Typically when a person is hired for a tenure-track professorship at a university, that person doesn’t immediately start out with tenure, which is a status that

Typically when a person is hired for a tenure-track professorship at a university, that person doesn’t immediately start out with tenure, which is a status that means the professor cannot be fired without cause. Rather, most professors start out as assistant professors who have six years to prove to the university and their peers that they can meet the university’s bar regarding research productivity, teaching, and service (to the university, the community, the discipline the professor researches, and society). During the sixth year of employment the university evaluates the professor’s contributions and then decides whether to grant that professor tenure. If the professor is granted tenure, then the professor is usually promoted to associate professor and doesn’t need to worry about getting fired except in cases of misconduct (e.g., a professor taking an unapproved vacation in the middle of the semester; a professor having an inappropriate relationship with a student, postdoc, or advisee; a professor caught plagiarizing, etc.), though layoffs could still happen. However, if a professor is denied tenure, while there is usually an appeals process, the professor isn’t allowed to stay at that university beyond the end of the sixth year, and so the professor must move on, either to another university or often to another career.