Tenure

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Tenure commonly refers to academic tenure systems, in which professors (at the university level)—and in some jurisdictions schoolteachers (at primary or secondary school levels)—are granted the right not to be dismissed without cause after an initial probationary period. Tenure systems are usually justified by the claim that they provide academic freedom, by preventing instructors from being dismissed for openly disagreeing with authorities or popular opinion. Such systems may also have an economic rationale, similar to the rationale for senior partner positions in many law and accounting firms, in that employees who cannot be replaced may be more likely to give accurate assessments of more junior colleagues who might otherwise threaten their positions. Another reason tenure exists is that, in the realm of academic and intellectual pursuits, individuals may produce higher quality output when they have job security than when they don't. When they have the job security and autonomy of a tenured position, academics are able to pursue their own topics of interest, which they are usually more passionate about, and produce better results. Without job security, they will generally attempt to measure what pursuits they are "supposed to" follow, and in imitation of those guidelines, produce a lower quality of output.

Academic tenure is associated with university and college systems in North America, where it underpins employment; however, it is increasingly rare in other places. It became politically unpopular worldwide from the 1970s, where opponents charged that it removed incentives for its holders to be productive and unfairly relieves professors of the economic uncertainty felt by other workers. In addition, declining numbers of tenure-track positions in North America, against rising student numbers, have led to an unintended consequence: the emergence of a large scholarly underclass. For example, most US universities now supplement tenured professors with non-tenured adjunct professors, who teach classes on a contract basis for relatively low wages and few benefits. For these and other reasons, tenure was officially restructured in public universities in the United Kingdom by the Thatcher government in the 1980s. It has ceased to be offered in some parts of Australia (but not in New Zealand where tenure is referred to as confirmation) and in most European countries, and it has repeatedly come under attack at state universities in the United States.

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How tenure is awarded

In North America and in most cases, tenure is not given immediately to new professors upon hiring. Instead, open jobs are designated eligible for tenure, or "tenure-track," during the hiring process. Typically, a professor hired in a tenure-eligible position will then work for approximately five years before a formal decision is made on whether tenure will be granted.

The academic department will then vote to recommend the candidate for tenure based on the tenure-eligible professor's record in teaching, research, and service over this initial period. The amount of weight given to each of these areas varies depending on the type of institution the individual works for; for example, research intensive universities value research most highly, while more teaching intensive institutions value teaching and service to the institution more highly. However, tenure is never granted without evidence of excellence in all three areas. The department's recommendation is given to a tenure review committee made up of faculty members or university administrators, which then makes the decision whether to award tenure, and the university president approves or vetoes the decision.

A candidate denied tenure is sometimes considered to have been dismissed, but this is not entirely accurate: employment is often guaranteed for a year after tenure is denied, so that the non-tenured professor can conduct an extended search for new employment. Also, some prestigious universities and departments in the US award tenure so rarely that being denied it is scarcely an insult.

Professors who have earned tenure at one institution are often offered tenure along with any new position (as "senior hires"); otherwise, tenured faculty would rarely leave to join different universities.

Outside the US, a variety of contractual systems operate. Commonly, a less rigorous procedure is used to move staff members from temporary to "permanent" contracts. Permanent contracts, like tenure, may still be broken by employers in certain circumstances: for example if the staff member works in a department earmarked for closure.

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Revocation of tenure

Tenure can only be revoked for cause, normally only following severe misconduct by the professor. In the US, according to the Wall Street Journal (January 10 2005), it is estimated that only 50 to 75 tenured professors (out of about 280,000) lose their tenure each year. Revocation is usually a lengthy and tedious procedure. In Colorado, where the question of what constitutes grounds for dismissal of a tenured professor arose as the result of the controversial comments of Ward Churchill regarding the victims of the 9/11 attack, grounds for dismissal are "professional incompetence, neglect of duty, insubordination, conviction of a felony or any offense involving moral turpitude… or sexual harassment or other conduct which falls below minimum standards of professional integrity."

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Criticism of tenure

Template:Unreferenced There is some debate about the effects and desirability of academic tenure. Not all universities offer tenure.

Some have argued that tenure allows academics who express controversial views, like Ward Churchill, to be unaccountable to taxpayers or employers for comments or positions. Defenders say that this protection from retaliation is a benefit of tenure, as it expands discourse on subjects that otherwise may be too sensitive to address. Opponents state that public funding should be accompanied by some measure of control over content and that the higher educational system should not continue to support those with offensive or objectionable stances. An obvious difficulty in this stance is the question of what should be judged to be objectionable, and by whom. Another point is that such control attacks academic freedom, not just tenure contracts.

Others criticize tenure for allowing professors, once tenured, to be less concerned with performance in all areas, reasoning that their jobs are relatively secure.

Another criticism of tenure is that when legal and just causes do arise to revoke tenure, it is often accompanied by a protracted and expensive legal battle that would not be necessary without the tenure system.

Finally, tenured professors cannot be dismissed if their discipline is no longer viable based on interest from students or research funding grants, unlike some untenured professors who can be laid off. Advocates of tenure say this encourages the continued research in neglected areas, while opponents say that it wastes money on fields that might otherwise shrink or die out.

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See also

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External links

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