Does Tenure Protect Academic Freedom — Or Academic Mediocrity?

[Kamaji]

Does Tenure Protect Academic Freedom — Or Academic Mediocrity?

Academic freedom has become a red herring to argue for the need for tenure. Here is why tenure is not serving the public good.

BY: JIM WETHERBE
MAY 05, 2023

Many states are considering legislation to end tenure. Texas is taking the lead on the issue, with Senate Bill 18, which has quickly become politicized. Both liberal and conservative faculty claim tenure is needed for protection from political agendas — academic freedom is at stake. A comparable critique of SB 18, by Adam Kolasinski, argues that Texas and other states’ “bills that weaken or abolish tenure protection … if passed, would undermine all reform efforts,” because then “woke administrators will purge them [conservatives] in short order.”

To be sure, academic freedom is crucial to the professorial responsibility to advance and disseminate knowledge. But tenure is not synonymous with academic freedom, as many in academia claim.

The First Amendment by law protects academic freedom at public universities regardless of tenured status. And I have proven it.

Having been a critic of tenure for more than 50 years and resigning it each time it was awarded, I have collected these frequently asked questions about tenure and reasons why it is not serving the public good.

How Did Tenure Come into Existence in the First Place?
Tenure was originally created at private religious universities, which were most prevalent in early America. Its purpose was to protect professors’ jobs from wealthy donors who might object to teachers of theologically controversial subjects (e.g., evolution).

Decades later, tenure has morphed into a guaranteed job for life at public universities. Though the First Amendment doesn’t protect faculty at private schools, it does at public institutions.

What’s Wrong with Tenure?
If you want insight into the problem with tenure, simply ask college students if they have experienced professors who were unsatisfactory teachers. I regularly ask students in my classes that question — the response is sadly almost always unanimous: yes. No wonder a study done at Northwestern University found that non-tenured, adjunct faculty get higher teacher evaluations than much higher-paid tenured faculty.

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Source:  https://thefederalist.com/2023/05/05/does-tenure-protect-academic-freedom-or-academic-mediocrity/

[The_Reader_David]

Both.  The same way freedom of speech protects the expression of both noble and base sentiments, and it must protect both if it is to work for its intended purpose. 

Mind you I am writing about faculty at research universities, where tenure is most important.  Once you let administrators (who, BTW I would remind Briefers are on average to the left of university faculty as a whole, and to well to the left of faculty in any departments with names not of the form [Affirmative-action-beneficiary-group] Studies) fire "mediocre" faculty they will come up with excuses to fire exactly the faculty members Briefers would want to see kept at the university.  ("I'm sorry, even though you're a Nobel Lauriate, your DEI statement saying you treat everyone equally without regard to race is simply inadequate, and in fact, racist, you will be let go at the end of this academic year...") Even without politicization, the management mentality of typical administrators would judge as "mediocre" a faculty member engaged in a long, high-risk research project (say finding the unified field theory) for not publishing enough little research articles.