Tenure recommendations for four appellant professors will not be made until after Dec. 10, Dr. Norval Pohl said Tuesday.

NT's president is waiting on audiotapes of the professors' appeal hearings to be transcribed for his review. The university tenure committee requested a response from Pohl by this month. "It will take quite a while," he said.

Dr. Don Smith, biology professor and president of NT's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the appellant professors' teaching contracts should be extended due to Pohl's delay in announcing his recommendations.

"There's an old saying -- 'justice delayed is justice denied'," Smith said. "This delay has been devastating to faculty members because they have to look for jobs. It is most inhumane of the university to not take that into consideration."

Dr. Jacqueline Lambiase, Dr. Mark Mortensen, Dr. Edward Lopez and Dr. Daniel Peak appealed to the tenure committee after Provost Howard Johnson denied their applications for tenure and promotion last April. So far the tenure committee has ruled in favor of three appellants -- Peak has not received a recommendation from the committee yet.

If Pohl rules in favor of the appellant professors, each case will be referred to the NT Board of Regents for a final vote. If the regents find that these professors should not be granted tenure, they will be forced to leave NT. Each professor's teaching contract ends in May 2005.

Pohl has given no indication that he will extend the professors' contracts.

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