Most Phi Beta Kappa college graduates were lucky to have college teachers with tenure, but over the last generation, the percentage of college and university teachers eligible for tenure has declined by 50 percent. Does it matter?
Fox News will tell you tenure protects radicals trying to indoctrinate students and urge them to overthrow the government. In truth it’s hard to find any faculty member sending that message. No matter. It’s a good scare tactic. But even the responsible press prefers to tell you tenure protects dead wood, preserves an aging professoriate and costs too much money. Each of these claims can be proved wrong.
Federal statistics tell us that, at four-year colleges, the percentage of full-time faculty members aged 55 or older was 28 percent. How many were 65 or older? Only 7 percent. Universities only spend one-third of their budgets on faculty salaries. Despite many years of education after high school, most people standing in front of a college classroom earn less than $60,000 a year. Many earn much less. It’s not faculty salaries that have grown so much. It’s the number of administrators and their salaries — along with unnecessary building — that is breaking the bank. That’s where your tuition money goes. Why? Because administrators set each other’s salaries and pad their staffs. It would be better if tuition dollars went to support instruction.
As for dead wood? Well, the job market for faculty members has been extraordinarily competitive for 40 years. Colleges have been able to hire outstanding faculty members, people who work hard and stay current in their fields because they love what they do. The dead wood retired years ago.
“So what?” you may say. Your friends don’t have tenure. Why should faculty members? Because tenure guarantees the quality and integrity of higher education — by securing faculty members’ intellectual independence.
College teachers need to be protected from capricious dismissal. If students are to be taught to think rigorously and creatively — which is their best route to success — they need teachers who can be rigorous, creative and courageous as well. Tenure doesn’t guarantee that college teachers are courageous. But it protects those who are.
Teachers not eligible for tenure can be fired tomorrow or when their contracts expire. One complaint from a student, parent or politician is all it may take. Administrators who prefer to avoid controversy just don’t send that teacher a new contract. Maybe the teacher offended a parent or preacher by teaching about evolution. Maybe the teacher expressed sympathy for unpopular religious beliefs. Maybe the teacher asked students whether the college needed that fancy new administration building. A professor needs to be able to voice controversial views and challenge students to question their assumptions and, at the very least, learn to define and defend them. Too many faculty members without tenure do not take the risk. Tenure doesn’t protect bad teachers, but it does mean complaints need to be considered at a formal hearing.
A college must be a place where students and faculty can freely question the beliefs many other citizens take for granted. They must be able to criticize the campus administration and the state and national government without fear of reprisal. Don’t count on this principle of academic freedom being exercised if professors aren’t eligible for tenure.
Tenured faculty are able to work together to plan the curriculum and deliver the best education. Faculty members not eligible for tenure are often not even invited to faculty meetings. They have no way to share their experiences, learn from their colleagues and help each other to be better teachers. Tenured faculty members also have reason to feel strong institutional loyalty and to devote themselves wholeheartedly to their students. The decline of tenure goes hand-in-hand with a decline in the quality of education. Poor teaching conditions produce poor learning conditions.
Your tuition dollars are an investment. If you want it to pay off, make certain your college grants tenure to its faculty. The erosion of tenure means that thousands of faculty members are vulnerable to administrative, political or religious pique and whim. In many countries, college teachers do not have either academic freedom or job security. Education suffers as a result. Americans should expect better.
Cary Nelson is president of the American Association of University Professors. He teaches at the University of Illinois and is the author of No University Is an Island (New York University Press, 2010). This article was published in the winter 2010 issue of The Key Reporter. An earlier version of it also appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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