'...Academic freedom should mean that professors with tenure act without fear of reprisal in the real-life situations we asked about, pursuing research that interests them, reporting unethical conduct by colleagues, and so forth. Sadly, tenure does not appear to confer such freedom.

Professors in our study were more timid than we expected, rarely confronting departmental colleagues who disagreed with the content of their research and teaching. Interestingly, everyone thought that everyone else would behave more boldly than they themselves would.

Having tenure was not associated with a greater willingness to speak one's mind or publish controversial findings. Comparing tenured associate professors with untenured assistant professors and tenured full professors revealed that the associates behaved more like their junior colleagues than like their senior ones.

The biggest increase in the tendency to speak one's mind, to teach courses unpopular with one's colleagues, to publish controversial research, and to blow the whistle on ethical transgressions came when a professor was finally promoted from associate professor with tenure to full professor. That point in a scholar's career usually comes 12 to 20 years after the receipt of the Ph.D., which means that for many years, academic freedom is stifled, or at least muted.

One happy finding in our survey was that the idea of the renegade tenured professor — often invoked during tenure reviews when someone wishes to block a candidate by instilling fear of the person's future selfish or irresponsible behavior — turned out to be a myth. Most professors lack the moxie or desire to become renegades.

All the professors in our sample assumed that the colleague down the hall would be more likely than they themselves were to report another professor for misappropriating grant funds or having an inappropriate relationship with a student. (Interestingly, our survey revealed few disciplinary or gender differences.) In fact, some professors appear more concerned with remaining in their colleagues' good graces than they are with maintaining ethical standards.

One could argue that even if tenure does not meet its objective of encouraging academic freedom, it still helps attract a talented work force, results in higher graduation rates at colleges and universities with higher proportions of tenure-track faculty members, and protects the few who most need it — those professors who are courageous enough to teach or publish highly controversial material. But is tenure the most efficient way to achieve those goals?

Some nations that do not offer tenure still protect academic freedom, through legislation or union contracts. For example, Britain passed an education act stipulating that academics appointed or promoted after November 1987 would no longer have tenure, and professors with tenure at that time would lose it when they were next promoted. Yet the act specifies that professors can express controversial or unpopular views without fear of losing their jobs. And New Zealand law guarantees academic freedom, though tenure in that country offers less job security than in the United States.

Our survey leads us to conclude that tenure is not living up to its original promise: It does not liberate professors to exercise the freedoms of speech, writing, and action. The muzzling effect of the current system of promotion in higher education — in which even tenured associate professors refrain from exercising academic freedom for fear of derailing their chances for promotion to full professor — must be weighed against tenure's virtues, such as higher graduation rates and the recruitment of a talented work force....