RIF (reduction in force) refers to policies used when dismissals of tenured and probationary instructors are necessary because of a change in the size or nature of student population, inadequate finances, discontinuance of instruction areas, or district consolidation. (Author/PG)

Arizona State philosophy professor Morris Starsky continues court battles for reinstatement to his position lost in 1970 when the state board of regents terminated his teaching contract following his involvement in various campus political protests. The author traces events before and since the dismissal. (JT)

Arbitrary decisionmaking by governing boards effects teacher militancy. (Author/PB)

Alternatives to the tenure system include flexible contracts, three-year contracts, a 10-year plan, the ballooning contract, the cyclic system, seven-year evaluations, and the co-op plan. Dialog participants include: Lester Mazor, Jack C. Buckle, W. E. Spellman, Richard Weeks, George Rapp, Vic Doyno, Gus Turbeville, and Arthur C. Gentile. (LBH)

The political influences on three decisions of importance to University of Maryland faculty are examined. They are the dismissal of Edgar Beall, a physics teacher; the rejection of Marxist Bertell Ollman to head the government and politics department; and the rehiring, under threat of a budget cut, of the governor's sister, an English instructor.…

A national survey of liberal arts colleges' institutional policies and practices in evaluating faculty performance and classroom teaching, focusing on the changes in evaluation since 1978, is reported. Factors considered, their frequency of use, and sources of information for evaluation are examined. (MSE)