Posted on 08/17/2015 9:50:34 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
He may not be getting as much attention as The Donald but Governor Scott Walker’s higher education reforms in Wisconsin are having a real world impact there. “Who wants to work in a state where tenure is an abstraction?,” Kelly Wilz, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County, writes in a column which appeared on the Academe Blog maintained by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
Apparently, not many of her colleagues, even the tenured ones. “The emails keep rolling in,” Wilz writes. “More colleagues leaving–not for better pay, not because they didn’t love their jobs, but because of uncertainty.”
Governor Walker urged state university administrators to take a fresh look at tenure in making administrative decisions. Interestingly, from neighboring Illinois, two law professors from Northwestern offered a surprisingly different perspective on tenure in a column which appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
“All the pressures facing American higher education make this a good time to reconsider its unusual employment structure,” John O. McGinnis and Max Schanzenbach wrote. “False claims about academic freedom are not going to protect higher education from the realities of technological change, an aging professoriate, and an increasingly demanding and indebted student body.”
“Mr. Walker is doing the educational establishment a favor by suggesting gradual reforms before a crisis necessitates more radical ones.”
“where tenure is an abstraction”
Abstraction? That’s the best word this guy cold come up with?
I face uncertainty every day of my life.
GREAT! Lets get a bunch of Consultant Adjuncts to teach who actually help the kids get REAL skills!
I will say this: without tenure, I think my liberal colleagues would have purged me a long time ago. So tenure, in my instance (and that of many other conservative profs) has been a firewall to enable us to argue against the liberal system.
This is great news. We have too many leftie, lazy professors in this state.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Not surprised Yet this opens positions for up-and-comers who want to teach and research at a major U and have the confidence to be employed and compensated upon performance
If the cowards leaving had any confidence, they’d stay and earn based on merit
But liberalism isn’t about merit....in any form.
It's not like the country has a glut of un(der)employed post-grads.
SARC tag withheld to confuse the trolls.
“Who wants........where tenure is an abstraction”
You mean where your job isn’t guaranteed?
The poor abused little academics don’t like having to compete for a living. Cry me a river.
” ... without tenure, I think my liberal colleagues would have purged me a long time ago.”
As would university administrators if you ever spoke up at a meeting and voiced opposition to, or even concern about, some harebrained policy they were proposing.
"Kelly Wilz, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County"
Kelly is teaching at the lowest, podunk level of the UW System. No one cares if Kelly leaves.
Further, Walker's actions don't revoke tenure. His actions move tenure control from the legislature to the UW Board of Regents. This is a fake issue.
Phenomenological, ontological abstraction.
Kelly Wilz
Position ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Position type PROB.
Position salary $45,492.00
Pay basis Academic year
Campus UW COLLEGES
Division UW-MARSHFIELD/WOOD COUNTY
Department COMM & THEATRE ARTS
Unit COMMUNICATION & THEATRE ARTS
Classification Unclassified
Leave status
Funding source General Purpose Revenue
Fund GPO - Colleges
Funding use Instruction
How many of them would ever, under any circumstances, vote for Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, or Donald Trump?
How many of them voted for Barry Hussein? Kerry? Gore? Clinton? Dukakis? Mondale? Carter?
Er, actually I did and they never invited me to speak again. I told them that the first “reform” we needed to make on campus was that ALL administrators should publish at least one article a year; that the number of administrators should be cut by 33%; and that every administrator should teach at least one class.
“Who wants to work in a state where tenure is an abstraction?”
Answer: professors who know they are good, and therefore don’t have to rely on a political job guarantee to feel confident in their skills and marketability.
new blood is needed.......hire people who are enthusiastic about teaching and thankful for the opportunity to do so....
Ah, yes. University tenure. It's just like a union job; same lack of motivation to excel at one's job.
I also have a friend who was denied tenure the year after the students voted him "professor of the year". (He didn't publish enough.)
“if I ever get to the point where I know what I am doing, I’m in trouble “ bert
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