“… Our state legislators need to question why the costs of higher education are rising faster than the rate of medical costs and triple the inflation rate. The state’s budget crisis provides an opportunity to make meaningful change in both the cultural and cost structures of our colleges and universities …” (more)
[Ron Stolle, The Columbus Dispatch, 15 January]
Academic freedom is the right of the faculty member to select one’s materials, methods, pedagogy and points of view in teaching one’s discipline. That is to be empowered with a ‘voice’. Academic freedom is an absolute necessity for a democratic society. It pertains to both teaching (freedom of speech) and research (search for truth). These aspects of the academic life are indispensable for the success of the university. Faculty need to be free of the constraints of censorship and interference in the conduct of their duties by the institution or other agents and agencies in the community.
The very essence of the university, for faculty and for students, is freedom to seek the truth. In fact, one might claim that the university is the only institution in our society that has the privilege of devoting itself to truth, beauty, and rationality. This undertaking is not to be taken lightly. The word university literally means ‘the community of scholars’ and institutions of higher education have been created precisely for these reasons.
Let us begin by considering the issue of academic freedom. The very essence of the institution of higher education, whether it is a university or polytechnical unit, for faculty and for students, is freedom to seek the truth. In fact, one might claim that the academy is the only institution in our society that has the privilege of devoting itself to truth, beauty, and rationality. This is quite a privilege and quite a challenge; and it is not to be taken lightly. The university community has been created precisely for these reasons.
Faculty members, after a probationary period have a property right to their position and cannot be removed barring ‘just cause’. Tenure does not guarantee a post for life. When I was first appointed at UCD in 1981 there was one condition in my contract letter for removal-being guilty of ‘gross moral turpitude’. Irish academics had real tenure in those days. I do not know if new conditions for removal of tenured faculty have been introduced. In North Carolina there are I believe five reasons for justly removing a faculty member with tenure: moral turpitude; negligence; inadequate performance, financial exigency; and mental or physical incapacity. I cannot see how the NUIG Plan can work as it would be a definite ‘breach of contract’ if one side unilaterally creates new conditions without the agreement of the faculty member. Tenure really means that one ‘owns their position’ and the right to return to that position year after year after the probationary period. I strongly suggest that the legal position of tenure in Irish law be investigated as prolegomenon to challenging the NUIG Plan.
When an individual cannot enjoy academic freedom because of real threats to continued employment, advancement or career, the educational function of the institution ceases to be realized. While this is simple to say, its import and power cannot be ignored or diminished. Academic freedom is an enormous issue and it must be protected at all cost. But is tenure important to the protection of academic freedom? The answer, clearly, is Yes. Tenure secures a working community of scholars based on accepted academic values and aims, and it guarantees that a person cannot be dismissed from that community without due process and without consideration based on well established objective academic criteria. As it turns out, the truth is not always popular, especially within circles of power and wealth. Remove the system of tenure and we shall witness a ‘Flight of the Dons’. That would be an unanticipated outcome of the same nonsensical market model the current grey philistines are promoting. I ask that faculty resist these plans that would undermine the current academic freedom and tenure system in Ireland.
Dr Jim McKernan
Professor,
College of Education,
East Carolina University,
Greenville USA 27858
Note: the author was previously the King Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University; Dean and Chair of the Faculty of Education, University of Limerick and College Lecturer in Education, University College Dublin. Email: mckernanj@ecu.edu.
“In the recent NY Times article on ‘Keeping Women in Science on a Tenure Track’, already noted elsewhere in the blogosphere, part of a report (released last fall) by Berkeley researchers is summarized as follows: ‘It recommends .. “stopping the clock” on tenure for women scientists who give birth, perhaps by giving an extra year before making tenure decisions, in effect giving them extra time to do research and publish’ …” (more)
[FemaleScienceProfessor, 7 January]
“A solid majority of tenured law school professors believe that the tenure process is fair, a new national survey has found, but women and minority scholars are far more likely than their counterparts to doubt that that is the case …” (more)
[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 20 December]
“A poll by The Atlantic of a select group of college presidents has found a roughly even split between those who favor continuing tenure and those who question it. Further, a majority said that ‘little would actually change’ at their institutions if tenure disappeared entirely in higher education …” (more)
[Inside Higher Ed, 10 November]
“Biologist Rafael Carazo Salas doesn’t have tenure – nor is he expecting to pursue the tenure-track system any time soon. As a faculty member at a UK institution, he doesn’t have that option – academic tenure per se in the United Kingdom was abolished more than 20 years ago …” (more)
[Karen Kaplan, Nature, 3 November]
“One doesn’t need to go far in the academic press these days to read about the widespread decline in tenure-track faculty lines, which are being replaced at best with renewable-contract positions and at worst with an assortment of often-exploitative strategies to use contingent faculty members …” (more)
[David Evans, Chronicle of Higher Education, 15 October]
“We are soon to have Colin Hunt’s Weltanschauung, the master plan for third level education in Ireland, visited upon us. Luckily, this government has nothing like sufficient political capital to implement its more outre recommendations, like the restatement of its plan for the extirpation of the NUI …” (more)
[Seán Ó Nualláin, University Blog on Academic Tenure, 9 October]
“There’s been a lot of blogging and punditry about tenure in higher education over the last few months, almost all of it on the question of whether or not tenure should be abolished. Most make some variation on the assertion that tenured and tenure-track professorships are to blame for the rising cost of higher education in the US, and therefore should be abolished for that reason as well as others …” (more)
[Clinkman's Blog, 10 September]
“It is generally reckoned that the concept of academic tenure was developed to its most pure state in America. Under United States custom and practice, once an academic employee in a university has been awarded tenure, they cannot be dismissed from their university employment except on certain grounds related to conduct or performance …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 6 September]
“In tough economic times, it’s easy to gin up anger against elites. The bashing of bankers is already so robust that the economist William Easterly has compared it, with perhaps a touch of hyperbole, to genocidal racism. But in recent months, a more unlikely privileged group has found itself in the cross hairs: tenured professors …” (more)
[Christopher Shea, New York Times, 3 September]
“A reader wonders how tenure-track and tenured faculty can interact in a harmonious way with non-tenure track faculty and others who may be in a precarious or otherwise difficult employment situation. I suppose the obvious answer is to be as respectful and sympathetic as possible …” (more)
[FemaleScienceProfessor, 2 September]
“Requests for letters of evaluation for tenure candidates started arriving during the summer. The process typically starts in the late spring or summer, when the dossier is assembled and the letters are requested, with letter due dates in the early fall …” (more)
[FemaleScienceProfessor, 1 September]
“The Statutes of a university constitute its basic law. For example, when the Charter of Elizabeth, dated 3 March 1592, founded Trinity College Dublin as the mother of a University, it afforded the College the power to adopt and amend Statutes to regulate its internal affairs …” (more)
[Eoin O'Dell, Cearta, 3 August]
“An offhand comment in an e-mail from a colleague contained the sentiment that it would be uncool to appear to enjoy the tenure-track and that nowadays it would be ‘suspicious’ if someone made it obvious that they were not suffering before getting tenure. Does anyone agree with that? …” (more)
[FemaleScienceProfessor, 26 August]
“The latest rant against tenure is in Slate.com. I have nothing against such discussions. Tenure, what it means, who gets it, and how it is gotten are important topics to debate and (re)consider from time to time. Any discussion of tenure, however, would benefit from accurate information …” (more)
[FemaleScienceProfessor, 13 August]
“Imagine you ran a restaurant. A very prestigious, exclusive restaurant. To attract top talent, you guarantee all cooks and waiters job security for life. Not only that, because you value honesty and candor, you allow them to say anything they want about you and your cuisine, publicly and without fear of retribution. The only catch is that all cooks or waiters would have to start out as dishwashers or busboys, for at least 10 years, when none of these protections would apply …” (more)
[Christopher Beam, Slate, 11 August]
“A recent New York Times symposium (7/29/10) asked five academics ‘What will happen to American higher education if professors are not guaranteed job security?’. Only Cary Nelson, the president of the AAUP, said that eliminating tenure would be bad …” (more)
[Bruce Heiden, National Association of Scholars, 4 August]
“In an otherwise confused and incomprehensible discussion about academic life in the NY Times, Mark C Taylor made one comment that I actually agree with: ‘Nothing represses the free expression of ideas more than the long and usually fruitless quest for tenure’ …” (more)
[Shahar Ozeri, Perverse Egalitarianism, 1 August]
“The New York Times Room for Debate page hosted a forum last week entitled ‘What If College Tenure Dies?’. As the preamble rightly notes, the question follows from an increasing shift in university personnel away tenure and tenure-track lines and toward adjuncts and lecturers hired on temporary contracts. The numbers are stark …” (more)
[Mark Bauerlein, Minding the Campus, 29 July]
