Why some faculty have teaching reduction in the last semester or two before being tenured? It is understandable that new faculty members have reduced teaching load, but why some others have reduced teaching load just before filling for tenure? Isn't that late to do any progress?
As I understand it, the point of such reduced teaching loads is to allow for more time for writing papers and research proposals, as well as preparing any "package" required as part of the tenure application. Ideally, such a reduction would be done a little bit preceding the last semester before submitting the tenure application, so that the papers and proposals can be reviewed and published (or accepted, as the case may be) before submitting the application.