At its meeting of May 15, 2006, the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) unanimously endorsed a resolution proposed by Jack Bernard, Chair of the Council for Disability Concerns.  The resolution, which will be submitted to the Senate Assembly at its September 2006 meeting for endorsement and implementation, suggests that faculty consider the inclusion in their course syllabi of the following model statement which might be helpful to students with disabilities:

If you think you need an accommodation for a disability, please let me know at your earliest convenience.  Some aspects of this course, the assignments, the in-class activities, and the way I teach may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress.  As soon as you make me aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to help us determine appropriate accommodations.  SSD (734-763-3000; http://www.umich.edu/~sswd) typically, recommends accommodations through a Verified Individualized Services and Accommodations (VISA) form.   I will treat any information you provide as private and confidential.

At its meeting of May 22, 2006, SACUA unanimously endorsed a report entitled "Assessing the Necessity of Extending the Maximum Probationary Period" by J. Lee and C. Smith (http://www.umich.edu/~sacua/SenAssb/TR06.pdf).  SACUA commissioned this study of the probationary period as it currently exists when the Provost's Committee to Consider a More Flexible Tenure Probation Period in June, 2005, recommended that the maximum probationary period defined by Regents' Bylaw 5.09 be extended from eight to ten years.  The SACUA study was based on personnel data provided by Thomas Palmer, Senior Business Analyst in the Human Resources and Affirmative Action Office.  Marilyn Knepp, Associate Vice President for University Budget, Planning, and Administration, and Jeffery Frumkin, Assistant Provost and Senior Director of Academic Human Resources, helped with the interpretation of the data and made certain that the results were represented accurately.  Lori Pierce, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, framed issues that needed to be addressed in the study and provided access to people and resources needed to carry out the study.  Some of the findings of the study are:

Of 2828 faculty members who were hired into tenure-track positions at the University of Michigan between 1990 and 2005, only 3 remained in an untenured position for more than 8 years on the tenure clock.

When including those hired with tenure, women were consistently granted tenure as a percent of their gender at the same rate (~60%) as men.

For both men and women, the total amount of time between the date of being hired and the date of receiving tenure is essentially the same (in most units fewer than six years).

The present study indicates that the temporal parameters designated in the Bylaws of the Regents of the University of Michigan for the tenure probationary period are appropriate and that adequate measures currently exist for providing flexibility in the tenure-granting process.