Message For Sandoval

Here’s a short message for Governor Sandoval.  I believe your approach to higher education is shortsighted, especially considering that you graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno.  Overall cuts of the higher education budget have the strange effect of removing good programs and eliminating young professors who are creative, ambitious and energized.  These young professors who are non-tenured are the first to go as a result of budget cuts. Tenured faculty is the last to go because of the rights that come with tenure.

There are probably few incompetent tenured faculty members.  But the issue for me is not competence.  Rather it is a total lack of motivation to move forward and make changes that are necessary because tenure creates a comfort feeling that is anti-change. 

Governor Sandoval, I therefore urge you to have the tenure rights and obligations examined at the seven higher education systems that have tenure.  By the way the DRI faculty does not have tenure.

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