Two plus, Mr. Beall…. Two plus. *smile* I’ll not speak directly to the union’s role in this, as I am not sure they like me any more than the DW. On the other hand, as least the union does not hide behind the mask of Kowardice *smile*
As I indicated, there are additional professional obligations beyond beyond the two peer reviewed, bona fide articles in legitimate journals. I am not sure what you would establish as a threshold for peer reviewed articles across disciplines, but the one we have is currently two in category A.1.a., “plus” additional professional works. And surely you will acknowledge that getting properly published in some fields is more difficult than in others. Two represents our university’s minima, and departments may require more than two.
I personally am not convinced it is problematic to ask new PhD’s hired into regional Masters level universities to establish themselves within five years by publishing a least two peer reviewed articles (I had more) plus a lot of other professional works, after being hired, is necessarily problematic. I will admit it is minimalist. I know some other Masters level universities set the standard at three plus additional works, rather than two. On the other hand, I am actually wishing to challenge your assertion that gaining tenure at WIU “actually involves very little published research on the part of the candidate.” Yours is a very generalist assertion suggesting the university as a whole has no standards. Yours is an overgeneralization based on an anonymous assertion that we have little to no standards. We do have standards – “two plus,” not “two,” as you now suggest. While we might debate whether tenure should require 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or more legitimate publications in category A.1.a. within the first 5 years of a career, that was not the context of the original post. You simply suggested someone unknown to you led you to believe WIU has no standards. I suggest you were misled.
