Competition & Tenure

An examination of the tenure concept will reveal that it is a concept that is driven by the marketplace.  That is, Nevada schools grant tenure because all of the other schools across the country grant tenure and Nevada schools cannot compete with other schools without granting tenure.  This is one of those concepts where you ask: “How can tenure be wrong in Nevada when it exists in every other college institution?”  The answer is that it has no place in higher education anywhere in the U.S.

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in reality cannot be terminated by the university.

Tenure (June 28, 2012)

The creation of tenure with all of its faults has had one overriding shortcoming.  That is, without tenure, the entire higher education world would be unable to recruit professors.  If Nevada, with support of its Regents, eliminated tenure in its higher education institutions, Nevada would not be able to compete for the best faculty in the nation unless all other states eliminated tenure and obviously that will never happen.

Even a super star professor at another institution who felt totally secure with his or her academic achievements, and who would have no fear of being terminated, would still be reluctant to come to a Nevada higher education system if it had no tenure.  It is unfortunate that this is a higher education philosophy because it will lead to the further reduction of finances by legislatures and private donors who don’t like “feeding a dead horse.”  

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in reality cannot be terminated by the university.

Tenure/Paranoia

For faculty members with extreme philosophical or political values, there is even greater paranoia.   Even though tenure protects nut cases, incompetent, and no longer productive faculty, which costs the universities hundreds of thousands of dollars to terminate, other faculty members are still not persuaded that tenure should be diminished.  The universities never seem to prevail in litigation between the institution and faculty members who were terminated for cause that involved reasons that you and I would feel were obvious and legitimate to terminate that professor.  The “pro professor bias” created by tenure is for the most part impregnable. 

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in reality cannot be terminated by the university.

Higher Education Tenure

Beliefs and facts are often different and the beliefs usually control the facts.  One example is higher education tenure. 

Faculties really do believe the only protection that academic freedom has is tenure.  In spite of other constitutional protections, faculties think tenure is more protective.   A parallel case would be Title IX.  Despite the fact that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected all people, including women and minorities, from employment discrimination (as well as other forms of discrimination), women were, nevertheless, not treated equally in higher education in numerous ways (employment, acceptance to graduate programs, etc).  It took the very specific language of Title IX--implemented in 1972--to give women equal rights in higher education employment decisions and, most notably, in athletics.  

Faculties see the constitution and other statutory protections as inadequate to assure academic freedom.  Regardless of any and all other protection, faculty members believe that only tenure gives them full protection.  

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in reality cannot be terminated by the university.

Tenure Eliminated?

I am not naïve enough to believe that tenure can in any way be changed and I certainly don’t believe it can be eliminated.  But let me give you my thoughts on how a monster like tenure, which eventually will prevent UNR and UNLV from reaching a competitive status of the other universities in this country, will finally motivate the Nevada legislature and governor to further curtail funding of higher education.  The Republicans have figured out that public higher education is a disaster.  It is inefficient in many respects (tenure is one of the most serious problems) and the only way to eliminate these problems is to close the system down because they can’t be fixed.

The next two weeks Twitters deal with my observations.  

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in reality cannot be terminated by the university.

Analyze The Tenure Policies

I assumed I would catch hell from the faculties at the various higher education institutions in Nevada because of my position on tenure.  My prediction was correct.  The responses however have not changed my opinion that the defects in tenure far exceed the benefits.

If there were not so many laws and regulations that protect academic freedom, I could see the continuation of tenure as long as its shortcomings were repaired.  But given the protection of a multitude of laws to academic freedom when I examine the flaws of tenure, I can’t find a reason to sustain it.

I would urge the Board of Regents to fully examine and analyze the tenure policies of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in all reality cannot be terminated by the university.

Thoughts About Tenure (continued)

If tenure was designed with the expectation that it would allow, or even force faculty to take positions that were sometimes contrary to those of the administration, I haven’t found that to be true.  The fear of retaliation by a superior is just as great today as it was before tenure was adopted.  People who will take a stand on an issue seem to me to be ones that will do so regardless of a support system like tenure.  Those who will not take a position on an issue, and that is by far a majority of academics, remain timid and shy even though tenure supposedly protects them.

My conclusion is that tenure does not have the effect of pushing those who have strong feelings against the administration policies to express those differences.  Rather, the effect of tenure makes it nearly impossible for a higher education institution to remove the incompetent and unproductive faculty who prevent the institution from moving forward.

Remember that tenure creates a lifetime employment contract between the university and the professor which in all reality cannot be terminated by the university.