The Future of Tenure?

As a graduate student and aspiring faculty member, I am familiar with the concept of “tenure”. I understand it to be important and it seems to be the “gold standard” for the academic profession. In my understanding it takes a lot of work and number years to achieve but it comes with pay raises, status, and job security. However, after I got to thinking about it, I find I don’t really know where it came from, why we have it and if it will be around in the future. I turned to the internet and found an interesting interview on higherEdJobs.com that answered some of these questions.

Reporter Andrew Hibel for higherEdJobs interviews Gregory Scholtz, Ph.D and director of the Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance for the American Association of University Professors.

According to Scholtz, a problem in the academic community exists as less than 30% of faculty actually have tenure or are in tenure-track positions. The rest of faculty members in his opinion are exploited because they receive reduced pay and benefits which leads them to teach upwards of 6-7 classes a term divided between multiple jobs or universities. Also these professors can be let go on very little notice.

History of Tenure:

According to Scholtz, tenure was created because in the early 1900’s prominent faculty were dismissed by boards and universities because of unpopular opinions the faculty held. Tenure was established in 1940 to allow professors academic freedom to teach without the fear of being dismissed unjustly.

Scholtz does admit that the protection does allow for “tenured deadwood” so coined for professors who do perform at their best. However, he emphasizes that this is not the purpose of tenure and professors who are not adequately performing their jobs can sill be dismissed.

As to the future of tenure, it is of course unknown. However, there is a notable trend of a decrease in the percentage of faculty with tenure. The reason for this is often cited as being financial since “contingent faculty” members are paid less, and can be hired for dismissed much more easily.

My Reflection:

I find that I have mixed feelings about tenure in higher education. Naturally, as an aspiring faculty member the idea of higher pay, the status and freedom to teach are obviously attractive and are apart of the creation of the concept. However, the parts I think I disagree with are the process and enforcement of professional fitness. With the higher pay and benefits, I would think that universities or boards would be more likely to not allow professors to slack off. I would think that would they would want to protect their investments and continually provide decent research and teaching. However, this is often not the case.

With everything going on in the world and America today, it seems that trying times and changes in higher education are still ahead. I would not be surprised if tenure is one of the changes, but hopefully its for the better.