Tenure is supposed to protect college faculty from termination if their speech or writing disturbs school officials. That protection is getting weaker and weaker. For example, Marquette is trying to get rid of tenured political-science professor John McAdams because of a blog post that criticized an instructor’s handling of a controversy with a student.
I didn't think it depended on anything else!
ReplyDeleteMe neither, Cal. But then again, if collegiality were too big a part of the equation, STEM positions would always be available because few of us have the social skills to even fake collegiality.
ReplyDeleteI'm really torn on this one. On the one hand, I agree with the arguments made in the article (I haven't watched the video), and want to see tenure survive, because tenured faculty are the last faculty left who can speak truth to administrators (whether they do speak truth to administrators, especially in areas not directly related to their own self-interest, is another question).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I'm pretty sure that tenure is in jeopardy not only (perhaps even not mostly) because of political pressure from without, but also because of the combined effects of growth of contingent faculty, and people willing to be contingent faculty (cf. Wombat's post above), growth of the administrative class, and the administrative class's preference for faculty who can serve as handy snap-in pieces in ever-changing "initiatives," rather than equal or even governing partners in the work of educating students. And in all too many cases, tenure-line faculty have directly or indirectly endorsed/allowed the growth of contingent faculty, because the availability of plentiful cheap teachers allows them more time for research, teaching specialized courses, etc., etc.
I'm no fan of the present administration, or the larger political climate that demonizes professors and universities as promoters of liberalism, and I'm glad to see the National Review defending tenure, but I can't help noting that narratives about threats to the university generally and tenure specifically tend to look for outside causes, when the real problem may be a fast-growing cancer within.
One issue with collegiality is that, at least at Batshit U, it is largely by whoever is in charge.
ReplyDeleteMy first boss was a real case of a narcissistic Dunning-Kruger effect silverback; the second was a very competent guy who only took on massive, high risk projects - the riskier the more he liked them. The current one is a kind of Horace Slughorn figure. Each of them had a very different take on what collegiality meant to them.
Life would be a lot easier if I could just teach and research, but there's little hope of that right now.
...largely defined by...
ReplyDeleteMcAdams' creepy behavior makes him no poster child for tenure protection. Contrary to National Review's assertion that this is all about something he wrote, he, by his own admission, multiple times has contacted students otherwise unknown to him at their homes--most recently a student who was in the news for reporting sexual assault. He published the home information of a graduate student, leading to her receiving death and rape threats. Marquette's case against him is not about speech, but about actions.
ReplyDeleteSo often, personnel decisions are about something other than what is actually published. Kate, if you read this, please feel free to share a link to more information. I'm relatively unfamiliar with this particular case. Thanks.
DeleteOf course it shouldn't, since "collegiality" is such an amorphous, ill-defined, ill-bounded concept. If I had to agree with everything every one of my colleagues thought, we wouldn't get much science done.
ReplyDeleteThat said, once one has tenure, maintaining at least some level of collegiality can be helpful. Ever see the 1973 film "Zardoz"? Science fiction is supposed to be "what-if" stories. What if scientists discover or invent something, and how does it affect people, is how much of scifi runs.
In "Zardoz," the what-if is immortality. What if medical science advances to where people never die? The result is people who have been living together for centuries, with the consequence that they ABSOLUTELY CAN'T STAND each other. Tenure can be a lot like that.
(Even at its worst, though, tenure is rarely as jarring as the sight of Sean Connery running around in a loincloth, sporting a long ponytail, thigh-high boots, and ammunition as a fashion statement. If this makes no sense to you, see the film---or don’t, since “Zardoz” was a film that could only have been made in the Seventies, baby.)