Visitors in November. Under the new policy, all faculty members must hold a terminal degree, usually a Ph.D or MFA, in order to receive tenure.
Only faculty hired on or after July 1, 2026 will be affected by the terminal degree requirement.
Faculty members were allowed to leave comments on the tenure policy prior to its approval and give feedback. Many faculty members argued that not having a Ph.D. does not make them less qualified to do their jobs.
They noted that in some fields, such as mass communications and math, having hands-on career experience is often more valuable than a Ph.D.
According to former interim provost Beverly Warren, the new tenure policy is intended to position VCU among other top research institutions in the nation such as the University of Virginia, Florida State University and Princeton University. The policy is designed for the “promotion of an engaged, learner-centered environment that fosters inquiry, discovery and innovation in a global setting,” per page 2 of the policy.
Under the new policy, consideration for promotion will follow the same guidelines for both term faculty and non-term faculty — including the terminal degree requirement, which extends to term faculty.
Term faculty are ineligible for tenure, but are still able to be promoted and can receive pay increases with each promotion. The key difference is that term faculty work under year-long contracts, renewing each academic year.
When faculty are considered for tenure, they are evaluated in three areas: scholarship, service and teaching. Faculty members are rated excellent, very good, satisfactory or unsatisfactory in each of those categories.
In order for a faculty member to become tenured, they must be rated excellent in scholarship and at least very good in service and teaching, according to the new policy.
Many faculty members are feeling burnt out trying to keep up with the new policy, according to Mark Wood, associate professor of World Studies and board member of the VCU chapter for the United Campus Workers of Virginia.
“The new guidelines focus primarily on research, causing faculty to devote more time to research and less time to teaching which could make the evaluation process feel unbalanced,” Wood said.
Wood believes policies like the new tenure guidelines cause faculty to become frustrated and quit their jobs, which puts more strain on remaining faculty as the people who quit are not replaced.
Wood added that the new tenure policy sows division between term faculty, who are ineligible for tenure, and faculty who are on the tenure track. The changes to the tenure policy also place higher expectations on faculty, exacerbating burnout.
“Will there be a commensurate increase in overall support along with the raise in expectations?” Wood said.
Wood argued that the gap between administration, faculty members and students should be closed to allow administrators to see the effects of policies like these in real time, and that the struggles of faculty and students are largely invisible to administrators.
“Do administrators even know what it’s like to teach?” Wood asked.