All working academics aspire towards tenure and the status and job security it brings. It was initially created to enable academic independence and prevent faculty research and opinions from being subject to university administration philosophies and opinions. Yet, some universities have begun to move away from the concept of tenure, calling it outdated and a cause of stagnation among faculty. Instead, they call for multi-year, renewable contracts for faculty members.

What do you think? Is tenure a concept of a bygone age? Should it be done away with, or perhaps modified? Will faculty research independence suffer if this happens?

Thanks for sharing your opinions on this matter.

Here are two intertwined suggestions on how to keep professors "fresh" after tenure. The first is to have a rigorous annual performance evaluation system. At my university, we set goals in teaching, research, and service and then record our progress in meeting these goals. We meet annually with the department chair and the dean uses these reviews for salary decisions. We also have a strong peer teaching evaluation system, so there is some "objective" data to compliment student evaluations. Additionally, if your school is accredited, those accreditation bodies have standards that the professors must meet. For example, in a business school, there is AACSB which sets standards for academically and professionally qualified faculty. While accreditation is every 5 years, we weave the standards into our annual performance reviews. So while tenure may pre-dispose some to non-productive behaviors there are institutional steps which can be put in place which well help.

It is also possible to have a "culture" of high expectations after tenure and promotion. This takes place at the department level, but the school and university need to be supportive as well.

You are correct that tenure can lead to many abusive situations, but I suggest that this is because the university allows it to happen, not because of the tenure system itself. Lazy workers appear in every organization and the degree that they are tolerated depends on the organizational culture.

Breaking away from favoritism is not easy. Unfortunately it takes time to have people in positions such as chair, and/or tenured faculty or a dean who want a more enlightened, developmental system. Often this type of change comes about because there is natural turnover - the enlightened replace the less enlightened. If there are no signs that a department/school/University is changing, then the decision is whether or not one can stand to work in that place. Sadly, voting with one's feet is sometimes the only viable alternative.

The other forces for change are professional societies who recommend best practices and forums like these where collective wisdom can be disseminated and at some point be put into practice.

Additionally, in a job search, one should ask for as much specific information as possible on the performance evaluation system and talk with faculty about it.

Redmond, thanks for the post on tenure. I always thought it was employment for life. What exactly are the circumstances under which a univesity can terminate a tenured professor's employment?

So what might happen if we abolish tenure?

1. Assistant Professors would be forced to write papers with and for Department Heads and Deans under the implicit threat of getting fired at any time...

2. Yes, there are laws to protect people from getting fired for no good reason, however, if we can negotiate a golden handshake and golden hello, then no problem, fire me at will. Unfortunately, academia is not structured like industry, for good reason. Would you send your kid to Microsoft University, GM University, or Google University, where they learn to hate other technologies or philosophies? Everyone else has an agenda or product, universities don't, or at least should not have.

3. Tenure does protect research! Before tenure, my focus was on what would would get me the most publications in the least amount of time. Now, it is on subjects I'm passionate about and I feel are useful to society.

4. It also protects equal opportunity, more than the capricious standards of many industries. If your research and teaching and service meet the standard at your university, you will make tenure. Certainly there are abuses here and there, but industry cannot be seriously compared to equal opportunity at universities.