Does Tenure Matter? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Takeaways

    In sum, tenure does matter for academic freedom. If conservative politicians want to encourage diversity of thought and protect the minority of moderate and conservative professors in academia, tenure is an important asset.

1. Tenure does appear to enable tenured faculty to speak out more freely and is therefore a key enabler of academic freedom.
2. Tenure does protect those who have it from termination. There are other sanctions that faculty might face, but protection from termination is very important.
3. Given that calls for sanctioning faculty are now more likely to originate on the left (and are therefore more likely to target moderate liberals, moderates, or conservative faculty), taking away tenure makes faculty with minority views more vulnerable to sanctions, especially termination. Conservative politicians' efforts to eliminate tenure may backfire, leading to a more liberal faculty and less ideological diversity. Legislators should recognize tenure as an important asset in the fight for a more open and intellectually diverse university.

    Even strong advocates for tenure have long acknowledged that it is a necessary but insufficient condition for free expression on campus. FIRE's faculty survey found that "91 percent of all faculty said they are at least somewhat likely to self-censor on social media, in meetings, in presentations, and/or in publications." Besides formal sanctions, faculty are also very concerned about social ramifications for offering opinions contrary to the academic mainstream.

    Per the above survey, "When it came to freedom of speech, one-third (of faculty) said it is acceptable to restrict speech 'only where words are intended to be hateful,' and an additional 15% said we should 'protect against hate speech even if this restricts speech not intended to be hateful.'" Since "hate speech" is in the eyes of the beholder and is a term that can be very broadly applied, those findings are concerning.


    Keeping tenure is important for academic freedom. It should be matched by a willingness to challenge campus cultures that remain too intolerant of heterodox ideas and viewpoints. The protections of tenure will be stronger if faculty regularly exercise not just the privilege of academic freedom but the responsibility of speaking truth, even when it discomfits their colleagues.

    Mark McNeilly is a professor of the practice of marketing at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. The views expressed are his own and are not meant to represent the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

poll#164

It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios?

  Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything.

  No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now.

  I just observe; with this thoughtful observation: What will happen "when the Vikings are breeching our walls;" how do the Woke react?

845 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#210

As School Choice is beginning to take shape in North Carolina: What is your position on what it should evolve into?

  School Choice is only a distraction from the promise of real public education.

  School Choice, as it evolves into its best model to serve the public' s education needs, this benefit will provide choices outside of the historic construct supporting the public school monopoly.

  School Choice - I cannot see how it serves the Education Industry.

204 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?