Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site noscvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!noscvax!cunningh From: cunningh@noscvax.UUCP (Robert P. Cunningham) Newsgroups: net.misc,net.college Subject: Re: Proposal to replace academic tenure Message-ID: <632@noscvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 04:46:41 EDT Article-I.D.: noscvax.632 Posted: Mon Sep 24 04:46:41 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 19:17:19 EDT References: <166@inteloc.UUCP> <1244@elsie.UUCP> Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center Lines: 37 Xref: 5811 259 Replacing academic tenure with limited-term contracts might well cost some universities some of their professors who are foreign nationals. Basically, in order to apply for a permanent visa, a non-national in the U.S. must have indefinite or permanent employment. An employment contract with a definite term is, technically, a violation of that condition. Thus, a foreign national offered an employment contract in lieu of tenure would not qualify for a permanent visa, and would have to settle for a temporary "H-1" visa (one year, but renewable). This would probably discourage a considerable number of well-qualified people. Recently, this situation has come up at the University of Hawaii. Besides being an "equal opportunity" employer of faculty, the University has a policy of picking applicants according to their qualifications, regardless of where they are from. The usual practice at UofH is to offer faculty members it hires for possible permanent employment a 10-year tenure track - making them eligible for tenure and permanent status after 5 years (although 10 years is actually nearer the actual time it takes...and after 10 years, if not granted tenure, they are asked to leave). All non-tenured faculty work under successive one-year contracts as temporary hires. At the moment, there are roughly 60 foreign faculty members working on this pre-tenure track. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has recently pointed out that the H-1 visas are only renewable once (or at most twice, under various circumstances), and not - legally - for the 4-5 or more years some faculty members need to stay on the track. Nonetheles, INS has been renewing the visas...but their latest interpretation of the law indicates that they legally cannot any more. Of course, the law could be changed....