As Loyola begins to reach its ideal ratio of tenure and tenure-track faculty to non-tenure track, the time is ripe for students to evaluate just where they fit into the tenure equation. Though teachers of all levels can, and regularly do, have tenure, the institution was first developed to protect professors’ academic freedom by protecting their jobs from the various whims and easily bruised egos of school administrators and donors. While the institution of tenure has not made a dent in the kind of office politics universally disparaged as unfair and anti-intellectual, it has done an admirable job of making sure no one loses their job over it.
Professors with tenure have almost unrivaled job security. This protects their ability – and desire – to pursue their research in whatever way they see fit, regardless of whether or not their conclusions mesh comfortably with the popular politics of the time. It allows academics to follow where their research takes them, without fear for their livelihoods if they step on a few toes in the process. This simple fact is the basis of nearly every rationale advocating tenure. Before World War II, formal tenure arrangements were scarce. Even as lately as the residence of Joseph McCarthy in the U.S. Senate, professors have been required to sign loyalty oaths or face dire career consequences. Now it is nearly impossible to fire a tenured professor, though there are a few exceptions.
Tenure is not all sunshine and rainbows though. Just as with every other labor contract, the institution of tenure has costs, only some of which are monetary. Because it is so difficult to fire them, tenured professors are the recipients of as near to lifetime job security as an individual can get, outside of appointment to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
This leads to the greatest downside of tenure. The professor is assured continued employment even if they have proven themselves unable, or even unwilling, to perform to the high standards expected of an educator of institutions of higher learning, a pitiable fact that many Loyola students can attest to.
By hiring tenured positions, a school locks itself into the particular capabilities of those it hires for their lifetimes. When hiring mistakes are made, the school must live with them for decades at a time. This results in hiring criteria so stringent that they pass over quality candidates.
Loyola recently stabilized at about three in four teaching positions being tenure or tenure-track, well above the national average, which has been falling steadily since the early 1970s. Loyola students must look to weigh the pros and cons of having such a one-sided distribution of teaching positions. They must ask themselves if they think that the academic freedom of their teachers is in enough danger to justify protecting the positions of bad teachers.
The powers that be must recognize that tenure policy is not simply between the administration and faculty and that to ignore students’ opinions will serve only to push students away, which in turn harms the entirety of Loyola.
David Holmes can be reached at [email protected]
