Twelve different Ashland University professors were recently granted promotions and tenure by the university’s Board of Trustees, according to an AU press release.

According to the release, all of the promotions will take effect July 1st at the beginning of the next academic year.

Of the twelve professors that were awarded, half of them received tenure, which ensures a professor’s spot as a member of the university faculty.

Several of the newly-tenured professors agree that this status carries with it a great sense of duty and security.

“This is a validation of the work we’ve been doing,” Associate Professor of Education Dr. David Silverberg said of those that have received tenure.

Outside of his educational efforts at AU, Silverberg has published a series of “STEPS” curriculum guides that clarify state and national standards for PreK-12 Math, English Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.

“I’ve always just tried to be the best professor I can be,” Silverberg said of his efforts that led to his tenure reception, stating that he will “continue to be an effective professor and publish on relevant topics.”

Priscilla Roggenkamp of the art department received both tenure and a promotion as associate professor.

“Achieving tenure is an honor,” Roggenkamp said. “I see it as an important marker post on the journey. The journey of serving and sharing, of teaching and learning, and of creating and exploring continues.”

Roggenkamp said that receiving tenure depends on professors fulfilling their expected duties and doing so well.

“In many ways, working toward tenure is truly about doing the kind of interesting academic work one should be doing all the time, whether heading toward tenure or not,” she said. “That work falls into several categories: service to one’s department, college and university, service to one’s field, research in one’s field, and of course teaching.”

Roggenkamp, like other tenured professors, has been very involved with institutional and departmental committees and has shown dedication to her students in the classroom and to her work outside the university, such as a recent stone and metal sculpture project for a local hospital and an art project exhibited in Israel.

Biology professor Dr. Steve Fenster, like Roggenkamp, has also received an associate professor promotion as well as tenure.

Fenster said that he is “very, very pleased” with his promotion, noting that he has done a lot of hard work with his educational and research efforts to get into a position to receive tenure.

“This has reflected that I am qualified, and it is an honor,” he said.

Fenster said that he may pursue riskier projects; risky, he said, in that “they may not pay off but they may develop into interesting projects.”

Fenster is currently researching brain-specific proteins involved in neuronal signaling, namely a protein he discovered called Piccolo. He noted the research will require time and may not yield the kind of positive data needed to be published, but he can now pursue it further with tenure.

Fenster also said that he still has a strong commitment to students and will still offer research opportunities to them.

“I won’t change in helping students achieve their career goals,” he said.

Associate Professor of Educational Foundations Dr. Nate Myers said that receiving tenure does provide job assurance and more freedom, but it won’t change much except enhance his ability to do the things he has wanted to do.

“[Tenure] gives you security to push for things and speak up for things that aren’t necessarily popular,” he said.

Myers noted that it is very hard to gain traction to accomplish what one wants to do as an untenured professor, which includes typically only publishing articles rather than publishing books or publishing nothing at all.

“It unhooks you from the need to publish,” he said.

Myers noted that he will be working on two projects relating to his main areas of study; he will be doing “an autopsy” of the Christian Right movement within politics, as well as a project on studying abroad and teacher education, which will focus on the importance of education majors teaching, not just studying, in other countries.

According to the release, those promoted to the rank of full professor are Dr. Sivakumar Venkataramany, professor of international business, and Stephanie Sikora, professor of music. Gaining promotion to associate professor are Dr. Carla Abreu-Ellis, associate professor of education; Dr. Jason Ellis, associate professor of education; Dr. David FitzSimmons, associate professor of English; Jessica Maloney, associate professor of art; and Dr. Debra Westerfelt, associate professor of business management.

Tenure was also granted to Maloney and Dr. Paul Milton, professor of sport sciences.