Yale Adopts 'Up or Out' Tenure Policy For Faculty; Similar to Harvard's Plan

Like Harvard, Yale will henceforth govern all faculty promotions by a hard and fast "up or out" policy, President Charles Seymour has announced in his annual report.

"The essential purpose of this policy is to provide security of tenure for successful teachers as early as possible. . . . The composition of the department would thus be kept in a more flexible form. . . ," the Yale President said in inaugurating the new tenure system.

Nine-Year Maximum

Yale teachers can now spend a maximum of nine years on non-permanent tenure: four years as an instructor, and five years as an assistant professor.

At the end of their terms as assistant professors, only these men will be promoted to associate professorships for whom a vacancy at the full professor level is certain to appear; the others will be given their walking papers.

There will be no "frozen" associate professors (men with permanency but no chance of further promotion) at Yale except in "exceptional cases," President Seymour announced.

The new Eli hiring and firing rules, designed in part to ease the budgetary strain by eliminating deadwood at the assistant professor level, correspond almost exactly to Harvard's recently adopted system.

At Yale Faculty members can stay nine years on non-permanent appointments, as opposed to eight at Harvard. At the end of that period they are kicked upstairs or shipped off to the minor leagues.

Moreover, a Yale teacher spends four years as an instructor, and five as an assistant professor; Harvard has eliminated the latter post and substituted a five-year position of Faculty instructor.