9 ms·
I see a number of comments below hailing this as a good thing, one that will benefit students. These folks look at Universities as just another company and thin
by matthewdgreen 5y ago
I see a number of comments below hailing this as a good thing, one that will benefit students. These folks look at Universities as just another company and think this is normal. It is not. It is a terrible mistake and the GA system (and its students, and society) will be worse off for it.
The notion of tenure wasn't developed to protect dead wood. It came about because historically it was often difficult to distinguish "fired for cause" from "fired for speaking out in ways that irritate the powers that be." The ability to fire people for cause is appropriate to businesses and startups, and even there we routinely hear about controversies where "for cause" is blurred together with "saying things that leadership didn't like." The tenure system was explicitly designed to prevent that, and yes, the "cost" of that system is that some dead wood will slip by -- but this has always been an acceptable cost. Our society relies on having a pool of people who cannot be easily silenced by their employers. We will suffer when those guarantees are weakened.
On a personal note: I'm a tenured CS professor and make less than half (often significantly less) than what my colleagues in industry make, for a job that often requires longer hours and a lot of travel. I also have had some experience with having my speech restricted by the administration [1] under the guise of "violations of University policy". As a tenured faculty member I stay because there is no other job where I can speak about anything I want, even if sometimes I say dumb things. My colleagues in industry can't do this -- some of them tell me they are scared to even "like" Tweets that criticize their employer. That's messed up.
To those folks who don't care about these broader arguments and think this decision is reasonable, that it "will improve faculty performance," even there you're wrong. If GA becomes the state that doesn't have tenure, all the best faculty will go to other states and/or to industry. Every state university already struggles to get top talent, and now GA has given themselves a huge hiring disadvantage. Whatever "productivity" benefits you might get from greater faculty control are going to be hugely outweighed by the fallout from this stupid (and obviously political) decision. The board of regents knows this, and they don't care.
[1] https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/johns-hopkins-apologizes-for-yanking-profs-nsa-blog/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/johns-hopkin...
- steelframe 5y agoI didn't read your username at first, and about 3/4 of the way through I asked myself, "Wait, is this Matthew Green?" Just letting you know from here on out you'll never be to pull off a nom-de-plume.
- tiahura 5y ago“Our society relies on having a pool of people who cannot be easily silenced by their employers.” Those people are not tenured college professors.
- mikojan 5y agoExactly. They're billionaires.
- jbrwn 5y agoI am inclined to agree with you but I am also somewhat conflicted due to recent events at my alma mater. It was just revealed that a tenured CS professor is the author of a hate filled blog that disparages women, lgbtq+, and minorities [1]. Ostensibly this guy is "protected" due to his tenure status. I am not sure this is really good for anyone. [1] http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/computer-science-professor-placed-on-paid-leave-while-um-investigates-controversial-blog/article_fabf2f88-2b6a-11ec-ad5b-df3531441ce3.html http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/computer-science-professor...
- boringg 5y agoSample size of one shouldn't change your perspective on a whole class of people. There are bad actors in every group - and, while it is shameful his deeds, you can't castigate a whole class of people.
- ghaff 5y agoI'm also not sure extreme cases form a good argument anyway. Tenure isn't a blanket "Get out of jail free" card no matter what the behavior or the offense.
- JasonFruit 5y agoI think that politically correct ideas about one of those groups are both illogical and harmful to society. Some might find my views repugnant and wrongly describe them as "hate-filled". Does that mean I shouldn't be able to hold a job, or that to do so I should have to hide my opinions and express them only surreptitiously? If not, your argument against tenure doesn't hold. If so, I'd love to hear more about your reasoning.
- ethbr0 5y agoIt's a fair point. One of the biggest pros in favor of unpopular freedom of speech is preventing revolution via the airing and discussion of suppressed views. In a college environment is probably the most socially safe (i.e. distinct from propagandizing) and productive (i.e. more likely to be intellectually examined) environments for them. So if they exist anywhere, and I subscribe to the idea that unpopular things need to be speakable somewhere, then college is a good place.
- geodel 5y agoI see little differently here. With rare exceptions University professor hardly criticize things that make university money. General employees criticizing employer are seen as hypocrite when they seem just fine getting their share of money earned by employer's bad behavior.
- kxyvr 5y agoPiggybacking the comment about Georgia becoming less attractive and competitive for good faculty, in 2015 Wisconsin significantly weakened the tenure system as well. I was curious about the affect of that decision and found this recently published paper: https://peer.asee.org/impacts-of-governmental-policy-actions-on-university-faculty-and-students-in-wisconsin https://peer.asee.org/impacts-of-governmental-policy-actions... As a note, Wisconsin simultaneously weakened tenure and cut the university budget, which makes it difficult to distinguish the affect of each change. Nevertheless, the net result was fewer faculty and increased class size. Personally, I agree with your sentiment. This makes Georgia far less attractive for good faculty and those with options will go elsewhere.
- Glyptodon 5y agoThe other shoe is tenured faculty get their abusive research transgressions smoothed over and covered up by their institutions because firing is too much trouble. Improperly consent human research subjects? Abuse children? Abuse students? Hire an unqualified fitness instructor FWB to oversee research data? Have to return a multimillion grant? Just give said students free tuition and go back to making performative "woke" press releases about the abuser like it never happened. Of course in states like Georgia they probably don't really care about that kind of thing either, so much as weeding out "liberals" or something.