Posted on 12/21/2015 10:11:51 AM PST by Academiadotorg
At year's end, we thought, looking over copy for 2015, that we could get a snapshot of how tenure works in academe.
Ultimately, we came up with 14 arguments for tenure and thirteen against but that ratio is deceptive. The 14 pro-tenure arguments consist of individuals and the anti-tenure arguments include three associations (including the 26,000-member Modern Language Association, which we know all too well.)
Moreover, our pro-tenure arguments include two conservative scholars who found it to be no protection at all--one got fired, one is currently being harassed out of his job--as well as at least two others who work at institutions of higher learning which do not have tenure.
For example, here are the top three arguments for tenure, sort of:
1. Peter Navarro of the University of California at Irvine for actually documenting that Communist China is a threat.
2. David A. Prentice of Catholic University for unravelling the myths of embryonic stem cell research.
3. Jonathan Marks of Ursinus College for showing us the clay feet of two academic icons--Woodrow Wilson and W. E. B. Dubois.
Here are the arguments against tenure, definitively:
1. The aforementioned Modern Language Association
2. The American Studies Association and
3. The National Women's Studies Association.
A more complete listing appears in our January newsletter. One could argue that those whose careers make the best argument for tenure would have lived lives of academic accomplishment without it. But would the arguments against tenure have had any careers at all?
I think without tenure I probably would have been out of my post years ago.
Tenure?
To really understand it simply look back 50 years and compare our society today to then.
College entry was set at a very high bar and today it does not matter much how intelligent you are, just what color, religion, creed or any other special characteristics you may have that diversifies the student body. As a matter of fact a professor of today can spew any type of liberal verbal vomit at any subject they desire without fear of reprisal from management. Look how that has worked out.
In a free society tenure simply does not exist. In a collective or socialist society it is the glue that holds it together.
We live in an era that used to have free speech and you had to verbally defend what you spewed forth. In a closed society you simply spew verbal vomit and do not have to actually justify any of it.
Consequently, our society has deteriorated at an alarming rate over the past 50 years.
If you wish to go to a college that shares your points of view, beliefs, goals or ideas...go to one that does. Don’t expect to provide a professor with protection so that they can teach anything that comes to their sick minds.
+1
Liberals created tenure because they knew their crap wouldn’t be accepted otherwise.
Tenure for STEM disciplines only.
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