Posted on 06/18/2015 1:29:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
Scott Walker has formed a Testing the Waters Committee, which I assume has something to do with Marco Rubio’s response to the State of the Union in 2013. (Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.) The new committee will provide him with an additional conduit to raise funds between now and when he announces his presidential bid in July. But at the same time, he’s making some other moves, particularly in the area of tenure for professors at public colleges and universities.
As Republican Gov. Scott Walker prepares to campaign for president as the man who tamed Wisconsin’s unions, he’s taking on a new labor fight: weakening tenure protections for professors at public colleges and universities.
Walker insists that by allowing the University of Wisconsin system Board of Regents, 16 of whose 18 members are appointed by the governor, to set tenure policies instead of having tenure protections spelled out in state law will help give the state university system more flexibility and financial leverage.
His effort could endear him to conservatives who are scornful of what they view as higher education’s ivory tower — a perception Walker has encouraged by suggesting that “maybe it’s time for faculty and staff to think about teaching more classes and doing more work” — but it has infuriated academics and others who consider tenure a vital protection of academic freedom.
Note that Walker isn’t proposing some sort of blanket ban on tenure. That’s probably a smart play, since such an unconditional declaration of war would be yet another bruising battle to engage in just as he’s getting ready to launch a national campaign. Instead of that, he’s proposing that tenure policy be set by the Board of Regents. The effect would probably not, in all likelihood, be the same as some sort of complete ban on tenure, but it could institute some long overdue reviews and corrections.
This will likely reignite the long simmering fight over the tenure system in general. The ivory tower elite will continue to insist that tenure serves the dual purpose of protecting educators from baseless accusations while ensuring that they are not beholden to the shifting tides of political opinion. As I’ve said in the past, the sad part of all this is that those would actually be fairly persuasive arguments in a perfect world. Students may behave maliciously and irresponsibly at times and could bring false accusations against an instructor. And inside of a state run system such as the colleges, it would be nice to think that teachers were all enlightened and pure of motive. Much like judges, it’s not difficult to imagine situations where elected officials put their thumbs on the scale in terms of appointments and hiring.
And yet, tenure turned out to be such a powerful and easily abused weapon that its downside eventually swamped whatever good it hoped to accomplish. The incompetent or even abusive were shielded along with the diligent workers. And rather than providing a nonpartisan safe space for academics, our universities largely turned into liberal or even socialist enclaves where no dissenting opinions would be allowed. The tenure system was simply a tool to cement that structure in place over generations.
Of course, Walker is being accused of doing this as some sort of “stunt” to burnish his conservative credentials as he moves into the primary race. But does anyone think those credentials really needed any polishing when it comes to conservative doctrine regarding unions and universities? Sounds precisely in character to me.
Good for him. Tenure in our colleges is one of the malignancies eating away at our country.....
Oh crikes $18 trillion in debt, 92 million out of work and he’s worried about 996 Wisconsin college professors who have managed after years of publishing etc etc to finally get tenure. That’s 996 out of 3470 teaching faculty in WI so less than 30%. Its a non issue. I can hear the MSM now “college drop out attacks the university system” Way to open yourself up for flak Scotty.
Ted Cruz is the sizzle. Walker is the Steak.
This is such a good, conservative issue. Universities have turned into liberal, money-sucking cancers and Walker is moving to get them in line. Cut budgets, make they get rid of useless or liberal advocacy classes, and make it easier to get rid of liberal nutcase professors. Its all good.
Do they teach?
I thought they just had a student teach the course while they pontificate.
This is a good move on Walker’s part. The left has taken over academia, the media, and the entertainment industry. That is why half the country is ignorant and depraved. The left have to be dislodged from these institutions, and one has to start somewhere.
The left has been killing us incrementally for decades and you’re criticizing Walker for attempting to rid us of tenure in academia? We need to stop the indoctrination by our universities and ending tenure is a great place to start.
Walker should be applauded.
Doing away with tenure's a good way to protect free speech AND improve the quality of education... a twofer.
Tenure's allowed the Grubers of Academia to turn 'teaching the young' into teaachless sinecures for the lazy and corrupt. Good for Walker.
It’s about time we started reeling in these Humbert Humberts.
All tenure should be a abolished. The universities have turned into bastions of far left extremism, where any form of conservative opinion is SMOTHERED/CRUSHED And conservative e speakers are regularly banned from eve speaking at these institutions. We should be actively waging a war against tenure and these Stalinist academics.
Let’s propose:
1. Top 10% Teachers will keep tenure
2. Top 50% (50-90%) will get partial tenure. If they do a good job then they can work for the next two years
3. Top 26-49% will get no tenure. They might get to work next year.
4, Bottom 25% will be replaced with conservatives that can teach about real WORLD experiences. They may not stay long enough to get tenure.
Real competiton and results.
Humbert Humberts? Sorry, but I never heard that phrase
Oh crikes $18 trillion in debt, 92 million out of work and he’s worried about 996 Wisconsin college professors who have managed after years of publishing etc etc to finally get tenure. That’s 996 out of 3470 teaching faculty in WI so less than 30%. Its a non issue. I can hear the MSM now “college drop out attacks the university system” Way to open yourself up for flak Scotty.
Sounds like someone has a dog in the fight?
<>Its a non issue.<>
You sure are touchy about something that is a non issue.
Well, Walker does need to undermine Universities some more, given he did not get a degree and had a 2.59 grade point average.(C+)
Contrast graduating cum laude and magna cum laude from Princeton and Harvard Law School.
I’ve heard of a movie many years ago that was called “Lolita” but never seen it, because it simply did not interest me
Humbert Humbert was a college professor who married Charlotte Haze to get a crack at her "nymphet" daughter Lolita. It ends badly for everybody.
i have been in the workforce for over 40 years..
my so called “tenure” is my performance...
why should this be any different at the college level?
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