Tenure

Tenure is a topic that has produced much heated discussion in recent years. Some argue that tenure is an outmoded concept, and, if institutions are going to remain competitive, they need to be able to have more flexibility to hire and fire faculty as student needs change. Others argue that tenure is vital to the protection of academic freedom and that without tenure we will return to the days when faculty were dismissed for teaching unpopular opinions. Several state legislatures have mandated post-tenure review for faculty, i.e. Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas. New campuses have been created in Florida and California that do not have faculty tenure.

In addition, to the arguments about tenure, institutions have not been filling tenure-track positions as faculty retire or resign to take another position. Instead we are seeing an increase in the numbers of faculty hired on limited term contracts of five years or less and an increase in the numbers of part-time temporary faculty hired.

The NEA Higher Education web site has pulled together resources on this important topic. NEA has a strong policy in favor of tenure. Thought and Action, NEA's referred journal for higher education, has several articles on tenure.

• Lessons From a Five-Year Diet of Tenure Lite

  Thought & Action, Fall 2002

• Tenure

  Research Center Update, June 2001

• Tenure: Why Faculty and the Nation Need it

  Thought & Action, Fall 2000

• Public Higher Ed: Battleground in the Tenure Wars

  Thought & Action, Fall 1997

• Tenure: Why Faculty, and the Nation, Need It

  Thought & Action, Fall 1997

• The Corrosion of Tenure: A Bibliography

  Thought & Action, Fall 1997

• The Truth About Tenure in Higher Education

  This NEA-AFT online brochure deals with some of the myths about tenure and responds with the facts.

• "Tenure" September 1995

  In the Update we report on the numbers and productivity of tenured faculty.

• Faculty Tenure: Myth and Reality

  Thought & Action, Spring 1996

• Faculty Perspectives on Peer Review

  Thought & Action, Fall 1995

• Perceptions of Life on the Tenure Track

  Thought & Action, Winter 1994

• Critics of College Teaching

  The 1996 Almanac chapter by Walter Metzger, gives an historical account about attacks against higher education faculty.

• NEA's Tenure Policy

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