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This Week's Finds in Planning is the blog of Martin Krieger, Professor of Planning at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

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If you are denied tenure, promotion, or appointment...

Ideally, you have alternatives in your back pocket. You looked at other positions during the past year, applied for the appropriate ones, and perhaps received an offer.

If not, begin looking now. Living well is the best revenge, and usually you are better off going else where and thriving.

Of couse, you might get a second chance, or discover that the process was unfairly done. I would still prefer to have an alternative available.

As for a second chance, it is vital to have a sense of what was defective or missing, in writing preferably, so that you can cure the problem.

As for unfairness: Are similar cases treated similarly? Almost always, "they" can show that the cases are not so similar, but that demonstration may well not be probative.

Were you given warning or guidance in your annual reviews. What did the documents say? Did you follow throught, but still not get what you were presumably promised?

Was the review fair to your work. Did the reviewers have competence to judge it in its own terms, compared to other competitive work? This applies not only to interdisciplinary work (there are always people who can judge it fairly, despite its being between disciplines), but also to work that is not so standard in your department. It's surely ok if some of the reviewers were hostile to your method, but not if most of them are.

Has there been discrimination that is unfair? (Affirmative action has mostly been applied to majority populations, in effect letting weak candidates through.)

Have you done your part? Did your dean or chair screw up the file? Are the external letters from the right sorts of folks?

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