Tenure -- Literature Review
Academic tenure is a system that many universities and colleges use to protect a senior academic's contractual right to a lifetime job unless terminated for just cause. It is typically reserved for academics who have made Assistant or Full Professor, and requires following a strict hierarchical rubric that demonstrates a strong record of published research, teaching, and administrative services. Most institutions allow for a certain period of time to establish this record; although there are a number of non-tenure track positions still available within the university system (Adjust Professor, Lecturer, Research Professor, etc.) (Amacher, 2004). The idea of academic tenure, at least in the United States, is primarily intended to guarantee the right to academic freedom, in that it protects the academic when they publish or dissent from prevailing or common opinion, or spend time and research on topics that may be politically unfashionable or controversial. With tenure (e.g. job security), the academic knows that they can peruse any line of inquiry that interests them and as long as their research is robust and publications peer reviewed, can safely exhibit academic freedom. Additional, with tenure, a professor cannot be pressured by the administration or others to mitigate grades or curriculum simply to satisfy certain student enrollment objectives or pressure from alumni (Chait, 2002)
In the early 19th century, university professors had no employement rights, serving largely at the whim and pleasure of the university's Board of Trustees. They were expected to hold certain political and academic ideas, and most certainly to create an atmosphere in which sons from wealthy alumni were able to succeed academically. It was a 1903 case from the University of Texas, in which Professor G.B. Halsted was dismissed after 19 years of service that accelerated the adoption of academic tenure (DeGeorge, 1997). Halsted was a supreme intellectual, some say a mathematical genius with degrees from Princeton and Johns Hopkins. He began teaching at the University of Texas at Austin in 1884, explored the foundations of geometry and advanced mathemtics. However, in 1903 he was fired after publishing several articles critical of the university for hiring a candidate less than qualified as his assistant....
Term effectiveness of a vast sense, there are no standards of the continent to measure the effectiveness of institutions, and has raised the effectiveness of the community colleges and led to the emergence of several different views including: the pattern of managerial leadership that determines the effectiveness of the educational institution, and the quality of leadership Education adopted by the senior management of educational institutions of great importance to
Indeed, regardless of how the discussion is framed, this power struggle between administrators and educators remains a constant and relevant force. Still, some research comes to support this idea that tenure helps to promote inequality across certain lines. For instance, Evans et al. (2008) remark on the gender and race lines that permeate the educational hierarchy. According to Evans et al., "sixteen percent of faculty in undergraduate and graduate
http://chronicle.com Similar to ERIC, the Chronicle of Higher Education website provides links to many articles and studies concerning tenure and post-tenure review on both sides of the issue. The vast majority of these articles were produced by the Chronicle itself, for its print and online subscribers. Given that most of the subscribers to the Chronicle are almost certainly employed in the realm of higher education, the balanced views presented by the
If both parties agree, another alternative dispute resolution method may be used. Specific reasons must be in writing for any decision to terminate the tenured faculty member. The post-tenure review process is mandatory when an administrator is faced with deciding whether to terminate a tenured faculty member with allegations of dating an 18-year-old student and receiving evidence of phone records and witness documentation of the faculty member being seen with
Tenure and Higher Education Does Tenure Work in Education or is it Outdated? My position is that Tenure still works. The topic tenure has formed much intense discussion in current years. There is an argument by few that tenure is an outdated idea and concept, and, therefore, if institutions remain competitive, then for this purpose they actually need to be more expert as well as flexible to appoint and dismiss the teaching
" Secondly, an "established custom within academe" would make it possible, together with the "expectations" would then facilitate the relationship between the faculty and its employees. The most surprising insight about tenure is that it is a relatively "late arrival to the American system," as noted by Altbach et al. (2001, p. 12). It was formally implemented only in 1940. The system in the United Sates therefore accounts for only 60
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