by Josh Dohmen, UCW Mississippi
Josh Dohmen wrote the following to respond to common misconceptions about tenure.
- What is tenure?
- A faculty member who has been awarded tenure may only be terminated for specific reasons:
- Cause – documented failure to perform a job
For example, behavior that indicates incompetence, neglect, or dishonesty. - Financial exigency – inability of the institution to fund the position
- Cause – documented failure to perform a job
- Tenure is more protected than at-will employment.
- Under at-will employment an employee can be terminated at any time for almost any reason.
- At-will employment is the norm in the United States, but it is exceedingly rare in most developed economies.
- Tenure is similar to union-negotiated contracts in which workers can only be terminated for “just cause.”
- A faculty member who has been awarded tenure may only be terminated for specific reasons:
- Why is tenure valuable?
- Tenure has two main justifications:
- Tenure supports academic freedom by protecting faculty from the political whims of administrations or state governments and enabling them to depart from the status quo of their field.
- For example, a tenured climate scientist can perform research on climate change without fear of losing their job due to pressure from a climate-skeptic governor.
- Similarly, a tenured faculty member can disagree with the decisions of university administrators without fearing for their job.
- Finally, a tenured history professor can present a new, well-researched interpretation of a historical period in class without worrying that they need to toe the line of mainstream historical scholarship. (Importantly, even when proposing new theories, faculty are expected to uphold the standards of their disciplines.)
- Tenure attracts talented and well-qualified faculty to relatively poorly compensated positions.
- A scholar choosing between working at a university or work in the private sector has an incentive to choose the university if they will have more stable employment, even if the pay is lower.
- A scholar choosing between working at a university or work in the private sector has an incentive to choose the university if they will have more stable employment, even if the pay is lower.
- Tenure supports academic freedom by protecting faculty from the political whims of administrations or state governments and enabling them to depart from the status quo of their field.
- Tenure has two main justifications:
- What tenure is NOT
- Tenure is not a guarantee of lifetime employment regardless of job performance.
- Tenured faculty can be terminated for cause or financial challenges at a university.
- Tenure is not a guarantee of lifetime employment regardless of job performance.
From my perspective as a part-time contingent adjunct precarious faculty member, tenure is an economic agreement between management and union to establish a two-tier wage and benefit system that enables administrators and tenured faculty to extract the surplus value of non-tenured labor and divide the spoils.