Doesn’t work like that. Tenure is only offered after you’ve
been on the faculty and have taught for usually three years.
The staff who has tenure in your department makes the decision
to give or not give tenure. In that sense, you have to prove
to them that you are one of them.
Once granted tenure, it is almost impossible to be fired.
Death penalty case.
No, I’m aware of that, and assumed it. She was up for tenure, having presumably been in the department for several years (not necessarily three in every department) and didn’t get it.
Or if she had taught several years elsewhere, it’s possible that she could have been considered sooner. Normally you need to get tenure after six years in one place. When you come into a new department, it’s usually negotiable how many years of teaching in other departments will count toward tenure.
What I said, is that this probably seemed like the end of the line to her when she was turned down and probably saw no other options.
“Doesn’t work like that. Tenure is only offered after you’ve
been on the faculty and have taught for usually three years.”
That’s not the way it works at all. Go back to first grade.
Every school I’ve ever heard of, it’s six years to get tenure. Two 3 year appointments, then it’s either tenure or out the door.
Well, not exactly. Usually after 6 years and he department decision is only the first rung in the ladder. All universities have higher levels passing judgment on it, usually a committee making a recommendation to a dean of one’s college or school within the university, often it then goes higher to an Vice-President Academic or Provost. You can be approved at a lower level and be denied by the top echelon, rarely the other way around.
I am one of those pesky professors :) At the Land Grant University I work at, a new faculty assistant professor (tenure track)is “given” 6 years to make associate professor with tenure. Typically, there is a mid-tenure review @ 3 years where the faculty with tenure will give a thumbs up or down confidence vote. By that time, the writing is on the wall based on grant procurement, the paper/manuscript trail and undergraduate teaching reviews.
Now, the leap from the Associate to Full professor rank is alot trickier to attain. Typically, it will take a minimum of 5 years and onward. Some people never get there.
What does tenure mean to me? It means I have the academic freedom to state the facts based on sound science and not fear any political backlash from stating the facts. Does having tenure mean that I can never be released from my present Full professor ranking? Absolutely not but difficult nontheless. At evaluation time (conducted annually), my Dept Chair will evaluate my tenths responsibility (resident instruction, research and Extension) and determine what I have accomplished. There is a mechanism in place that can be used to report non-performance. Repeated scores of this nature could be used to initiate expulsion. Now, improper behavior (sexual harrassment, theft, academic dishonesty, etc) can certainly be used to build a case for a tenured professor’s immediate dismissal.
I apologize in advance for this long winded response. In my particular department, achieving tenure has never been a problem for the faculty member who works hard to help students, write grants, collaborates will with those in his/her department and others from other departments and who publishes information. Granted, the majority of us (I think)in my department are conservative. That is not the case for the Liberal Arts departments.
My two cents.
MFO