[Gaffer]

To my experience, an ‘associate professor’ isn’t a tenured position. That isn’t a hard position to get. But I could be wrong.

[Chickensoup]

up here associate is tenured/

[ladyjane]

That may be the case at a community college but at a research university, associate is a tenured position and not attained merely by a number of years at the assistant level.

Penn State is a highly rated research university. Getting tenure there wouldn’t be considered easy.