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Monday, March 26, 2007
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In a Badly Written Essay about Tenure... ... at the University of Colorado, its president boasts about the school's bold new approach to it, yet describes little that is new, and nothing that is bold. He does say this, which has often been said, but is worth saying again: Colleges and universities have been less than forthcoming with the public and legislators about tenure, leading to the suspicion that higher education’s primary focus is protecting its own rather than guaranteeing the highly effective and productive teachers and researchers that students and taxpayers deserve.... Public confidence in academic tenure, much less its understanding of the concept, is dropping. To reduce this downward trend, we must be transparent in our processes and straightforward in our explanations of why tenure is necessary and how it works. Colorado has Ward Churchill to thank for all the committees and experts it now has futzing with the matter; Churchill's legacy will certainly be to inaugurate the sort of radical social changes he's always had in mind... But UD would have been happier had the president of one of the suckiest sports factories in the country written on that subject. |