You are probably right tho, that they weren't "tenured".
The professors you are talking about are probably associate or assitant professors, who are either working on their Ph.D-s or have just gotten them.
It takes a lot to be tenured.
I forget what post I posted excerpts from an article about Churchill's background -- he worked as an administrator and suddenly he becomes a tenured professor. He has his BS & MS from a virtually fake university, where the main criteria was that you protest against the Vietnam War -- there were no majors, no grades, etc. Just read through the thread, someone posted a link to that info.