Tuesday, June 2, 2015

"Wisconsin Might Destroy Tenure For Professors"

"The Wisconsin legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 Friday to approve a proposal that would eliminate tenure from state law and allow tenured faculty to be laid off even if a school isn’t in a declared financial emergency. The proposal would also weaken faculty influence in setting policy and would cut the University of Wisconsin (UW)’s budget by $250 million over the next two years, down from a $300 million cut that was proposed by Walker."
The elimination of tenure protections was first suggested by Walker back in February, but was considered a longshot proposal. The Joint Finance Committee, however, is tremendously influential, and its decision to send the rollback to the floor of the legislature is seen as making passage much more likely.

By itself, the measure wouldn’t end tenure, but it would remove the current protections it has under state law and allow universities to set their own policies on the matter.
Intapundit writes...
UW faculty are fighting mad. I have mixed feelings about this, and it’s not because I have tenure (which I do). Undoubtedly, tenure inherently creates some “dead wood”–faculty that slack off and lose interest in their jobs once they know they have a presumptive job for life. And it would be nice to have a higher education system that reflects a real world ethos of rewarding excellence and punishing lethargy–among faculty, staff and administrators.

On the other hand, the original justification for tenure in higher education (and notice that this emphatically does not apply to lower education, where elementary, middle school and high school teachers do not undertake scholarship as part of their job) is that the job does generally require and involve scholarship, and sometimes that scholarship is politically controversial. Tenure was designed to ensure that scholars could feel free to express their views, without fear of retribution based on viewpoint discrimination. And frankly, it’s conservative professors who need this protection the most, as they are inherently swimming in a sea of progressive colleagues/deans/administrators/sharks who would be tempted to “punish” conservative scholarly viewpoints and activities. These concerns potentially could be allayed with robust statutory protections against viewpoint discrimination, but this encourage expensive litigation whenever a faculty member is fired. Whether these costs would outweigh the benefits isn’t as clear as it may seem initially.

In any event, the Wisconsin legislature’s proposal represents a thoughtful beginning to an important discussion about what tenure means, and when it is needed (if ever).

31 comments:

Rabel said...

"Mixed feelings" quote is from Elizabeth Price Foley, not Glenn Reynolds. But it was on the Instapundit website so technically you might be correct.

Michael Haz said...

Cannot happen soon enough.

Having attended UW a long time ago, I still remember the arrogance of tenured faculty. Skip classes, skip office hours, teach one or two classes each semester, and even then farm out the heavy lifting to teaching assistants. Berate and demean students in class because no complaint could ever cost them their jobs. Sexual affairs with students, etc. were all possible because no tenured faculty member could be fired, short of committing a homicide or voting Republican.

I wanted to excerpt this article about the low number of hours worked by UW professors, but I'll just link it so you can read it in its entirety.

Trooper York said...

Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha.....they want to end tenure.....ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha.........to get rid of professors who are lazy.......ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha..........who are tied of teaching ........ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha............who instead of research or publishing spend their time blogging......ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha........he wants to fire them.......ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!!!

I LOVE SCOTT WALKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trooper York said...

This post made my day!

Thank you very much Lem.

Michael Haz said...

Cracking me up, Trooper.

Trooper York said...

I am loving this Haz. This is better than watching baseball or football or the Hallmark Channel. I can't think of a more entertaining subject.

I can't wait till the rest of the lemmings wake up and read this.

It is fantastic.

I want to vote for Scott Walker ten times. Shit fifty times.

GOD BLESS SCOTT WALKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trooper York said...

Forget President!

SCOTT WALKER FOR POPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chickelit said...

Troop: what if Walker vetos the bill?

The professor you're referring to is months away from official retirement age and wouldn't be affected anyways. The wouldn't be retroactive against those who already have tenure. It might actually harm the academy because those ensconced will have a greater say on who gets "made."
Right now the academy has a terrible PR problem. Only industry-wide declines in enrollment are going to make them rethink their business model.

chickelit said...

Young faculty in the hard sciences will just apply elsewhere.

edutcher said...

This is where we all find out just how good Christians we are.

Trooper York said...

Anything that recognizes that all professors should be hired and fired on merit is great!

I just think that it is ironic that this sacred cow is going to get gored. Too bad it can't weed out the losers who sucked on the government tit all these years. They might weasel out of it the way you say. Weasels do that. It is the nature of the beast.

And eddie. There is nothing Christian about fighting for people who get sinecures and don't do their jobs which everyone else has to pay for while ignoring the legitimate needs of their customers. Do you feel the same way about public employee unions? Should we not hold them to standards because it wouldn't be Christian? Poppycock!

Trooper York said...

The higher education bubble is getting ready to burst. When bubbles like this burst lots of shit gets swept away.

Sell your tulips pal. Sell them now.

Trooper York said...

Walker won't veto the bill. Isn't it his proposal in the first place?

I think he will handle it the same way he handled the right to work legislation. He won't have his fingerprints all over it but he will be happy to sign it.

Sticking a finger in the eye of the hoity toity elitist egghead professors is a great talking point.

He can point out to parents: You know why tuition is so high? Lazy professors who get paid for doing nothing. He can point out to people with immense student loans: You know why you are in debt for the rest of your life? Lazy professors who let graduate students do the work and don't teach for their money.

I think that will resonate with a lot of people.

Trooper York said...

Make the lazy bastards work for their money. Make them be subject to the laws of the marketplace. They way you and I have to do every day of our life. Do you have a life time sinecure? Or are you scrabbling to make ends meet like the rest of us.

Rabel said...

Much ado about nothing. It takes the legal responsibility from the State Board and gives it to the people who currently make the tenure recommendations.

Current statute:

"Except as provided under par. (b), the board may grant a tenure appointment only upon the affirmative recommendation of the appropriate chancellor and the appropriate academic department or its functional equivalent."

Trooper York said...

Hey don't be a buzz kill!

Let me enjoy it for a minute. Please!

Rabel said...

Sorry about that, Chief.

Leland said...

I'd just like to second Trooper's comments. I understand Elizabeth's attempt to defend the practice, but I'm not sold in the least. "Scholarship" isn't what I saw tenured professors doing. I did see professors seeking tenureship working hard, so maybe there's a carrot to dangle, but pay would do the same. In addition, I think the "scholars" (not scare quotes, more like LMAO at the brazen marketing BS) have gotten too detached from the practical understanding of the technical work, which is one reason their students are becoming more useless to hiring managers.

edutcher said...

Troop, all I was suggesting is that, in the hour of her downfall, we realize she is more to be pitied than censured. As you know, this applies to several professions.

IYKWIMAITYD.

rcocean said...

The whole idea behind tenure is the academic freedom to think dangerous new thoughts. But the professors don't do that. In fact, they hate anyone who challenges their Marxist-Left-PC bubble. 90 percent are liberal democrats or worse and anyone who thinks outside the box gets driven or bought out by the Leftists.

IOW, giving a bunch of conformist Marxists "Tenure" so they can express their "new ideas" without reprisal is absurd. They just want to use it to goof off and collect a salary.

rcocean said...

The more money we give the universities the worse they get. There is no cost control. There is little attempt at real undergraduate learning except in the STEM's classes and some of the business ones.

The entire liberal arts departments should be recognized as a failed experiment and axed. Reduce College to 3 years and get rid of half the administrators. Or just stop the loan guarantees.

rcocean said...

Here's an example of how bad it is in academia. C-span had a panel on Soviet/CPUSA espionage in the USA. Y'know the Rosenbergs, Hiss, etc.
At the end someone asked the 5 old professors on the stage, "Where are all the young professors? There's a lot of research to done on this with the Verona Papers, Soviet archives, etc"

And the answer was that young history professors weren't studying or researching the area because they know their academic careers would be in jeopardy. Study the "wrong" area, write papers that have the "wrong" opinions and suddenly you don't get the nice jobs at other universities, promotions, books published by the university press, etc. Not to mention all the social pressures like people shunning you, not inviting you to faculty parties, etc.

Methadras said...

Tenure is nothing more than entrenchment and in academia it's politically motivated entrenchment. As long as government guarantee's student loans up to a certain amount, you can see the linear graph of the increases in tuition nationwide because as the amounts of guarantees on loans go up, so do tuition and do academic salaries in the academic administrations and faculty. Get rid of tenure and you attack at least one protected class regardless of political affiliation.

bagoh20 said...

Walker is a gift to America. Is anyone else actually doing anything important? Oh, I know, they're talking about this, or fighting for that, or leading a rope pushing parade, but any other real results anywhere out there?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

On the plus side, it would totally ruin the cause of academic freedom and the idea that contracts matter. So that's a win for Republican values.

Trooper York said...

Academic freedom is dead Ritmo. Long dead. Just witness the attacks on people who don't follow every jot and tittle of the politically correct line. Even feminist harpy's are being pulled in for Title 12 violations. Let's burst the bubble and let the market take a shot at it. Just like the real world.

They can also grandfather in the deadwood they already have if they want to and think that is a good thing. But most if not all professors are worthless time wasting idiots. Those that can't do teach.

Right now I am getting ready to sign a contract about a new project. Even as I am doing it I remember something my lawyer told me. Contracts are made to be broken.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Academic freedom means the university can't fire you for strange or unconventional or offensive stances, not that the rest of society can't criticize it. That's their freedom of speech at work.

If that's what the lawyer told you then I'm sure there's a better lawyer who could sue whomever "breached" your contract. That's a tort.

Most advanced professors don't teach all that much because they're supposed to be doing research. That's the university's economic model, and the way it's supposed to be. It worked, too. Only until idiot America turned universities into mass incubators for their guinea pig spawn did college become a life necessity, tuition go through the roof, and education become so devalued. You're in agreement on this. It's the reason skilled trades are neglected.

The way it was supposed to work, and the way it still works at the great universities, is that research is the focus, that's what brings in the majority of the money (endowment), and enrollment is left to those talented or driven enough to partake of the life of the mind. But since we turned college into a prerequisite for life, that's when tuition costs became unattainable. Parents drove down the quality and priced themselves out of the deal by increasing demand well beyond what universities were ever meant to do, and they responded by charging the hell out of them and pretending that mass education was an aim on par with or much greater than their missions as research institutions.

bagoh20 said...

" research is the focus"

Not for the tenured. For them, it's service to the political correctness of the times, bringing in tuition money, and endowment,and looking good to your peers. That's the way it always was, and it still is.

Most of the groundbreaking work has always been done by young people with no tenure, driven by wonder, peer pressure, and the wealth of private sector opportunity. Tenure is the consolation prize for not being good enough or driven enough to get out and make real things happen. But, with tenure you get to ride on the success, drive, and curiosity of wave after wave of new young minds who leave you in the dust over and over. My guess is that tenure kills more innovation than it produces. It's freedom - freedom to suck if you want to. Necessity and hunger are what drives us. Taking that away slows all but the best - which with today's college-for-everyone standard, means a lot of mediocrity.

Leland said...

No other service industry considers it "Freedom" when neither the employer or the contractor can fire the laborer for poor performance. Academic Freedom is Orwellian.

Methadras said...

Rhythm and Balls said...

On the plus side, it would totally ruin the cause of academic freedom and the idea that contracts matter. So that's a win for Republican values.


Contracts only matter when both parties have in interest in preserving and codifying their ideas into an official agreement and honor it. However, the distinction is, is that a contract is voluntary not compulsory. Unless that is what you are implying, that contracts should be compulsory? After all, there are examples of government making citizens comply into entering contracts or be penalized. So which one are you talking about? So I suppose of democrats don't want contracts, then that doesn't admonish they Democrat values?

Can you stop being a fucking asshole for once or is that just in your character makeup? Remember when I told you that you aren't a good person? You continually are proving it with statements like this. You aren't interesting in solving problems, just trying to win to score some intangible brownie points for yourself and to make yourself feel better that, "oh, I just showed them..." attitude. It's a waste of time.

Leland said...

Ack, "neither employer or CUSTOMER"