Over 20 years ago one of the most outstanding Regents the state has ever had proposed the elimination of tenure. The reasons were sound. But the uproar and backlash of the faculty came close to a lynching and the regent was forced to abandon the project. However, one compromise was reached and that is the Nevada process of “de-tenuring.” This process occurs when a faculty member gets two unsatisfactory evaluations in a row. I know of no professor who has ever been de-tenured and in fact when the process was tried, the professor sued and even though the system had a very strong case, it lost after spending several hundred thousands of dollars.
Tenure is alive and well and flourishing in Nevada.
Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in reality cannot be terminated by the university.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteIn your example it appears the judge in that "de-tenure" case believed that NSHE administrators hadn't proved that the faculty member was incompetent. It also sounds like the judge believed it was important to uphold faculty's protection from abuse by incompetent administrators. If that's the case, the problem isn't tenure, it's a problem with administration.