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Your Permanent Record

November 30, 2011, 12:29 pm

By Gene C. Fant Jr.

The following is a slightly tweaked but basically true story: “Bob” had taught as an adjunct for a year at an institution in his hometown, sharing an office with another adjunct, “Rob,” who vaguely resembled him physically. Bob moved on to take a full-time job in another area but had hopes of returning one day to be near his extended family. When a position that matched his expertise came open, he applied for it. Not long afterward, he bumped into a friend from that campus at a conference and mentioned his hope of returning. The friend said, “Actually, I was talking about you the other day with the academic dean, and he mentioned to me that he could not recommend hiring you because of some disciplinary problems he found in your permanent file. Do you know what he’s talking about?”

When Bob began to check into the situation, he found out that some female students had confused him and “Rob” and had filed a grievance for harassment. Apparently, before the grievance could be processed, Rob had resigned but the name confusion in the permanent file had never been corrected. Everyone was apologetic for the error but it was caught only because of a chance conversation and an investigation.

I’ve rarely heard anyone offer this advice but I am a big believer in it: Never leave an institution, no matter your position, without first asking to review your official personnel file. At most institutions, you have a right to not only review it but to rebut any errors in it or even to ask for incorrect data to be deleted. For most folks this would be a rare thing to find, but it would be totally worthwhile, especially if you had any interest in returning to the institution.

Have you ever examined your permanent record at an institution?

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  • jcmiller

    I’m surprised that this type of information was in the Rob’s permanent file.  At our institution, we keep separate files on faculty for these types of complaints and investigations.

  • tdb489

    This incompetence is common for one primary reason.  Universities often hire their own graduates without regard to their major.  They are cheap labor and it increases the the hire rate they can post on their website.  There would be fewer grievances if universities would hire seasoned, Human Resource Mangers with degrees in HRM/Labor Law and/or a J.D.  When you hire cheap, nitwitted, minimum wage workers to fill the Personnel Department you can expect more grievances, lawsuits, more labor law violations and a government invasion from every department from the EEOC to the NLRB. 

    To jcmiller:  Your comment regarding the illegal practice of keeping two separate files may find your institution on the losing end of a very expensive lawsuit.

    If you don’t know, you may demand that your institution purge your file of every piece of irrelevant or unsubstantiated information in your files.

  • professore

    to tdb489: Is there a law in your state jurisdiction which forbids separate files? Several federal statutes require that medical and certain other confidential information must be kept separate from the employee’s primary personnel file. If your state jurisdiction has such a law, there is a potential pre-emption issue.

  • johnbarnes

    Henh.  Those of us who never really heard of or thought about this issue before would love it if the two of you and other people who actually know something would continue to share!

  • 11182967

    The same goes for the file of recommendation letters which many universities will maintain for graduates.  Never apply for a position without knowing what’s in those letters–bad and good–even when there are no egregious errors.  You should be prepared to build on the positive things which have been said and to respond to the negatives.  I never had a major problem, but I did have one letter removed because a dean misidentified my major area of specialization.  Another letter criticized an earlier career move.  I didn’t have that letter removed, but it was useful to know how that topic came up (as it did in an interview) and to be prepared to respond.

    By the way, I always provide a copy to the individual whenever I make a recommendation.  We talk about what I intend to say before the recommendation is written so that the person can choose, if he or she so wishes, to not have me write the letter.  And we may also talk about how to address, in an application or an interview, any less than positive remarks. 

    Regardless of laws, we now live in a world where there is little guaranteed privacy.  Your car’s computer tells how you drive (that’s what that Progressive Insurance gizmo is for) and your Google/Android phone tracks your movements.  The only way to really contend with this situation is to assume you have very little privacy and to demand, in return, that those who invade what privacy you have be willing to share with you what they have collected so that you have an opportunity to know what’s there and to address errors. 

  • coneystew

    Liberal arts colleges are not the only entities to suffer from a remarkable degree of self-absorption. Our students tend to be entirely self-absorbed as well. So how should we respond? Collaboration is certainly one way to meet the challenge, and the collaborative methods suggested are legitimate. However, let us be aware of the need to connect to our students. Our students should also have the opportunity to collaborate, and I suggest that collaborative efforts be made with service learning opportunities. Service learning connects students to their communities, and as population demographics change I believe we need to be aware of an increasing need to connect with the community. Of course I bemoan the apparent loss of respect for the Liberal Arts, which form the foundations of our civilization. What if, one day, no one reads Plato, or Shakespeare, or …. oh, but almost no one does now, right? At least among many of our students. Perhaps that’s presumptious. But we’ll survive: perhaps LA scholars will be hurled into  some far-off corner of the galaxy to discuss the fine points of something or other. But for now, let’s help our students develop strong, constructive critical thinking skills by collaborating with their community resources. Within the university system they can construct problem/solution groups across the disciplines, putting feet to their dreams and making positive changes that will impact their families, their work environments, and their living environments. This may bring about an actual resurgence of interest in the Liberal Arts, as they connect to art, music, literature and those social opportunities that are such a strong aspects of service learning.

  • herter

    Can you provide us with the evidence to back up your statement that there are more unemployed graduates of Wesleyan, Hamilton, Bates, and Bowdoin wandering the streets of Boston and NYC than there are biz admin graduates from Whatever U.?   Opinions are nice, but cold hard facts are nicer.  Surely you have numbers to cite. 

  • http://twitter.com/MaxFiction Ed Desautels

     ”The opportunity problem is that corporate America has decided not to
    train its employees anymore, and has passed that chore off to higher
    education.” Bingo. Yet one more way in which the corporations have figured out how to socialize risk and the cost of doing business. Corps. whine that they can’t find people with the skills to fill their open positions, even while they sit on trillions of dollars that, in part, could go to training their workforce (as was done for years in days gone by when the economy was, you know, _growing_).

  • bobbijean48

    “For as long as liberal-arts colleges have existed, people have been predicting their imminent demise. No segment of American higher education has had more epitaphs written about it than this sector.”  I don’t think higher education can continue with this “Who Moved My Cheese” philosophy of the naive mice in the story.  This “we’ve always survived” mentality will, indeed, probably be the kind of thinking that will mean a serious “thinning of the heard” of higher education institutions.  Colleges and universities have GOT to get with where the new paradigm of higher education is moving.

  • bscmath78

    herter, “Arum and Roksa’s second report illustrates the lack of added value of SAT and High Selectivity college.

    ‘Less Selective’ colleges have the highest full-time employment rate with only a slightly lower full-time employment income than the ‘Highly Selective’ colleges!  $32,419 vs $32,740 so less than a 1% discount on ‘Highly Selective’! 

    This is even more pathetic given all the job finding advantages in networks etc.
    that are described in the report.”

    Have a look at http://chronicle.com/article/Harvard-by-Lottery/131322/#comment-483743415
    among several of my posts in the “Harvard by Lottery” thread.

    The Arum and Roksa report doesn’t say what institutions are part of the survey but there is a consistent pattern showing that it is your major that counts. See the tables in the reports with the various stats that show that high CLA scores are at best worthless but maybe bad for you.  Selectivity and SAT as shown above are bad for you.  Non-vocational majors are bad for  you.  If  you look at the numbers, instead of the commentary in the report or in the CHE, you will see that it is quite damning.

    Another damning study:

    “The 2011 paper by Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger has this shocking finding:

    ‘Indeed, the finding that the average SAT score of the highest ranked school
    that rejected a student is a much stronger predictor of that student’s subsequent earnings than the average SAT score of the school the student actually attended should give pause to those who interpret conventional regression-based estimates of the effect of college characteristics as causal effects of the colleges themselves.’

    Note that it is the average SAT of the highest ranked of the REJECTING schools that ‘is a much stronger predictor’ [>2x] of earnings than the average SAT of the school attended!”

    To see more, including the link to the study:
    http://chronicle.com/article/Harvard-by-Lottery/131322/#comment-483942700

  • danlundquist

    THANK YOU PRES WEISS: “The market is happening to us” is the most realistic acknowledgement yet that the stewardship paradigm has changed, in highered as everywhere. Please LEAD DON’T REACT.

  • danlundquist

    THANK YOU PRES WEISS: “The market is happening to us” is the most realistic acknowledgement that the stewardship paradigm has shifted in highered.  Please LEAD DON’T REACT

  • herter

    You still have not answered the question.   Saying that employers prefer state school grads (liberal arts majors anyone?) is not the same thing as supplying employment data on the specific schools in question, or other liberal arts colleges.   You’re basically saying that all the graduates of liberal arts colleges are unemployed.  That’s patently absurd.  You’re also making gross assumptions that unpaid internships last forever and do not lead to higher wage and more prestigious jobs.  That’s also absurd.  For that matter, not everyone who works for an NGO or non-profit is unpaid.  Adjuncting also has nothing to do with the the employment prospects of graduates of liberal arts colleges.  

    As for Wesleyan’s ranking, yes, #45 is damn good given that there are thousands of colleges in the US.  Even more important, if you go to Wes you come out with far more than the ability to get a job. 

    For the record, I went to a state school.  Even with that education I still got the joke in the blog, but I don’t think you did.

  • bscmath78

    herter, well, since I answered several posts ago, “herter, you are right that I didn’t answer your particular question, I answered with data I was aware of that seemed related to your question. 

    Often with such studies the participants are hidden . . .”

    I am surprised at your expectations.

    You wrote most recently, “You still have not answered the question,” yes, that is true, I didn’t claim otherwise.  I am just providing the data I am aware of that relates to the question and that is at least suggestive of some issues.

    You also wrote, “You’re basically saying that all the graduates of liberal arts colleges are unemployed.  That’s patently absurd.”  No, that is not true, I referenced the work of others and in the case of the WSJ I made reference to the results of their survey of the ranks by corporate recruiters, to support the view that some employers have such preferences and their reasons.  I also indicated some of the problems with obtaining full and complete and non-misleading employment data (an issue that comes up with law schools).  

    You wrote, “Adjuncting also has nothing to do with the the employment prospects of graduates of liberal arts colleges.”  I have seen repeated references in the CHE to the plight of adjuncts, especially Humanities adjuncts.  Of course, they have graduate degrees but they had to get an undergrad degree somewhere. There is also the repeated claim that undergrads who fail to find meaningful employment consider going to grad or professional school.

    I was more impressed by the Colorado School of Mines at #20.

    If you have certified and audited “gainful employment” data for each of the colleges you referenced then please post the URL. As I read in articles in the CHE the accuracy of employment information is much questioned, especially for law schools. I got the impression that a judge dismissed a lawsuit because it was unreasonable to rely on data provided by a law school.

  • bscmath78

    herter, I wrote in my original post, “Arum and Roksa’s second report illustrates the lack of added value of SAT and High Selectivity college.

    ‘Less Selective’ colleges have the highest full-time employment rate
    with only a slightly lower full-time employment income than the ‘Highly
    Selective’ colleges!  $32,419 vs $32,740 so less than a 1% discount on
    ‘Highly Selective’!”

    Yet somehow, you wrote, “You’re basically saying that all the graduates of
    liberal arts colleges are unemployed.  That’s patently absurd.” This seems a very peculiar claim, clearly refuted.

    As I noted in a subsequent post, the colleges involved in the Arum and Roska were not revealed (or at least not known to me, plus the data is based on their small sample of students).  There often seems a strategy to hide what institutions are involved in such studies or even if some are listed (see my earlier post on the 2011 paper by Stacy Dale and Alan Krueger), the specific results by college are not revealed.

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