My classmates and I would like to know his secret so we can get tenure w/o a review as well. I mean, why waste 6 years writing and teaching after getting our PhDs, when we can just waltz in somewhere and get tenure?
As it seems to fit well in this thread, here is a back and forth I had in a prior thread on Churchill. I'm the one who retired from UIC:
My question is how did a man who has an M.A., but no Ph.D., a) be hired to a professorship at a major public university, and b) rise to be Department Head? I just retired from UIC (U. of IL at Chicago) and I can assure you, we did not interview nor hire in our Department (as with all the Departments throughout the University) anyone who did not have a Ph.D. to a professorship. It is a prerequisite to having a faculty position on campus. There are other rules for lecturers/instructors (only an M.A or M.S. needed), but for tenure track professors, a Ph.D. was a must have.
Reply by someone else:
"One doesn't always need a PhD to be hired or promoted at universities; a "terminal" degree is necessary. This is often a PhD, but can be other degrees."
Reply by me again:
That sure wasn't hiring policy at UIC, and I was intimately involved in the hiring process as I was the Assistant to the Head in our Dept. Whatever you are talking about (a "terminal" degree) doesn't allow for hiring of TT/T faculty at any of the large public universities that I know about, and I interfaced with many other universities when dealing with promotion matters and hiring of faculty. Our policy was and still is that you must be a Ph.D. to be hired in a tenure track/tenured position. Can think of no exceptions on our University campus. (Now back in the olden days that may have been done upon occasion, and a few leftovers from those days probably still teach at professorship level, but you could probably count them on one hand.) Frankly, I think it's an artificial rule. I think there are those out in industry whose vast experience should allow for them to teach at University level, and be given the title of "Adjunct" professor, or some such thing.
As to your comments about the Head not necessarily being the most credentialed or qualified person in the Department, I totally agree with you. Usually it is someone who is somewhat administratively skilled, such as having been a Director of Grad Studies before, or an acting head, or in someway administratively savvy, as it should be. However, think Ward Churchill now, do you think, with his attitude, phony publishing record, anti-authority mentality, and political advocacy, that he was a good Department Head? And once again, I can't imagine giving a Headship to a person without a Ph.D. It just isn't done. Not in normal universities, but then again U. of Colorado is a totally PC university, so anything can probably happen there. Just wouldn't want to send any children to such a university, unless it was for a degree in the hard sciences or medicine, which are less steeped in political activism.