The USG BoR recently made changes viewed by some as an existential threat to tenure of professors in Georgia's public colleges and universities. Of course, "some" means "tenured professors" as the change improves the ability of administrators to improve the faculty without necessarily taking a knew before the faculty itself. It isn't a big change, but it is one moving a modicum of control to administrators where folks in the real world, subjected to annual performance reviews, might have thought it already rested.
Not so.
Now J Tom Morgan, a well respected legal beagle in DeKalb and now an adjunct at Western Carolina has weighed in suggesting these changes will cripple recruiting the best and brightest to our public universities. It isn't clear if he has all the facts. It isn't clear anyone does because those in control, tenured faculty, have no interest in opening their kimono and those directly impacted by the process, tenure-track faculty will self-censure. Because the tenure process lies somewhere between immoral hazing and employment sadism.
However, if you are or are very close to tenure-track Assistant Professors (AKA pre-tenure) you might be exposed to a different reality, but there is a mountain of misinformation, from "authoritative sources," to get past.
Is tenure tough to get? Sure is, but not for reasons you've been spoon fed. First even getting a tenure-track position is very, very difficult as academia pumps out several hundred potential candidates each year for open positions, which don't open up very often, because, well, tenure.
Pre-tenure, tenure track faculty face are under attach from almost every side. Student evaluations play an outsized role in acquiring tenure. Why? Because tenured profs and admin are not going to do the time consuming, often difficult work of actually evaluating the teaching chops of the junior faculty, which is exactly the way it should be done. If you believe, like JTM, that these tenured professors are truly the pros from Dover. But they're too busy with their research. Oops, another secret leak. All the top profs are doing research, and once tenured aren't doing so much teaching and never the service courses (think Calc 1). And with tenure comes added responsibility, and power, and without it comes self-censorship. Even if you see a problem with a clear solution you'll not raise the issue if you don't have tenure for fear you'll never get tenure. You'll toe the party line established by your "betters." They feel, rightly, powerless and you might be surprised how many will start a conversation with "when I get tenure I'm going to..." And yet, they never do. It is as if they've self-censored for so long they don't know anything else. And the bullshit gets deeper. Every university has a "tenure clock" though you can petition for early tenure and most likely get dismissed out of hand. Why? Because evaluating a several hundred page tenure packet is a painful labor and frankly because the process is fundamentally just hazing. They'll make you suffer because they can and they like it. That secret is exposed by timing. Go up early and the packet/petition is due in the fall. You'll get reject in the spring. Next fall, when the clock expires, you go up again. In less than six months what could have dramatically changed regarding the last six years? Nothing but the clock. And the hazing. It is clear that the process of getting a tenure track position and then acquiring tenure does nothing to ensure that our students are actually getting even competent teachers.
Do we have to get rid of tenure to fix this broken system? Not necessarily, we can modify it. First we can age the dinosaurs out. We retire airline pilots at 65 which seems a reasonable age to promote a tenured professor to emeritus status, opening positions for those with a newly minted PhD. And if there is merit to the argument that these long-in-the-tooth professors are that good, then their protege might be even better. We should give that a try. And if their research is all that good, they'll transition smoothly into a research position in industry, right? Well, unless they're an English prof.
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