{"id":2436,"date":"2008-03-29T10:06:37","date_gmt":"2008-03-29T10:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2008\/03\/29\/the-benefits-of-tenure\/"},"modified":"2008-03-29T10:06:37","modified_gmt":"2008-03-29T10:06:37","slug":"the-benefits-of-tenure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2008\/03\/29\/the-benefits-of-tenure\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits of Tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at Reassigned Time, “Dr. Crazy” offers a remarkably sane post on what tenure means to her<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Ultimately, this is the allure of tenure for me, and it’s what I think is most positive about the way I see tenure working at my institution. This is not to say that the tenure process at some institutions isn’t screwed up, or that even at my own institution that the tenure process plays out this way for all people. Tenure can mean that people check out entirely, or it can mean that people spread their poisonous negativity around because they no longer fear retribution or negative personal consequences. Tenure can mean that a university is filled with dead wood faculty who no longer give a shit about their own professional lives or about the university. Sure, all of that is true. But ultimately I believe in the tenure process because I see tenured colleagues who have not checked out, who are deeply invested not only in their own professional achievements but in our university and the surrounding community, and who do a lot of hard and often invisible work to continue to make our university better. It’s tenured faculty members at my university who’ve fought for partner benefits, who’ve fought for benefits for adjuncts, who’ve fought for greater transparency in the tenure process. It’s tenured faculty who make sure that things other than the bottom line go into administrative decision-making.<\/p>\n

Would faculty have a similar investment if they were all on multiyear contracts that stipulated provisions for “academic freedom”? Maybe, but I kind of doubt it. Would unionization provide the same sort of protections that tenure provides? Perhaps, but a) laws in my state stipulate that the state doesn’t have to negotiate with unions, so that certainly wouldn’t work here and b) it also wouldn’t provide the inspiration that tenure can provide to give back to the institution.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You should, of course, go read the whole thing. It’s always refreshing to hear “the perspective of somebody who’s nearing the end of the process and who doesn’t feel brutalized by it.” Best of luck to her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at Reassigned Time, “Dr. Crazy” offers a remarkably sane post on what tenure means to her: Ultimately, this is the allure of tenure for me, and it’s what I think is most positive about the way I see tenure working at my institution. This is not to say that the tenure process at some… Continue reading The Benefits of Tenure<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}